15 July 2016: The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a resolution on ‘Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective into All Policies and Programmes in the UN System’ (E/RES/2016/2), which calls upon the UN system, including its agencies, funds and programmes, to accelerate the full and effective mainstreaming of a gender perspective, commensurate with the gender-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The resolution requests the UN Secretary-General to submit a report on the implementation of the resolution at ECOSOC’s 2017 session.

The resolution, adopted by ECOSOC on 2 June 2016, notes “with concern” that many UN entities have not yet met the requirements set forth in the UN System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. It stresses the need to: fully implement this UN System-wide Action Plan and increase investments to address issues in critical areas of the plan; mainstream a gender perspective into all UN system operational mechanisms, including the UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAFs) and other common programming frameworks; strengthen monitoring, evaluation and reporting; mobilize and develop sufficient gender expertise for planning, implementation and gender-related resource allocation and tracking; ensure adequate resources for meeting gender-related goals and targets across the 2030 Agenda; mainstream gender-responsive planning and budgeting, harmonize gender marker systems and enhance system-wide capacity for their increased implementation; and enhance technical support to UN Member States, upon their request, in order to build or improve national capacity for gender statistics and the collection and analysis of disaggregated data.

The resolution recognizes the importance of strengthening the capacity of UN-Women, including through adequate funding to carry out its mandates for normative support, coordination and operational functions, and its contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

The resolution notes serious concern that progress in achieving 50/50 gender balance in the UN system, especially at the senior and policy-making levels, remains insufficient, and that the representation of women in the UN system has remained almost static, with negligible improvement in some parts of the system. In this regard, the resolution highlights the need to continue or strengthen efforts to achieve gender balance in appointments in the Professional and higher categories within the UN system at the headquarters, regional and country levels.

The resolution also takes note of the commitment of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), as expressed in its statement to the 55th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), to stepping up efforts to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls under all respective mandates. These efforts include: substantially increasing resources to deliver results, especially under the UNDAFs; monitoring progress with better statistics and data disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, disability and age; instituting robust accountability systems, including through the full implementation of the UN System-wide Action Plan; and accelerating progress towards the equal representation of women at all levels in its diverse bodies, including through temporary special measures. [ECOSOC Resolution on Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective into All Policies and Programmes in the UN System]