Small steps for UN Women

By Martin McCluskey: March 12th, 2012

This time last year, VSO’s Godmothers campaign was in full swing, with a successful Parliamentary Lobby just behind us and lots of activity from our supporters in Parliament, all calling for the UK Government to support UN Women. And then last June, we welcomed the Government’s commitment of £20 million to the agency as a step forward in improving the lives of women and girls around the world.

To mark International Women’s Day last week, MPs in the House of Commons discussed and debated the challenges women are facing around the world, and VSO UK updated them on how UN Women has performed in their first year. Our message to them was clear: that while the UK had stood up and supported UN Women, other governments around the world need to turn their warm words into action and strengthen their commitment to the world’s women. This comes soon after UN Women’s announcement that they failed to meet their most recent funding target of $500m, missing it by $287m.

This is disappointing given the results that Michelle Bachelet and her team have delivered over the past year. In Egypt, after the Mubarak regime fell, UN Women was there supporting the establishment of the Egyptian Women’s Union, an association of 500 women’s groups, and helped to devise the Egyptian Women’s Charter. In 23 of the 80 countries where UN Women is now working, they’ve helped train and develop female political candidates to make sure that the next generation of female leaders are equipped to succeed. And while many UN agencies have been criticised for putting too many members of staff in New York, and not enough in the communities they serve, UN Women have put three quarters of their new staff in the field.

So what does this $287m funding gap mean in practice? Firstly, it means that UN Women is still lacking the staff and resources it needs to do its job properly. At present, only 55 of UN Women’s offices internationally have the minimum number of staff required to do the job that the international community tasked them with 2 years ago. Secondly, with the economic crisis continuing to bite, the situation isn’t looking like it’s going to get any better. Already, UN Women have scaled back their funding target for next year from $900m to $700m, further constraining their ability to deliver. Finally, UN Women was tasked with marshalling the great weight of the UN system behind work that delivers for women and girls. With such a small budget, UN Women isn’t always able to make this happen. As Michelle Bachelet put it recently: “we cannot seek to coordinate our partners, or to make the case to donors to support our activities, if our staff are always the most junior at the table and lack the qualification to do the job we expect of them.”

The UK is to be commended for their role in providing funding last year, while other donors shirked their responsibilities. Now they need to make the case internationally for more support for UN Women. And as a key member of the agency’s Executive Board and a pivotal player in the donor community, they are in a unique position to make this case.

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