ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: Representatives of UN agencies, government and civil society organizations here on Tuesday stressed the need for a strong new UN entity enabling the UN system and member states to deliver on their promises to advance gender equality, gender justice and women’s empowerment.

The consensus emerged during a discussion on the current initiatives for strengthening the UN’s gender equality machinery.

They also discussed the preliminary findings of a gender review of the emerging delivering as one UN system for which Pakistan is one of the pilot countries.

The consultation session was organised by Rozan, an NGO working on emotional health, violence against women and children, youth sexual and reproductive health and police community collaboration.

Maria Rashid, Co-director, Rozan, introduced the background and concept of the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign.

“This is a CSO network of 277 women rights and social justice groups worldwide, closely following the UN reform debates lobbying for the creation of an independent, autonomous, women-specific UN agency with the required status, resources, operational capacity, mandate and high-level leadership to drive this agenda”, she said.

In Pakistan, the NGOs supporting this process include Aurat Foundation, Sach, Shirkatgah, Simorgh, Sungi Development Foundation and SPO, she said.

“Women organizations and movements see the UN as a motivating force in the efforts to define a comprehensive global agenda for gender issues”, she added.

“Pakistan, as a member of the UN and as a country whose development and progress is inextricably linked to the empowerment of its women, should endorse this recommendation for strengthening UN gender architecture in the next General Assembly session”, Maria pleaded.

Tahira Abdullah, human rights activists and development practitioner, presented the preliminary findings of a “Review of women’s issues in delivering as one UN system in Pakistan”, eliciting views and opinions of the government, UN agencies and NGOs.

Based on the findings, a number of recommendations emerged, the most significant being that the UN must strengthen its commitment to and delivery on women’s issues.

She said that Pakistan, as a Pilot One UN System country, since 2007, is under the microscope, with an extra responsibility.

The government needs to state its felt and long-expressed need for a single, greatly strengthened UN entity addressing women’s concerns, both at the global and national level, and needs to support this stance at the UN, where the discussion is centred.

Rehana Hashmi, National Project Director, Gender Reform Action Plan (GRAP), shared the government perspective on gender and UN reform and emphasized the importance of lobbying with the foreign office, the role of donors in strengthening the system for women.

Farida Shaheed from the Shirkatgah women resource centre, highlighted the NGO perspective urging the UN to bring together its four agencies working for women and act as a unifying agency.