VSO response to UN Women 100 Day Action Plan and first Executive Board meeting

25/01/2011 19:00:00

VSO UK is concerned that slow commitment of substantial funds by UN Member states, including the UK Government, is preventing the new UN Women agency from becoming fully operational.

It comes as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, urged member states to commit multi-year funding, to assist UN Women in meeting its resource target.

VSO UK is urging the UK Government to formally commit substantial annual funding to allow UN Women to become fully operational and running and start funding and delivering programmes on the ground that will achieve real change for the world’s most discriminated and oppressed women.

UN Women is replacing four poorly coordinated and funded UN organisations. The new agency will hold positions on key global decision-making bodies ensuring that women’s issues will be addressed. It will have the power to hold governments to account for failing to provide opportunities and security to women and will fund partnership programmes across the world.

Head of External Affairs at VSO UK Kathy Peach said that member states, including the UK Government, have been slow in committing substantial core funding for the new body, putting the new agency’s ability to become fully operational at risk of slowing to a snail’s pace.

“UN Women's success is dependent on strong and immediate financial support from the UK Government, which played a critical role in creating the agency and has publicly stated it will ensure more aid money directly helps women and girls."

“It is widely agreed that UN Women is an unprecedented opportunity to lift millions of women out of poverty. However, Ms Bachelet’s comments reassert VSO’s fear that the agency is already fighting against a substantial funding shortfall.  For this reason, Ms Bachelet’s warning that core and regular grants of ‘predictable’ funding is critical to UN Women, should not be ignored.”

VSO’s ‘The Godmothers’ campaign was launched in January and has already recruited over 1,600 Godmothers to watch over the new agency and hold it to account. In the centenary year of International Women’s Day, VSO is confident that the Godmothers can look forward to the official launch of UN Women on 24th February, where countries will be called on to turn their supportive words into concrete actions and fulfill the potential of UN Women.

Campaign Statistics

• Among women aged between 15 and 44, acts of violence cause more death and disability than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.

• Despite doing two-thirds of the work, women earn just 10 per cent of the world’s income. Evidence shows that when women earn and manage their own money they are more likely than men to spend it on educating and feeding their children.

• Rural women already play a major role in agriculture but receive less than one per cent of the credit. If they had the same access as men to resources such as land, seed and fertiliser, agricultural productivity would increase by 20 per cent.

• Just 19.1 per cent of the world’s parliamentary seats are held by women. Research shows that peace agreements and post-conflict reconstruction do better when women are involved, and that there is less corruption when women are more active in politics.

Editor's notes

Kathy Peach, Head of External Affairs, VSO is available for interview. For more information please contact Rachel Trayner on rachel.trayner@vso.org.uk, 0208 780 7265, 07738982122.

VSO is an international development charity that works through volunteers. Since 1958 more than 44,000 volunteers have worked in more than 120 countries. Today there are over 1600 international volunteers working in 42 countries around the world.