The UN Global Summit took a slightly different turn today
and inevitably the security stepped up a notch. 
I don’t think I have seen quite so many black windowed vehicles in one
place ever as were on the streets of New York today.

The Beijing Platform for Action which set out a framework for
progress on gender equality is 20 years old this year.  Today the UN General Assembly celebrated this
milestone with A Global Summit on Gender Equality organised by UN Women.

This took the form of Heads of State recommitting to the
implementation of the 12 goals from the Beijing Platform for Action.

Led by Ban Ki-moon and the President of the People’s
Republic of China, all major players on the world stage were in New York to
tell us what their country had achieved, and to commit to further work for the
development of women and girls.

 

Photo: International President Yvonne Simpson supporting Low Carbon campaigners from China

The day started with a film of the progress made in China
for women. The President then went on to commit to making further
progress.  “Dreams that were once beyond
reach have become true”, he said.

He then announced a US$10 million donation to UN Women for
the implementation of the BPfA.  However,
this followed the increasingly worrying pattern of donation as he specified
what this money would be spent on.  Over 5
years it would support 100 health projects and provide medical facilities; 100
camps would be provided for the education of girls from poor rural areas and
30,000 women from developing countries would be hosted in China for skills and
vocational training.

 

Photo: Advocating for women & girls – Soroptimist postcards

Ban Ki-moon called on all Heads of State to ensure
significant funding was provided to implement the BPfA, to monitor progress and
hold themselves accountable. He said that they were each in a unique position
of power to make this happen.

For the remainder of the day, Heads of State spoke of their
Government’s existing achievements and renewed the commitments made 20 years
ago.  How ironic that 20 years on they
should still be promising that women should have equal pay for equal work, or
that women should be enabled to take up positions of leadership especially in
legislative bodies.

Many leaders supported and promoted the HEforSHE campaign to
engage men and boys in the work towards gender equality.

While this was happening at the UN, NGOs and CSOs were
downtown sharing ideas about how they could ensure that Sustainable Development
Goal #5 Gender Equality should be implemented and monitored.

Five workshops considered the practical actions needed and how
civil society could play its part. 
Questions were asked about the way in which women’s organisations could
engage with UN Women and the whole UN structure. Concerns were expressed at the
way in which data would be collected or how the monitoring the targets for each
goal would be undertaken. Where did corporate donors fit with this framework?

While that was happening I chaired an open microphone
session in which women could make statements about their concerns and the
challenges they felt women were facing. 
We were reminded of the dangers some women face in a large number of
countries if they tried to voice their views. 
How would they be supported? 
Where were the women in conflict resolution? Why was UN Resolution 1325
not being implemented?

It was a stark reminder that there is still a lot of work to
do and that we must continue to work together to achieve further progress.

We had some fun as well with an exuberant drumming group
leading the way, lots of photos being taken, especially to show our commitment
to human rights for women. Tweeting was the order of the day with a large
screen projecting a selection of tweets in support.

One of the things which struck me today was that the Civil
Society event was attended by a majority of women whereas the majority of Heads
of State purporting to support gender equality were men".