19 February 2016: Regional preparatory meetings for the 60th meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 60) considered financing mechanisms, institutional strengthening, and leadership by women’s organizations for achieving gender equality by 2030, the target year for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CSW 60 convenes in March 2016 under the theme, ‘Women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development.’

For the African region, UN Women, in partnership with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC), organized a “pre-consultation” on CSW 60 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 21 January 2016, focused on women’s empowerment in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Africa’s Agenda 2063. Around 250 participants from 38 Member States, including UN and civil society representatives, discussed institutional arrangements, financing, the evidence base, and leadership by women’s organizations. Specific proposals emerging from the meeting included: strengthening and using the AUC’s Specialized Technical Committee on Women to report on advancement of gender quality and women’s rights in Africa; emphasizing domestic resource mobilization and promoting gender-responsive fiscal policies; following up on the report of the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa to recover lost resources that could be used for to promote gender equality and empowerment of women; and working with National Statistics Bureaus to generate and use disaggregated data to support gender-responsive implementation.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the regional preparatory meeting took place in Santiago, Chile, from 26-28 January 2016. Participants adopted a declaration, titled ‘Women’s Empowerment, Women’s Rights and Autonomy and their link to Sustainable Development,’ which called for mobilizing financial and non-financial resources for implementing gender equality targets in the 2030 Agenda. They also highlighted: closing the gap between men’s and women’s access to, and use of, information and communication technologies (ICT); ensuring the equal participation of women in democratic decision-making; implementing differentiated measures to address the impacts of climate change on vulnerable women, especially rural and indigenous farmers; and strengthening strategic alliances of national mechanisms for the advancement of women in Latin America and the Caribbean to accelerate gender equality in the region.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP) organized an intergovernmental seminar from 18-19 February 2016, in Bangkok, Thailand, on the theme, ‘Transformative Financing for the Achievement of Gender Equality by 2030.’ Participants discussed financing mechanisms and reflected on commitments made under the SDGs.

Following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, UN Women convened an expert group meeting to take stock of research and assist CSW in its deliberations. The experts met from 2-4 November 2015, in New York, US, where they examined the “gender-responsiveness” of the 2030 Agenda, and developed recommendations on the gender-sensitive implementation of the 2030 Agenda. UN Women also convened a multi-stakeholder forum. on 21 January 2016. on preparations for CSW 60. [UN Women Webpage on Preparations] [CSW 60 Webpage] [Outcome Document from Africa region] [Outcome Document from Latin America and Caribbean Region (Spanish)] [Asia-Pacific Meeting Page] [IISD RS Story on Reports to CSW 60]