Workshop entitled 'Regional Organizations and the Promotion of Gender Equality and Political Empowerment of Women'

International IDEA, together with the Community of Democracies and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will co-host the Inter-Regional Workshop on the theme “Regional Organizations and the Promotion of Gender Equality and the Political Empowerment of Women”. Taking place in New York on 17 March 2016 as a side event during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Inter-Regional Workshop will represent an important occasion to discuss and exchange best practices with a global community of experts and practitioners.

In 2015, countries across the world commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which stressed gender inequality and violence against women as critical obstacles to building a peaceful and prosperous world. Now, Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals provide a historic opportunity for regional organizations to play a greater role in promoting women’s empowerment, including strengthening women’s political participation and fostering more inclusive democratic processes in their regions. This means more effective collaboration between regional organizations, the UN, and civil society organizations (CSOs) to follow up and review progress on these commitments, but also to support the effective implementation of concrete measures.

Regional organizations are already among the leading proponents of normative frameworks, processes and institutions that contribute to the achievement of gender equality and the political empowerment of women. While their mandates vary, they have all established legal frameworks and programmes of activities to strengthen gender equality in their regions. Most regional organizations have a dedicated body, in the form of a committee, commission or directorate that is responsible for mainstreaming and spearheading efforts on gender equality and women’s political empowerment.

Despite great differences, regional organizations recognize that they share many common challenges. Unequal opportunities and conditions for political participation and representation between men and women exist worldwide and women remain underrepresented from the structures of governance in all regions. Inter-regional cooperation, the identification of common policy solutions, and peer learning in general will be critical to increasing the effectiveness of regional organizations’ efforts for gender equality.

In particular, further collaboration and coordination with between regional organizations, the UN, and CSOs will be crucial to ensuring the achievement of Agenda 2030. The Inter-Regional Workshop will be just the place for the international community to find areas for joint actions and initiatives to give a significant boost to gender equality and women’s political empowerment. It will bring together senior representatives from the major stakeholders to present regional innovations, exchange experiences and interactively discuss key issues such as women’s political empowerment and the link to sustainable development. It will allow for an in-depth discussion on the role of regional organizations and will include the formulation of concrete policy recommendations on how to enhance impact of the work of regional organizations, the UN and civil society in this field.

The objectives of the Inter- Regional Workshop are to:

1. Share best practices and lessons learned
2. Formulate concrete guidelines/measures/policy recommendations
3. Explore and discuss how regional organizations could further collaborate with the UN and CSOs on gender equality and political empowerment of women