Following the
agreement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the next Commission on the
Status of Women (CSW60) will focus on the theme ‘women’s empowerment and its
link to sustainable development’.

Soroptimist
International, Zonta International, the International Federation of Business
and Professional Women, and Graduate Women International, have released a
statement concerning women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development.
Representing the views of over 160,000 women worldwide, these four
organisations are united around the principle of empowering women locally,
nationally and internationally up to the highest level. Based on the expertise
of these four organisations, the statement calls for:

·        
Dedicated resources to allocated to achieving
gender equality

·        
Empowering women to create projects in their
communities that promote sustainable development and gender equality

·        
Including women and girls in policy development
and implementation

·        
The actions taken by governments to achieve the
Sustainable Development Goals to be accountable

·        
Human rights are an important part of
sustainable development, and actions should be taken to ensure everyone can
access their human rights, especially women and girls

All four
organisations work with women in communities to achieve gender equality through
programmes and education. Click on the image below to read the statement in full.

  

Previous
approaches which included women in development only on ‘women’s issues’, were
widely ineffective because they failed to take into account the different ways
women are affected by social, economic and development issues. This meant many
women were left behind and failed to experience the benefits of sustainable
development. This siloed approach cannot continue.

The need for
a cross-cutting, inclusive and gender-sensitive approach is clear: without this
approach the global transformation envisaged by the SDGs will not be achieved.
Women and girls are crucial contributors, implementers and beneficiaries of
sustainable development. Their empowerment is fundamental to the achievement of
the 2030 Development Agenda. The stand-alone SDG on gender equality (Goal 5)
should be celebrated, as it outlines targets for every country to make gender
equality a reality. However, Goal 5 does not stand in isolation and will not
achieve gender equality alone. A gender-sensitive approach must be implemented
across the entire agenda for the 2030 development agenda to be successful.
Approaching gender equality as a crosscutting issue in the SDGs requires that
gender is included at all stages of policy development, means of
implementation, monitoring and accountability.

The sixtieth
session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United
Nations Headquarters in New York from 14 – 24 March 2016. Representatives of UN
Member States, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society from across the world will
attend and advocate for the empowerment of women and girls.

 

To find out more about the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals please click here. For the UN’s ‘Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform’ please click here. To find out more about Graduate Women International, Zonta International or the International Federation of Business and Professional Women please click on the organisation’s name.