Coordination

UN Women was established under resolution 64/289 as a composite entity serving three sets of mandates in fulfilling its role of leading, coordinating and promoting the accountability of the UN system for its work on gender equality and the empowerment of women (GEEW): intergovernmental normative; operational and interagency coordination mandates.

UN Women coordination efforts support system, inter-agency, and country level collaboration to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. These efforts aim to facilitate integration and working together as a UN family, to strengthen action and accountability for gender equality. The UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) and UN Women Country Offices across the Arab States do this by working through regional and country level coordination mechanisms. Supporting activities include conducting research, capacity building on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and compiling and providing evidence, including good practices and lessons learned to inform intergovernmental debates and decisions.

NORMATIVE AGENDA:

By working to promote and implement landmark agreements, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the UN Women in the Arab States champions women and girls at the regional and local levels, and supports inter-governmental bodies in the formulation of policies, global standards and norms that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

As one example of this work, UN Women’s Regional Office in partnership with the League of Arab States and UN ESCWA, is working to coordinate the regional Beijing +25 review process. This builds on the partnership between the three organisations for the Beijing +20 process, which culminated in the Arab declaration that reaffirms commitment to scaling up the Beijing Platform for Action and has a special mention of women in conflict and occupation, and combating violent extremism. These efforts build on the Cairo Declaration of 2014 that explicitly reaffirmed the states’ commitment to furthering the gender equality and empowerment of women agenda.