Open discussion with Mayra BuvinicMayra Buvinic is Chief, Social Development Division, Sustainable Development Department and Special Advisor on Violence, Inter-American Development Bank. Before joining the Bank, Dr. Buvinic was a founding member and President of the International Center for Research on Women. She has published in the areas of poverty and gender, employment promotion, small enterprise development, reproductive health and, more recently, violence reduction. A Chilean citizen, she holds a PhD in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.The panel discussion entitled "Gender Equality in the UN and Beyond" was held with Ms Mayra Buvinic, Sector Director of the Gender and Development Poverty Reduction and Economic Management at the World Bank, and Ms Elizabeth Longworth, Director of the Cabinet of the Director-General at UNESCO.
The panel discussion focused on ongoing reforms within the UN system as they relate to gender equality, and included a presentation of the 2007 World Bank Global Monitoring Report that specifically addressed MDG 3 on Gender Equality.
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The discussion was set in the context of the United Nations reform agenda and recent CEB decisions. The 2005 World Summit Outcome document called for a strengthened gender equality architecture both at the system level and in each UN agency to provide a strong and coherent voice on issues pertaining to gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment.
The Chief Executives’ Board for Coordination (CEB) and the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) called for greater priority to gender equality and gender mainstreaming in programming and in Secretariat operations.
In the light of these recommendations, UNESCO has made strong commitments to further promote issues pertaining to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and to pursue these commitments far more vigorously. UNESCO’s actions in response to, and in accordance with, the system-wide work were further elaborated by Ms Elizabeth Longworth, Director of the Cabinet of the Director-General.
The seminar ended with a presentation of the World Bank Global Monitoring Report for 2007, Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States, by Ms Mayra Buvinic. The Global Monitoring Report assesses the contributions of developing countries, developed countries, and international financial institutions toward meeting universally agreed development commitments. The objective of the Report is to take stock of where we are with respect to the Millennium Development Goals and to identify pressing issues in need of greater attention from the international community. This year’s report highlights two key thematic areas —gender equality and empowerment of women (the third MDG) and the special problems of fragile states, where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated.
You will find here the video of the open discussion and below, Ms. Mayra Buvinic's powerpoint presentation.
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization