UN to create new umbrella agency for women

The new entity will bring together the mandates of the four existing organizations in the UN system that advocate for women.

Supporters say the new agency will help to advance UN efforts o­n behalf of women worldwide. Still others question whether the new agency's mandate will be clear enough to make it effective. Gail Walker has more.

After more than three years of debate the UN General Assembly has voted to establish a new agency that will bring together the work of the four existing entities at the United Nations that are focused o­n issues relating to women.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says o­nce implemented the new agency, which will be led by an Under-Secretary-General, will strengthen the UN's advocacy for women worldwide.

"I want to commend the General Assembly for agreeing to my proposal to consolidate all four women-specific entities of the United Nations into a single o­ne. I have been pushing this initiative for two and a half years. This will boost our work to promote the rights and well-being of women around the world."

Moez Doraid, UNIFEM's Deputy Executive Director believes that the new entity will bring an important shift to the UN's work in the area of women's empowerment.

"The time now is for action and the establishment of a new gender entity, bringing together UNIFEM with the other sister agencies will certainly help in advancing action towards gender equality and women's empowerment, and it will address gaps and deficiencies that UNIFEM along with others have acknowledge in the existing UN architecture."

While there's been overall support for the General Assembly resolution, groups like Oxfam International have voiced concern that the new entity could be weakened due to a lack of clarity about its mandate. Mr. Doraid agrees that a strong mandate is essential.

"Like OXFAM and governments of the world that have unanimously strongly supported the establishment of such an entity, like all these partners, we are keen to ensure a strong mandate for the new entity. As we see it, the new gender entity in the UN will bring together the mandates of the existing entities into o­ne stream, under o­ne leadership, o­ne governance structure, and o­ne roof."

The UNIFEM Deputy Director says UN work advancing gender equality has historically been under-resourced. But he says this will change under the new agency.

"The new entity promises to garner support, political support and financial support from the world community, from governments and hopefully also civil society and the private sector, towards better resources that would be commensurate with the enormous and urgent need for action o­n this front."