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UNIFEM welcomes UN Women

In an historic move, the United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously on 2 July to create a new entity to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide.

The establishment of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — to be known as UN Women (ONU Femmes)— is a result of years of negotiations between UN Member States and advocacy by the global women’s movement. It is part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact.

UN Women will bring together the mandates and functions of:

Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW, established in 1946)
Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI, established in 1997)
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, established in 1976)
UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW, established in 1976)

UN Women will become operational on 1 January 2011. It is important to note that, until then, as Inés Alberdi, UNIFEM Executive Director, explained: UNIFEM will continue to be fully operational and work according to its mandate. All agreements made with UNIFEM, whether in the context of partnerships, programmes or funding arrangements, will then be transferred to and fully honoured by UN Women. This applies even though the General Assembly resolution, for legal reasons, decides the immediate dissolution of UNIFEM. Regarding the JPO Programme, it means that all agreements will remain unchanged for UNIFEM JPOs administered by the JPO Service Center until 1 January 2011. We will keep those JPOs informed via their respective HRA of any further developments regarding this transition period.

UN Women will have two key roles: It will support inter-governmental bodies such as the Commission on the Status of Women in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms, and it will help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, as well as forging effective partnerships with civil society. It will also help the UN system to be accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

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