UNIFEM Asia-Pacific and Arab States
Regional Programme for Engendering Economic Governance
demystifying economics and empowering women

 

News Items

Coming Activities

9-11 November 2003: Gender and Poverty Summit being held in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The UNIFEM Regional Economic Advisor for Asia-Pacific & Arab States will give a presentation on “Poverty Reduction Strategies: women’s poverty and mainstream policies.” The Summit is organized jointly by Women’s Political Watch and the National Council of Applied Economic Research.

10-14 November 2003: the Regional Economic Advisor will attend and Inter-agency and Expert Meeting on MDG Indicators to be held in Geneva, hosted by the ECE Statistics Division. The meeting will:

• Take stock of the MDG indicator development process;
• Examine problems of data availability and quality for the MDG indicators, based on the annex to the Secretary-General's 2003 report 8 September (A/58/323);
• Identify priorities for improving existing international standards and guidelines, and for developing new standards where metadata are not yet well-defined;
• Develop plans for further methodological work and identify needs for strengthening data collection;
• Consider possible changes to the agreed list of indicators over the next several years;
• Consider expected new data availability and ongoing gaps anticipated in the process of preparing data and analyses for the Secretary-General's 2004 report, due in March 2004;
• Consider plans and further work which might be undertaken in anticipation of preparations for the Secretary-General's "comprehensive" 2005 report

17-18 November 2003: the Regional Economic Advisor will meet with colleagues in UNIFEM New York to review the implementation of the Regional Programme on Engendering Economic Governance and discuss future directions.

19-20 November, 2003: the Regional Economic Advisor will attend a meeting at the World Bank Washington on “Equality and the Millennium Development Goals”.

Speakers at the opening session include:

  • James D. Wolfensohn, President, the World Bank, on The Importance of Gender Equality for Achieving the MDGs;
  • Zephirin Diabre, Associate Administrator, UN Development Programme, on Gender Equality and the MDGs: The Role of UNDP; and
  • Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UN Development Fund for Women, Making the Links: Women's Empowerment, Human Rights and the MDGs.

Panels include:

  • Whose Responsibility and Whose Goals?
    Speaker: Phil Evans, Senior Social Development Adviser, UK Mission to the UN & Chair of the OECD-DAC Network on Gender Equality
  • Realities on the Ground - Achieving the MDGs in Zambia.
    Speaker: Her Excellency, Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika, Ambassador of Zambia to the United States
  • Relevance and Implications: Gender and the MDGs in Latin America.
    Speaker: Mayra Buvinic, Chief, Sustainable Development Department, Inter-American Development Bank
  • What is the Opportunity Cost of Ignoring Gender? An Empirical Perspective.
    Speaker: Naila Kabeer, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex