Nisha Onta, Knowledge Management Coordinator, attended the UNESCAP Committee on Social Development, Third Session as an observer on 18-20 August in Bangkok, Thailand. The thematic focus of the session was on gender equality and women’s empowerment, particularly focusing on preparations for the regional review of progress and challenges in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
After the opening statements, election of officers and adoption of the agenda, the review of social development trends and challenges in the context of the development agenda beyond 2015 was presented [CSD3-Confronting Rising Inequalities].The review focused on forms of inequality such as income inequality, poor access to health-care services, lack of access to education and inequality across key population groups such as women and girls. The measures identified by this review to address inequalities were
- Enhance social protection
- Promote productive and decent work
- Strengthen redistribution policies
- Support evidence based policymaking
The representatives of the member states were asked to deliberate in the following four questions:
- How could social protection be enhanced to support the most vulnerable in the face of persistent inequalities?
- What policy measures are needed to generate job-rich growth under the decent work agenda?
- What would be the most appropriate tax policies to both redistribute income and finance basic social services?
- What are the key research and data gaps in the area of inequality, and how could they be narrowed?
The next session focused on the zero draft of the Review of regional preparations for the Asian and Pacific Conference on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+20. Countries such as Russia suggested adding a section on role of women as Mothers, which got a strong reaction and intervention from the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). The CSOs2 were able to make following interventions during the Session:
- CSO Opening Statement to ESCAP
- CSO Statement on Inequalities at the 3rd session of the Commission on Social Development
- CSO Statement on Sexual Rights and Health Rights; Gender Inequalities, Discrimination, and Violence; and Conflict
- CSO Statement on Civil Society Voice and Inclusion of Women with Disabilities
- CSO Statement on Accountability
- CSO Statement on Human Rights, Development and Peace
- CSO Closing Statement to ESCAP
Civil society expressed that while space at the regional level to engage in the processes has grown, there is still a deep concern about the deficiency of binding commitments and the backsliding on existing language on women’s human rights.
The Session achieved the following outcomes:
- Priority social development trends and issues in the region were identified for the post-2015 period.
- Preliminary results of the Beijing+20 regional survey were validated.
- Main elements of a draft outcome document for the ‘Asian and Pacific Conference on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+20’, to be held in Bangkok from 17 – 20 November 2014, were reviewed.
- Proposed outputs for the 2016-2017 programme of work on social development were endorsed.
WOCAN is the member of the Civil Society Beijing +20 Steering Committee and works closely with the UN agencies to provide input to the review, organize the NGO Forum prior to the intergovernmental meeting in November in Bangkok and provide concrete input into the negotiated processes of the states and into the intergovernmental process.