A Global and Regional Summary of Gender Equality in the Post 2015 Agenda

1. Gender Equalityand the Post-2015Development Agenda A Global and Regional Summary of Gender Equality in the Post 2015 Agenda

2. Global and Regional Consultations on Post 2015 and Gender Equality • Advocacy within the UN System – members of a number of task teams and UN bodies established to discuss Post 2015, SIDS and SDGs; • Co-lead, with UNICEF, the Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities – with support by Governments of Denmark and Ghana • UNDG LAC Inter-agency Gender Group – technical guidance on mainstreaming GE in Post 2015 agenda – shared with all UNCTs;

3. Global and Regional Consultations on Post 2015 and Gender Equality • UNDG LAC Interagency Gender Group – Virtual consultation on regional priorities for inclusion in the Post 2015 agenda (see report); • Supporting CSO inclusion in consultations, including within the LAC regional consultation in Guadalajara (ECLAC and Gov of Mexico); • UN Women Regional CSAG – Subgroup on Post 2015

4. Post 2015 Consultations – Results of Country Consultations in the Caribbean • Equal pay for equal work for women and men; • Freedom from discrimination based on race, gender, social class, age, religion, disability, residence • Increase awareness of the vulnerabilities faced by various groups to violent criminal activities such as child abuse, trafficking in persons and gender based violence • Reducing discriminatory practices which disadvantage women in the workplace whether in the private sector, government or non-governmental organisations, including: including provision of child care facilities and consideration of ‘flexi-time’ arrangements

5. Post 2015 Consultations – Results of Country Consultations in the Caribbean • Increase women’s access to employment through: education, improved self-esteem, affordable transportation, job safety and security, addressing constraints of shift system in tourism sector, improve wages and address pay discrimination, advocate increased sharing of family responsibilities with men (caring for children) • Reduce women’s economic dependency on men • Accept gender as a cross cutting area for development • Remove buggery as a criminal offense • Prevent discrimination against sexual minorities (LGBT)

6. Post 2015 Consultations – Results of Country Consultations in the Caribbean • Increase access to quality education for girls and boys, including those with disabilities, paying particular attention to the completion of their secondary education, ending discrimination in access to education for teen mothers and increasing children’s access to viable, non-formal education opportunities • Eliminate gender-based violence and support this as a stand-alone sustainable development goal • Ensure equal access for boys and girls to unbiased, age-appropriate, culturally sensitive sexual and reproductive health information and services • Protect the human rights of all girls and boys, especially from all forms of child abuse and violence • Ensure comprehensive, gender-sensitive parenting education and support programmes.

7. Post 2015 Consultations – Results of Country Consultations in the Caribbean • Planning [should be] specific to men and women’s needs • Paternity leave to be given as much consideration as maternity leave • Social Safety Nets/Social protection: review policy and programs so that they are gender sensitive and include specific allowances for marginalized groups • Allowances should be made for breastfeeding during work hours • Men are not provided sufficient/quality time at maternity wards • There is no pension for domestic workers (women dominate this occupational area) and other informal sectors within the economy • Address lack of government pension scheme as most public officers are females • Re-socialization of individuals, especially men as it relates to matriarchal and patriarchal roles • Examine and revise the judicial system, ensuring that women are not disadvantaged under the law

8. Why A Stand Alone Goal on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights and Empowerment? UN Women’s Position Paper on a Stand Alone Goal for Gender Equality within the Post 2015 Agenda

9. Why A Stand Alone Goal on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights and Empowerment? • Gender-based discrimination was recognized in the Millennium Declaration as a significant factor undermining progress in many contexts. • MDG3 saw important progress – gender parity in education – but the Goal did not explicitly address the need for transformation in gender relations. • Such as - violence against women and girls; gender-based wage discrimination, women’s disproportionate share of unpaid care work, women’s limited asset and property ownership, and unequal participation in public and private decision-making. • Gender based inequality affects a larger proportion of the world’s population than any other form of inequality; • Gender based discrimination creates inequalities among women and men, varying according to class, income, location, race, ethnicity, sexuality, age and disability among other factors;

10. Why A Stand Alone Goal on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights and Empowerment? (continued) • Poverty reduction and economic growth alone cannot bring about gender equality; • GBV cuts across age, race, culture, wealth and geography affects the productive capacities, well being and quality of life of women. Children and families. • Women often receive less pay than their male counterparts for the same work • Countries with small gender gaps are the same with the highest ratings for ‘international competitiveness’ • Half of the women in the labour force are in vulnerable employment, with no job security and no protection against economic shocks • Women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable employment, with rates from 32% to 85% globally versus 55% to 70% for men

11. Why A Stand Alone Goal on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights and Empowerment? (continued) • A significant body of research indicates that gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment can have a catalytic effect on the achievement of sustained peace, development, human rights and sound relationships between the environment and human populations. • Progress on other MDGs has been contingent on achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls: gender inequalities have held back progress on the other MDGs on reducing poverty and hunger, education, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, and promoting environmental sustainability. • Efforts to achieve broader development goals will not succeed in promoting gender equality and women’s rights without dedicated commitment and resources. Therefore achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is an unfinished agenda and requires a comprehensive and transformative approach and recognition as a stand-alone goal in the new development framework.

12. A Stand Alone Goal on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights and Empowerment The concept and proposed focus of a Stand Alone Goal is grounded in several human rights commitments including: • The Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) • The Programme of Action of the 1994 Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) • The Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 and the resulting Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and • The Outcome document of Rio+20

13. Component Areas of the Stand Alone Goal Based on global realities, UN Women’s Position Paper articulates 3 target areas for gender equality and women’s empowerment: • Freedom from violence for girls and women • Gender equality in capabilities and resources • Gender equality in decision making power in public and private institutions

14. Results of the Caribbean Forum on Gender Equality in the Post 2015 and SIDS • Barbados – August 2013 (Just Prior to Inter-Regional SIDS) - High Level Government Officials and Civil Society Representatives from CARICOM countries, with inputs from regional inter-governmental bodies and international partners in the Caribbean. • Generated a Joint Statement: The Statement represents Caribbean voices and expectations in the emerging Post 2015 and SIDS global agendas as it relates to gender equality. • In adopting the Joint Statement, participants committed to an advocacy strategy so as to ensure that the “asks”, priorities and perspective contained in the Joint Statement are considered by decision-makers within the emerging global processes around Post 2015 and SIDS. • Forum Participants endorsed the need for a stand-alone goal on Gender Equality in the Post 2015 Agenda, as well as mainstreaming of gender equalitypriorities throughout Post 2015 and SIDS.

15. Joint Statement – a Summary “The emerging global development frameworks must address the structural foundations of gender-based inequality, including the recognition that inequalities are a consequence of the unequal relations of power. We are therefore asking that the global Post 2015 and SIDS frameworks take into consideration the social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities of SIDS, and the resulting challenges for sustainable, human rights-based and gender responsive development” (Preamble of Caribbean Joint Statement)

16. Joint Statement – Freedom From Violence • Freedom from violence is an inalienable human right, requiring full state action; accountability and support of non-state actors to expand advocacy, prevention and responses to violence; • VAWG is endemic and gender based; and that violence against women and girls because they are women and girls is unacceptable; • Response – shared responsibility among the state, individuals, families and communities; • Address root causes of violence, including how women and men, boys and girls are differently affected by violence; • Ensure that all measures are in place to protect vulnerable groups from all forms of violence; • Address the vulnerability of small island states to transnational crime, including the drug trade and trade in small arms, by strengthening international and national treaties.

17. Joint Statement – Accessing Capabilities • EDUCATION • Develop critical thinking skills, -traditional cultural norms reinforce inequality and limit capabilities and access to resources; • Development of self-esteem and confidence, autonomy, agency, leadership skills; • Facilitate the development and implementation of public education programmes that promote gender equality, respect for human rights and a culture of peace; • Provide comprehensive sexuality education that is age appropriate, gender responsive and life-skills based; • Ensure that sociopolitical and economic factors that negatively impact boys’ participation in formal education systems are addressed, and that formal certification carries equal social and economic value for both sexes.

18. Joint Statement – Accessing Capabilities HEALTH • Increasedaccess to mental health services; • Provision of affordable, integrated SRH services, and HIV prevention, treatment, care and support; • Prioritisation of the prevention of chronic non-communicable disease; • Recognition of gender-based violence (GBV) as a public health issue; • Development of comprehensive health literacy programmes -community led initiatives for healthy lifestyles; • Reduction of maternal mortality & morbidity; • Full implementation of the Montevideo Consensus adopted in August of this year -

19. Joint Statement – Accessing Capabilities Food and Nutrition • Prioritize domestic and regional agriculture and trade; • Address inequitable access to land, water, technology and markets that inhibits women’s and youth’s involvement in agriculture; • Encourage and facilitate dialogue and measures between government and the private sector for food production, and widespread distribution of locally produced agricultural and agro-processed goods; • Provide for gender sensitive public education and action on food and nutrition, to transform consumption practices.

20. Joint Statement – Economic Empowerment • Macro-economic reforms - burden of poverty including adolescent mothers, FHH, persons with disabilities, the elderly, indigenous peoples, domestic workers and rural women; • Labourreforms in the formal sector, prioritizing living wages and state health and pension plans; • Gender responsive economic policies and practices -support for the integration of women in non-traditional sectors, including through training in environmentally sustainable technologies; • Financing and investment opportunities to develop women’s and girls’ entrepreneurship;

21. Joint Statement – Economic Empowerment • Improvement of women’s resilience to economic challenges, natural hazards and climate change; • Preservation and valuation of traditional knowledge and technologies, ownership of lands and cultural assets and the protection of intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples and rural women; • Access to a non-restrictive aid framework; • Strengthened partnerships, ensuring that no one is left behind as a result of enforced fiscal policies.

22. Joint Statement – Leadership • National implementation of international commitments and regional Conventions, treaties and agreements ratified by member states; • Encourage and enable a critical mass of gender sensitive transformational leaders ; • Strengthen women’s collective action; • Correct inequalities resulting in women's under representation on national State Boards and appoint more women to serve as Heads of diplomatic Missions in the UN, regional and international organisations; • Encourage and enable youth participation – curriculum; • Mobilize political parties to transform to gender-friendly practice and support, incentive-based accountability systems, gender parity practices which ensure equal representation of men and women within their structures; • and ensure the appointment of Caribbean people by UN international and regional organisations, to perform the functions of elections monitors in the Caribbean region; • Implement the CEDAW call for temporary special measures to ensure gender equality in leadership and decision-making; and, • Enable the emergence of a critical mass of women, to become corporate leaders,