23 July 2012: In the latest issue of “Our Perspective,” Winnie Byanyima, Director of UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Gender Team, considers the outcomes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) in the context of gender equality. She stresses the importance of ensuring that gender issues are adequately addressed in the global development agenda, particularly in planning the post-2015 development agenda.

The Rio+20 outcome document, “The Future We Want,” affirms the importance of women’s participation and gender equality “for effective action on all aspects of sustainable development,” and references gender equality in 44 paragraphs. The document encourages the integration of women’s empowerment in development programmes and policies, including in the Beijing Platform for Action and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). In addition, five voluntary commitments made at Rio+20 focus specifically on gender equality.

Despite these elements, Byanyima writes, Rio+20 did not strongly advance women’s rights worldwide. She says the document “has been criticized as being too soft on gender equality,” and notes that proposals for “powerful language” backing gender equality and women’s empowerment outcomes were lost in the negotiating and editing process. Women’s organizations also criticized the document for failing to recognize reproductive rights as a central aspect of gender equality and sustainable development.

Byanyima stresses that UNDP will continue to work to ensure gender equality, concluding that collective action on gender issues can help ensure measurable progress in the post-2015 development agenda. [Publication: Our Perspective]