Section 3 - Educating and Partnering for CEDAW

Pooling resources for the UN Joint Programme on
CEDAW
The experience of working together among UN-GMC members from 2004 to 2006
paved the way for a higher level of collaboration on collectively defined goals and
strategies through pooled funding under a joint programme arrangement. This is
significant because this is the first time that UN agencies in the Philippines will
undertake comprehensive and collective efforts to address the recommendations
of a human rights treaty monitoring body, particularly on the CEDAW.
Three important initiatives paved the way for the Joint Programme:
1. The UNDP Governance portfolio project on “Coaching and Mentoring on
Gender and Human Rights Mainstreaming across UNDP Practice Areas
and UN Agencies in the Philippines” in early 2006, got a grant of U$ 50,000
to coach and mentor UNDP project partners and stakeholders on how to
mainstream gender and human rights in their projects and programming.
However implementation was delayed. UNDP eventually decided that the
project is best implemented through UN Joint Programme on CEDAW (UNJP-
CEDAW) hence the fund became part of the pooled budget for the first year of
the UNJP.
2. The UNDP project development initiative on “Gender in Governance (GIG)”
for a five-year (2005-2009) gender and human rights programme did not push
through because funds were not enough for the scope it proposed. It was told
to scale down and focus on the priorities in the CEDAW Concluding Comments
which was just issued then, hence the idea of the UN Joint Programme to
Facilitate the Implementation of the CEDAW Concluding Comments came
about.
3. The UN-GMC collaboration was asked to prepare a UNCT confidential report
to CEDAW in July 2006. With two weeks notice before deadline, the UN-GMC
members worked together in drafting a comprehensive report comparing and
analyzing data from both the state and NGO reports and from their respective
agencies’ sectoral concerns of women.
As CEDAW SEAP National Coordinator, I was tasked to consolidate all data from
concerned UN agency GAD focal points and to draft key chapters of the report.
The report provided data and analysis on 16 areas of concern, progress made
since the last Concluding Comments, and programmes undertaken to advance
gender equality by individual agencies and through joint programming, and within
the framework of the CCA/UNDAF.
The challenge in the UNCT reporting was to sift through the data and reports
with a CEDAW lens and engage most members of the UN team in this analysis.
Despite the constraints and limitations, the UNCT report was highly commended
by experts and will be showcased as a good practice model.
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