•    is led by an Under Secretary-General in order to have the status and authority to be a driver on gender issues;
•    combines policy making and country level operations to effectively deliver on women's rights on the ground;
•    ensures meaningful involvement of civil society, especially women's organizations, at all levels.

For the past three decades, women’s organizations and movements have seen the United Nations as a galvanizing force for our efforts to define a comprehensive global agenda for peace and security, human rights, gender equality, women’s empowerment, poverty eradication and sustainable development.

Many important advances have been made for women, yet governments have failed overall to implement the commitments to women’s rights they have made in the CEDAW Convention, Beijing Platform for Action and in agreements from many UN world conferences, including those on human rights, population and development, sustainable development, HIV/AIDS, the Millennium Summit, including the Millennium Development Goals, and the 2005 World Summit.

The UN lacks an effective mechanism to deliver on these promises; it needs an independent, women-specific agency with adequate stature, resources, operational capacity in the field, and a mandate and high level leadership to drive this agenda, including for making financing for gender equality more effective.

A lead women’s agency is necessary, along with well-resourced, effective mainstreaming efforts throughout the system.  Currently, the UN has several small under-resourced agencies focused exclusively on women’s issues; other larger agencies sometimes do important work on gender equality, but it is a small part of their mandate, and often receives low priority.

The sexual and reproductive health community must engage in the efforts to strengthen the United Nations gender equality architecture because gender equality and women’s empowerment are crucial to ensure that women are able to make informed decisions about their bodies, sexuality, and reproduction.

Women are the most vulnerable and fastest growing population infected with HIV. Women die during pregnancy, childbirth, and as a result of unsafe abortions. These tragedies continue to happen due to lack of policies and programs to make sexual and reproductive health services widely accessible, but also due to severe inadequacies in the policies and programs to empower women and promote gender equality.
From Cairo to Beijing and the five and ten year reviews, women’s empowerment has been integrated into population and development strategies and there is international recognition that reproductive rights are fundamental human rights. Although there have been significant advances in this regard, the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women around the world continue to be unmet.

Many UN agencies do important work on gender issues and these efforts must continue as there is not one single entity that can do all the work for half the world’s population.

UNFPA, one of the strongest advocates for women’s rights in the UN system, is a vital promoter of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. UNFPA should continue to be well funded and to execute its mandate fully, while a strong, women-specific entity will complement UNFPA’s work. They can mutually reinforce their agendas through great collaboration at the policy level and in its operational capacity over the world.
Within the larger UN mandate, a stronger women’s agency will better direct the promotion of women’s rights within each existing agency’s mandate and will build on the important achievements in this regard.  This will allow for real gender mainstreaming.
The process of reform is already leading to a greater coordination among UN agencies at the local level as well as in its central structure. This will enable the UN system to better support governments in meeting the MDGs and fulfill its mandate of addressing the needs of all within a framework of equality and non-discrimination.

The interaction of all UN agencies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment is in high order. The synergy created by a strong women’s entity will help the world deliver on the international commitments to promote, protect and fulfill women’s human rights.
A strong women’s entity will also strengthen women’s organizing and mobilization around the world to hold the world accountable.
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Civil society, especially women's organizations, has played an important agenda setting and policy role at the United Nations, assisting the UN and Member States to recognize and address global challenges relating to gender equality and women's empowerment. Women's organizations bring years of experience working with women in countries and communities as well as regionally and internationally to advance women's rights and to improve women's daily lives. It is critical to build on these experiences by systematically bringing diverse women's voices into all aspects of the new women's entity at every level in order to deliver effective results for women on the ground. Therefore, we call on the Secretary-General and Member States to:
(1) Establish a strong, consolidated and ambitiously funded UN entity for women led by an Under Secretary-General that combines policy making and country level operations to effectively deliver on women's rights on the ground.
(2) Ensure meaningful involvement of civil society, especially women's organizations, at all levels - global, regional, national and local. At the global level, at least five representatives (one from each region) should be included on the Governing Board of the new women's entity.