International Assistant Programme Director, Anusha Santhirasthipam, reports back from the third Rio+20 intersessional meeting which took place in New York last week.

From 19-27 March 2012, the SI UN Reps in New York and International
Assistant Programme Director, Anusha Santhirasthipam, attended the first round
of ‘informal-informal’ negotiations on the zero draft of the Rio+20 outcome
document, followed by the Third Inter-sessional Meeting of UNCSD. Throughout the week, there were several excellent side events organised by
various UN agencies that provided valuable insights to current debate.

One such event was “Sustainable Development Goals and post-2015
Development Agenda: The Gender Dimension”. An expert group of speakers
debated how Rio+20 will contribute to
gender equality and women’s rights post 2015 when the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs)come to an end.

Another important question was how a series of
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be useful for achieving the interlinked goals
of gender equality, economic and ecological justice. Speakers shared lessons
and experiences drawn from implementing the MDGs. Different views on the
limitations and possibilities of such indicators, targets and goals in
measuring and addressing gender and other disparities were discussed. Here are
some of the most important insights:

Saraswathi
Menon, UN-Women Director for Policy, stressed the priority of
UN Women was to ensure the role of women in urban planning, safe urban spaces
and urban amenities. Woman-headed households account for 20% of urban
households. Women suffer disproportionately from inadequate housing, lack of
water and sanitation, poor public transport, high risk of urban violence
and lack of safety and security. The need for a “gender lens” in urban planning
is crucial.

Anita Nayar,
DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era), was concerned
with the narrow definition of poverty and equity being tied to income. Women’s
participation in the informal sector must be reflected and structural
inequalities and vulnerabilities addressed.

Ximena
Andion-Ibanez from GIRE and RESURJ, Mexico, championed women’s sexual
and reproductive health rights and universal access to reproductive health as
an international human right. Any serious SDG proposal must reflect human
rights.

Andrea Ries,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Switzerland, called for the credible
involvement of rural women in food production, and women as decision-makers of
consumption patterns. Women are the untapped potential of the “green economy”
and it is necessary to seek full access to information and accountability from
governments and business.

Marcia
Machagata, Ministry of Social Affairs and Combating Hunger, Brazil, shared the
Brazilian experience of success, achieved by virtue of having a female President
and 10 female Ministers. She emphasised social protection floor initiatives as
the key to guaranteeing income and basic services.

Liza McCourt, Department
of Environment Affairs, South Africa, shared lessons from gender
mainstreaming in MDG implementation. She said
the 10 obstacles faced in South Africa were patriarchy, poverty, 60% of
female-headed households were poor, lack of power-sharing in decision-making,
violence against women, poor access to land and economic empowerment, HIV/AIDs,
lack of access to funding, inadequate access to service delivery,
constitutional conflicts and lack of involvement of men.

Dessima
Williams, Ambassador and Permanent Representative, Grenada, stressed the
strategic importance of stating the position of women in the first part of the Rio+20 Documents
and to make sure that women’s rights and the role of women are incorporated
into every goal and not just the focus of one.

 Photo: Chantal Line Carpentier, DESA

 So what conclusions did we come away with from all the discussions on
SDGs and Rio+20 during the past week at
the UN?

The proposal for a set of SDGs offer several benefits. They can help
tackle emerging issues such as water, urbanisation and energy efficiency. They
also bring the ‘social pillar’ of sustainable development back into focus.
Governments and the private sector tend to focus on the ‘economic pillar’ and
the NGOs on the ‘environmental pillar’, while social implications are lost. SDGs
are a chance to re-engage social sustainability.

SDGs need to be action-oriented, address emerging issues and focus on
creating change, while halting or reversing negative trends. They need to be
monitored, regulated, and reported on. They must be binding on nations.

A focus on equity is essential to overcome a core weakness of the MDGs – their
inability to address inequality both between and within nations. Groups who
traditionally experience exclusion – such as people living in poverty,
indigenous and rural communities, can be overlooked without impeding nations
from achieving targets. The MDGs also fail to address structural drivers and
root causes of poverty. Sustainable development is an interconnected whole and
gender equality, equity and empowerment lies at heart of bridging disparities
at all levels.

While nations debate the Rio+20 Documents
and SDGs, what can Soroptimists do at local level for women empowerment?

As we are women in profession and business, the UN Women Empowerment Principles are a good guide on how to empower women in
the workplace, marketplace and community.

1.    
Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender
equality.

2.    
Treat all women and men fairly at work – respect and
support human rights and non-discrimination.

3.    
Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all workers.

4.    
Promote education, training and professional
development for women.

5.    
Implement enterprise development, supply chain and
marketing practices that empower women.

6.    
Promote equality through community initiatives and
advocacy.

7.    
Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve
gender equality.

For more
information on the Sustainable Development Goals and UN work in preparation,
visit www.uncsd2012.org.