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.

Click on the link to view the CSW60 Statement