Background
As the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this morning, it had before it a report of the Secretary-General on the empowerment of women and integration of gender perspectives in the promotion of economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development (document A/58/135).
The report notes that continuing inequalities and discrimination force women in many parts of the world to live in precariouse situations, as evidenced by the level of violence against women, trafficking in women and girls, the impact of armed conflict on women and the high number of women among the poorest of the poor.
Specific vulnerabilities of women and girls, the report states, must be identified as abuses of women’s rights and obstacles to sustainable development and their vital inputs to maintaining peace and security, eradicating poverty, protecting the environment and promoting democracy. Global progress in bringing women’s concerns and gender perspectives to the fore must be acted upon at national levels, with a strong focus on implementing policies, norms and recommendations.
The report suggests that the General Assembly call on all relevant actors, governments, the United Nations system, international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society to focus more on gender perspectives in follow-up activities to the International Conference on Financing for Development; the thematic clusters of the Commission on Sustainable Development’s multi-year programme of work; and preparations for and outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society. Those bodies should also promote and monitor the empowerment of women and gender perspectives in development, and focus on gender perspectives in all reporting processes.
In addition, the report says, the General Assembly could encourage governments and the above bodies to bring gender perspectives into strategies and action plans in follow-up to all United Nations conferences and summits, and develop gender-sensitive targets and indicators and effective monitoring mechanisms. They should also develop capacity-building in gender mainstreaming, and take steps to ensure that data needed for gender analysis is collected and sex-disaggregated.
Another report of the Secretary-General before the Committee, on international migration and development (document A/58/98), reviews relevant activities carried out by United Nations bodies and outside organizations.
Activities of Organization within the United Nations System
According to the report, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs has been monitoring levels and trends of international migration as well as migration policies, and has worked to prevent violence against female migrant workers and trafficking in women and girls. Focusing mainly on minors or women who are refugees or trafficking victims, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been supporting legislation to protect child victims of trafficking.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has been working to improve employment standards for female migrants, the report says. Among migration projects being carried out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is TOKTEN (Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals), which helps qualified expatriates return to their homelands to work on specific projects. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has assessed HIV-related risks of migration, concluding that links between migration and HIV/AIDS are clouded by misinformation, misunderstanding and stigmatization.
Other United Nations bodies involved in migration include the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Labour organization (ILO).
Activities of Organizations outside the United Nations
The report observes that the European Union has laid down a framework for a common immigration and asylum policy, which includes partnerships with countries of origin; a common European Asylum System; fair treatment of third-country nationals; and management of international migration flows. Another organization, Metropolis, a multinational partnership focusing on integrating immigrants into host societies, has recently expanded its scope to include demographic trends, international migration flows, smuggling and trafficking of migrants, international cooperation in managing international migration, the abuse of the international asylum system and the extent and effects of brain drain on countries of origin.
According to the report, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), mainly targets the newly independent States of Eastern Europe and Central Asia in providing border services as well as training for border service officers, and organizes workshops for information exchange on migration. In addition, it helps set up population registration systems operating under the principle of freedom of movement and choice of place of residence, which the OSCE considers a prerequisite for democracy.
Other non-United Nations organizations in the migration field include the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the Society for International Development (SID).
Addressing Migration within the United Nations
The United Nations has considered holding a conference on international migration and development as a forum for maximizing the potential benefits of international migration for development. A survey carried out in the Organization over the past year yielded 47 responses from Member States, of which 25 favoured the conference and 22 had reservations. While such a conference remains uncertain, the United Nations should play a key role in data collection, research, coordination of activities among concerned organizations, providing advisory services and technical assistance, advocacy, and promoting the ratification of existing international instruments on international migration.
Also before the Committee was a note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report on activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The report (document A/58/168) tracks the Fund’s progress in three key areas: strengthening the economic security and rights of women; enhancing their leadership in governance and peace-building; and promoting the human rights of women and eliminating violence against them. It also highlights implementation of UNIFEM’s Strategy and Business Plan (2000-2003) during 2002.
Regarding economic security and rights, UNIFEM has strengthened institutional, legal and regulatory environments for women’s equal ownership and access to economic resources, the report states. The Fund has also intensified efforts to build skills, technical capacities and commitments within governments to develop and collect gender-sensitive statistics. The UNIFEM has also helped countries to mainstream gender perspectives into trade policies and strengthened women’s capacity and rights as entrepreneurs, producers and home-based workers. Field-based programmes in 2002 were increasingly designed to enhance women’s use and control of information and communications technologies, with support now being provided to initiatives in 15 countries.
With respect to governance and peace-building, the report notes that UNIFEM’s main focus during 2002 was to complete and launch Women, War, and Peace: The Independent Experts’ Assessment of the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-building (Volume I of Progress of the World’s Women 2002). The Fund also improved assistance for women affected by conflict, focusing particularly on preventing gender-based violence and sexual exploitation, and expanded support for gender equality and women’s rights in post-conflict peace-building.
In its work to promote women’s human rights and eliminate violence against women, the report says, UNIFEM has worked to strengthen integrated responses to violence against women through better research and data, build capacities for drawing up legislation, strengthen regional action, and build awareness among policy-makers and the public of the urgency of ending such behaviour. The Fund has also assisted with implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and with understanding of the gender and human rights dimensions of HIV/AIDS. With support from the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security and other bilateral and multilateral donors, UNIFEM launched programmes in 10 countries to assist national AIDS councils in programming from a gender and human rights perspective.
Recommendations
The UNIFEM Consultative Committee comprising Croatia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Namibia and the Netherlands, recommends that UNIFEM continue its work on peace and security, and widen its interpretation of violence against women. The Fund should also continue to foster and build strategic partnerships, both within and outside the United Nations, and develop cost-effective ways of expanding its use of media and communications.
Also before the Committee was a report of the Secretary-General on human resources and development (document A/58/348), which highlights human resources as a means for promoting economic growth and eradicating poverty. It also focuses on information and communication technologies in developing human resources and emphasizes the need for adequate resources to increase investment in human resources development.
The report stresses that strategies to develop human resources should focus on capacities and opportunities for all generations and special groups, such as persons with disabilities, older people, youth and indigenous peoples. Moreover, gender equality should be essential in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating policies and programmes for developing human resources.
In developing human resources, the report states, investments in health and education must be significantly increased to give all people living in poverty access to such services. In particular, HIV/AIDS requires urgent efforts combining short-term humanitarian responses and long-term development to rebuild human capacity lost to the pandemic.
The report also recommends that training be more flexible and responsive to rapidly changing requirements for skills, and serve learners in the informal economy. Such core work skills as communication and problem-solving should be integral to basic education and literacy programmes and distance-learning could be extended to various programmes for developing human resources development.
Introduction of Reports
CAROLYN HANNAN, Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, introducing the Secretary-General’s report on empowerment of women, said that gender perspectives should be integrated into existing national planning and reporting instruments as well as into the first comprehensive review of the follow-up to the Millennium Declaration and the Second High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, both in 2005. Healthy economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development were contingent on the full participation of women. In March 2003, the Commission on the Status of Women had called for equal access to information and communication technologies, she added, urging the Second Committee to address the importance of using the information revolution for the empowerment of women.
NOELEEN HEYZER, Executive Director of UNIFEM, introducing the report on the Fund’s activities,said that the Secretary-General’s updated reform agenda emphasized the need to incorporate women’s perspectives and gender considerations in all development efforts. As a relatively small and catalytic fund, UNIFEM’s effectiveness was dependent on collaboration with governments, civil society and the United Nations, she said, adding that the Fund was strengthening partnerships to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
SARBULAND KHAN, Director of the Division for Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, introduced the report on human resources development, noting that human resources development should be seen as it related to the broader context of achieving the millennium targets. The main reason that human resources development had come to the fore in the United Nations and the Second Committee was that globalization had made it more important than ever before. Human resources were vital for successful competition in today’s world, and health and education were key to economic growth and poverty eradication. Pointing out that achieving the millennium goals meant adapting to changing times, he said human resources strategies must be flexible and adaptable to change.
JOSEPH CHAMIE, Director of the Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, introduced the report on international migration and development, saying it included the views of 47 States on convening a United Nations conference on international migration and development. Some 22 States had expressed reservations about such a conference, pointing out that scarce resources would be better used for implementing existing agreements; that existing mechanisms of the United Nations system should be used to address issues involving international migration and development; and that bilateral or regional negotiations were more likely to lead to meaningful ways of dealing with migration issues. The remaining 25 States favouring the conference had emphasized the need to safeguard the rights of migrants, stressing that a conference should be technical and analytical and deal with all types of migrants.
Introductory Statement
ANWARUL CHOWDHURY, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, said women and girls bore the heaviest burden of extreme poverty, weak economies and inadequate institutional capacities in the 49 least developed countries. Little access to and ownership of land and productive resources in rural areas particularly exacerbated gender inequality and impeded the overall development of those countries.
The United Nations system’s efforts at gender mainstreaming had proven fruitful, he said, citing also the European Commission’s gender-oriented programmes, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) income-generating projects for women, UNIFEM’s support for the Network of African Women Economists and Digital Diaspora Network for Africa, and workshops sponsored by the Division for the Advancement for Women. However, there was minimal integration of gender perspectives in national poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), the Common Country Assessments (CCAs) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).
As indicated in the Secretary-General’s report, the lack of gender-segregated data seriously constrained reporting and monitoring progress in implementing the millennium targets, he said. In the least developed countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, statistical data were often unavailable. Least developed countries and their development partners must work together to ensure that gender-sensitive targets and indicators were an integral part of follow-up and implementation of major United Nations conferences.
Statements
HASSAN ABOUTAHIR (Morocco), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, said human resources development should aim to equip people with the skills and knowledge necessary for competing in global markets. Education, training and access to information and communication technologies could form a supportive human resources development Web for all people, and were vital to productive employment and economic growth. As labour markets adapted to the emerging occupational structures of growing economies, human resources development strategies must balance the demands of new employment with the supply of required skills.
Turning to women in development, he said globalization had worsened the conditions in which millions of people lived around the world. One of the most disquieting trends of that process had been the increased poverty of women, which had become known as the “feminization of poverty”. The empowerment of women was vital in eradicating poverty and they must move from being objects of subordination to subjects controlling their own lives. Placing women in income-generating activities helped improve living standards and created new opportunities to eradicate poverty.
Regarding migration and development, he said international migration was becoming an important global issue with multidimensional aspects, which should become a priority on the international agenda. A United Nations conference on the subject had not attracted consensus among States, but the United Nations should continue to examine that complex issue and identify ways to maximize the benefits of international migration for development.
MARIO SERIO (Italy), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said that eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and in all education levels by 2015 was a prerequisite for combating poverty and malnutrition. Without equal and economic opportunities for girls and women, the millennium targets could not be achieved. As indicated by the 2003 Human Development Report, gender equality was still very limited in developing countries, where women’s mortality and HIV/AIDS infection rates remained high and access to adequate medical services, including sexual and reproductive healthcare, social services and jobs remained low.
He urged all States to incorporate strategies in healthcare, education, media and law to end violence against women and impunity for the trafficking of women, forced prostitution, rape and violence against women in armed conflicts. Women must also be allowed appropriate political representation and participation, equal access to information and communication technologies as well as control over resources and land rights.
International migration issues must be integrated into a broader context of economic, environmental and social development frameworks, he continued. The European Union was particularly committed to crushing transnational networks, often linked to organized crime groups, that yielded high profits by smuggling migrants and trafficking women and children. In that regard, he lauded the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, particularly its two protocols against trafficking of humans.
SIMIN MAHMOOD JAN (Pakistan) said the empowerment of women and the mainstreaming of gender perspectives required several steps at the local, national, regional and global levels. The indivisible links between gender equity and poverty must be recognized, and women must be ensured equal access to health, education and other opportunities. Pakistan had set up a National Commission on the Status of Women, a high-level body to review government policies and programmes affecting women’s development and implementation of the National Action Plan on Women.
Turning to human resource development, he said that process contributed to poverty eradication and long-term economic growth through improved health, education and capacity-building. The Government of Pakistan had focused on introducing efficient, accountable, transparent and pro-poor governance and laws promoting decentralization and public participation; eradicating poverty in rural areas, where 60 to 70 per cent of the population lived; promoting employment opportunities for urban-educated and uneducated youth; and targeted interventions in education and health.
Regarding international migration and development, he said the interrelationship between migration and development was complex and had significant implications for international relations. It was hoped that the General Assembly would soon begin a process to formulate an international response to the vital issues linked with that global problem.
EVGENY STANISLAVOV (Russian Federation) said that developing human resources was vital in implementing internationally agreed development goals. The process required an optimal combination of actions at the international, regional and national levels, including multilevel strategies for human resources development consistent with the national priorities of States. It was particularly important to build up international cooperation in the area of continuous lifetime education, making full use of distant education as a key factor in raising labour force quality.
Turning to international migration, he said that process was having both positive and negative effects on socio-economic and political stability. No universal method existed for dealing with migration problems, which depended on factors inherent to situations in individual States. The Russian Federation supported the idea of convening a United Nations conference on international migration and development, which should focus on approaches to migration problems, consider migration and development and attempt to ensure the rights of different types of migrants. It should also look into the causes, trends and effects of migration on the political and socio-economic situations in countries of origin, transit and destination, as well as measures to regulate migration flows.
ADRIANA PULIDO SANTANA (Venezuela) stressed that in order to achieve the millennium targets, the international community must step up financial resources and technical assistance to developing nations, create more transparent and equitable global trade and finance systems, and allow developing countries to channel debt-servicing payments into socio-economic programme financing. Venezuela was pursuing the millennium targets through a comprehensive economic reform programme aimed at improving the living standards of the poor through job creation, as well as the establishment of a microcredit fund and lending institutions for the poor and for women.
She said donor countries must adequately finance development programmes, particularly for the poor in developing nations. Underscoring the need to heed the Secretary-General’s call for greater South-South cooperation to complement North-South cooperation, she said her country was doing its part through contributions to the Special Fund for Caribbean Development as well as regional energy and anti-desertification agreements.
CHITHAMBARANATHAN MAHENDRAN (Sri Lanka), noting that most migrants originated from developing countries with high unemployment rates, said that his own country had more than a million men and women -- one sixth of its total work force -– employed overseas. The impact of migration on a country’s economic growth was enormous, with remittances sent by migrant workers making a major contribution to development. It had been estimated that migrant workers worldwide remitted over $100 billion annually. Labour-recipient countries also benefited from international migration, making use of the skills and experiences of migrant workers.
He said he was also aware of the problems caused by labour migration. In countries like Sri Lanka, where the majority of migrant workers were unskilled women, family life was sometimes disrupted, and children neglected. In addition, women migrant workers were subjected to violence and harassment. Sri Lanka had recently taken steps to regulate labour migration and to protect the welfare of migrant workers. Action had been taken to provide formal pre-departure training and orientation, particularly for those in the domestic work sector, and various welfare measures had been laid down for the children of migrant workers.
A. GOPINATHAN (India) said that human resource development should include the promotion of universal education and access to healthcare. That would require an additional $5 billion to $10 billion annually for education and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), another $66 billion in healthcare for the poor in developing countries. Enhanced international cooperation, particularly development financing, was essential for strengthening human resources in developing countries, and would require a $16 billion increase in real terms of official development assistance (ODA) by 2006, representing 0.26 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of developed countries.
Immigration was increasingly linked to trade capacity, competitiveness and employment policy, he said. Immigration policy had to extend beyond the social realm. As the operations of more and more global firms become transnational, the gap between migration policy and trade policy could manifest itself in immigration controls acting as non-tariff barriers. The General Agreement on Trade and Services could translate that into a win-win situation, with developing nations supplying labour to developed countries with a shortage of workers. For nations like India, the balance of gains in future negotiations depended on better overseas market access for service providers, either from remote locations or through temporary movements.
JOHN LANGMORE, Director and Representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to the United Nations, stressed the importance of identifying policies for more effective migration to protect undocumented workers, all of whom were at greater risk of discrimination and inequity in employment, housing and access to community and social services. For example, the growth in so-called flexible employment terms such as contracting and subcontracting, and the declining percentage of workers covered by collectively bargained agreements such as trade union contracts made migrants more vulnerable. Moreover, migrants’ wages and employment opportunities were significantly less than those of nationals.
Healthy migration occurred in countries where the flow of new arrivals was limited to the receiving society’s ability to effectively absorb and integrate them into society, he said. Some research suggested an annual flow rate of
1 per cent of the population for that to occur. An overall commitment to multiculturalism facilitated effective and fair integration of migrants, he said, noting that immediate residence status and quick access to citizenship promoted the security of migrants and the host society alike. In that regard, the ILO encouraged States to form coherent migration policies for employment based on the economic and social needs of both countries of origin and countries of employment. Such policies should take into account short-term needs and long-term consequences for both sides.
LUCA DALL’OGLIO, International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the total number of international migrants had been estimated at about 75 million people in 1965. By 2000, that number had doubled to 150 million people living in foreign countries for more than a year. The most recent estimate stood at
175 million. Clearly, more people were on the move.
Noting that the international community was beginning to focus more on the positive effects of international migration on home-country development, he said migrants were rightly considered as potential agents of development, who strengthened cooperation between home and host societies. They contributed to development through investment and remittances and also through their skills, entrepreneurial activities and support for democracy and human rights.
One of the most visible contributions of migrants to their countries of origin was financial remittances, he said, noting that the total value of remittances through official channels had more than doubled between 1988 and 1999. According to the World Bank, workers’ remittances to developing countries in 2001 had stood at $72.3 billion considerably higher than ODA for that or any other recent year. Research was being carried out to determine the real and potential impact of such remittances on poverty reduction and development, but it was generally acknowledged that they made important contributions to development and the well-being of migrants’ family members in many developing nations.
IRENE FREUDENSCHUSS-REICHL, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), said women and girls constituted three fifths of the world’s poor, many of them engaged in subsistence agriculture, and one quarter to
one third of the microbusiness sector. Gender equality and women’s empowerment were essential to achieving sustainable development and poverty eradication. The UNIDO was responding to that challenge through customized projects to promote women entrepreneurs, and women in manufacturing jobs. Through socio-economic empowerment, women could become agents of change for the better in education, health and industrial productivity.
She said UNIDO’s capacity-building programmes for women entrepreneurs comprised managerial, entrepreneurial and technical training specific to the needs of each sub-sector and country; coaching and counselling to identify bottlenecks; networking with credit institutions; and the creation of self-help groups to share business plans and improve their competitive edge. The UNIDO had implemented most of its Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED) programmes in Africa, particularly in agro-industrial sectors such as food, leather and textiles. The WED also supported women’s business development in Viet Nam, Mexico, Central America, Nepal and Iran.
IRENA ZUBČEVIĆ (Croatia) said that achieving development goals was contingent on the full participation of women as well as men, and the identification of gender perspectives in all areas. Croatia had equal property rights and access to credit for both women and men. It had also passed a law on gender equality, introducing gender mainstreaming into the work of all State bodies and legal entities.
Turning to international migration, she said transnational networks of migrants promoted the transfer of knowledge and technology across borders and strengthened ties between migrants and their communities of origin, which provided incentives for migrants to contribute to the development of those communities. In addition, migrant remittances continued to provide income to families left behind, often exceeding the amount of ODA.
Due to recent war with neighbouring countries, she said, Croatia was also faced with the problem of displaced persons and refugees, although that situation had improved in 2002, when the number of internally displaced persons and refugees had decreased. The country had also had to deal with returnees, which posed a significant economic challenge because they often wished to return to war-devastated parts of Croatia.
CLAUDIO ROJAS (Chile) said public funding shortfalls continued to impede the ability of developing countries to achieve the millennium targets, and little progress had been made in technology transfer. Donor nations must make good on their development-funding pledges and the private sector must step up investment in order to achieve the millennium goals. More open and equitable trading and monetary regulatory systems were required to increase incentives and opportunities, particularly in the developing world.
Stressing that development efforts should not be duplicated, he said that the effective application of a quantifiable and objective analysis of development targets could lead to socio-economic gains in poorer countries. In that regard, Chile supported collaboration between the Second and Third Committees for the integrated follow-up to the recent major global conferences on sustainable development and poverty eradication.
GEORGE TALBOT (Guyana) said that his country was strongly committed to the full and effective participation of women in all spheres of national life and that women occupied more than a third of the seats in the national parliament.
Regarding migration, he said that topic was of special importance to Guyana, which had a significant proportion of its population abroad. In fact, the country’s population could decrease by some estimates over the next 50 years if current migration trends continued.
Highlighting the negative effects of migration, he said brain drain was a significant challenge for developing countries, with negative effects on development. In recent years, several Caribbean countries had witnessed the recruitment of several of their key people in the health and education sectors for employment in the United States and Europe. On the positive side, a major
spin-off from migration was the remittances sent home, which helped with community-based projects in health, education and entrepreneurship. In addition, migrants were often instrumental in focusing the attention of their new host countries on their countries of origin.
