Ban calls for reversal of ‘slow’ progress in achieving gender parity at UN

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has exhorted the United Nations to take urgent actions to reverse the “regrettable trend” of sluggish advances made towards achieving gender parity in the Organization.

That goal was to have been reached by 2000, but women only comprise 38.2 per cent of staff in the UN system, recording only a 1.3 per cent increase between 1 January 2005 and 30 December 2007.

Statistics “show clearly that the pace of progress towards the goal of gender parity has been markedly slow, even marginal,” Mr. Ban writes in a report to the General Assembly made public today.

UN bodies have reported impediments that fall into seven broad categories, he says: inadequate accountability, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms; the lack of special measures to achieve gender balance; the absence of a focal point system; limited flexible work arrangements; lack of outreach in recruitment; low numbers of qualified women applicants; and lack of adequate data on the causes of high attrition rates for women.

In the UN Secretariat, the proportion of women in the professional and higher categories has remained nearly static, posting growth of only 0.1 per cent in the two years since mid-2006.

But in spite of this “marginal” progress, there has been increased awareness of the issue of achieving gender parity in the UN. The bolstered prominence of the issue, coupled with the knowledge of minimal advances, could propel positive change, the report notes.

“The entire system must more than redouble its efforts through adopting new policies where none exist and more rigorously implement existing ones,” Mr. Ban says. “Only then can meaningful [advancements] towards gender parity be achieved in the United Nations system.”

In the new publication, the Secretary-General emphasizes the responsibility of senior managers to ensure that existing policies are implemented.

“Efforts must be made to overcome the United Nations system’s informal organizational cultures which constrain the advancement of women staff,” it says, calling for putting flexible work arrangements into practice.

Almost all organizations within the world body face large numbers of retirements in the near future, providing an opportunity to hasten progress towards stepped-up promotions and recruitment of qualified women.

The report also singles out some agencies for praise for their good gender balance practices, including the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has laid out measures for reaching 50 per cent representation of women at senior levels by 2015.

It also commends the UN Development Programme (UNDP) for a recent report recommending affirmative action to attain and sustain the 50/50 parity goal, along with more efficient inter-agency mobility, especially among women in management positions.