23 April 2014: The UN Development Group (UNDG) has called for active engagement of Member States and UN Resident Coordinators in advance of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+20). As part of these preparations, States are also expected to prepare comprehensive national reviews on the implementation and impact of the Beijing Platform for Action, as well as plans for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.

According to a UNDG Guidance Note, Member States are expected to submit national reviews by 1 May 2014, while UN Women and the UN regional commissions will conduct regional reviews. These reviews will feed into a report by the UN Secretary-General for the 59th Session on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 59) in 2015. CSW 59 will review the implementation of Beijing+20.

Also according to the Guidance Note, the reviews are expected to: cover the period since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; address progress in the Platform’s 12 critical areas of concern, with an emphasis on progress since 2009; include data and statistics; and address emerging opportunities, challenges and priorities, including recommendations to strengthen gender equality and women’s empowerment in the post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In a joint letter, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator and UNDG Chair, Helen Clark, and UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, say that Beijing+20 will take place as the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) deadline approaches, and the post-2015 agenda and the SDGs are being defined. This presents an opportunity, they note, to prominently position gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment on the global agenda.

As part of the Beijing+20 preparations, UN Women is organizing a campaign, ‘Empowering women-Empowering Humanity: Picture It,’ which will run throughout 2014, and aims to stimulate conversations on a world in which gender equality and women’s empowerment are a reality. [Guidance note for the preparation of national reviews] [Letter] [CSW 59 Website]