24 March 2016: The 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 60) produced a set of Agreed Conclusions that highlight the economic, education, health and humanitarian needs of women and girls, underscoring the relationship between these needs and achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The meeting also agreed on the importance of a gender-responsive approach to the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), calling to end violence against women and girls in order to achieve the Goals.

CSW 60 convened from 14-24 March 2016, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, under the priority theme, ‘Women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development.’ The Commission recommended four draft resolutions to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on: CSW’s multi-year programme of work; action to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls; women and children hostages, including those imprisoned during armed conflicts; and Palestinian women. CSW 60 took note of several documents, including reports by the UN Secretary-General and Chair’s summaries on: ministerial roundtables on financing for gender quality and women’s empowerment in the 2030 Agenda; gender-responsive data, design, collection and analysis; and implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

On finance, governments agreed that increased investment is necessary to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The Conclusions call for closing resource gaps and mobilizing financial resources from all sources, including domestic resource mobilization (DRM), official development assistance (ODA) and strengthened North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation.

On climate change, the Conclusions recognize the challenges that climate change poses to achieving sustainable development, and note its disproportionate effects on women and girls, as well as its impacts on other environmental issues, such as coastal erosion and ocean acidification, deforestation, and desertification. The Commission recognizes that countries should respect and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment when addressing climate change, in line with the Paris Agreement.

The Conclusions also urge Governments to, inter alia: strengthen women’s leadership and participation in decision-making in all areas of sustainable development; strengthen normative, legal and policy frameworks, including by adopting and reviewing implementation of laws that criminalize violence against women and girls; and promote and protect the human rights of all women and their sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights (SRHR).

During a CSW 60 side event, UN Women launched ‘Step it Up for Gender Equality Media Compact’ with over 35 media outlets signing on as founding members. The initiative calls on media partners to become gender champions through their reporting, editorial decisions and corporate practices, and aims to increase attention to women in the media, including women in decision-making and leadership roles, and disrupt biases and stereotypes. The partnership is expected to serve as an alliance of media organizations committed to advancing gender issues within the framework of the SDGs. Observing that when reporting is “predominantly by men, about men, it is actually misrepresenting the real state of the world,” UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the partnership will strive to ensure the media works for gender equality and women’s rights.

CSW 60 featured over 200 side events, including one on sport as a vehicle to advance gender equality. [UN Press Release] [CSW Press Highlights] [UN Women Press Release on Closing] [UN Women Executive Director Closing Statement] [UN Women Press Release, 18 March] [UN Women Press Release on Media Compact] [About the Media Compact] [UN Women Press Release on Sport Side Event] [CSW 60 Website] [Agreed Conclusions: Women’s empowerment and the link to sustainable development (Advanced unedited)] [IISD RS Story on CSW 60 Opening]