Advancing Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women: Role of Development Cooperation – DCF Policy Dialogue

Given the centrality of women as critical drivers of development, the DCF Vienna Policy Dialogue discussed how to firmly anchor gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls and the protection of their rights in the changing landscape of international development cooperation and in the evolving post-2015 UN development agenda.

Organized by UNDESA, in partnership with UN Women and the Government of Austria, the Vienna Policy Dialogue on 13 and 14 December 2012 brought together senior representatives, experts from national and local governments, civil society organizations, parliaments, women’s organizations and the private sector with representatives of international organizations to develop concrete policy recommendations to advance gender equality and the empow erment of women in response to the profound shifts in international development cooperation. 

The Vienna Policy Dialogue is the first in a series of consultations in preparation of the 2014 DCF.  The DCF is the principal multi-stakeholder platform for global dialogue and policy aimed at reviewing trends and progress in international development cooperation.  It provides policy guidance and recommendations to promote more effective and coherent international development cooperation.

Programme

Background documentation

• Background Note
• Overview of Global Processes to Inform the DCF Vienna Policy Dialogue
• Aide Memoire
• Closing press release
• ECOSOC News Alert - At policy discussion, UN official highlights need for more effort to achieve gender equality
• Summary
• Primer 12: The United Nations Development Cooperation Forum Through a Women’s Rights Lens

Statements

Official Opening 

• Hon. Barbara Prammer, President of the Austrian National Council
• H.E. Luis Alfonso de Alba, Vice President of the Economic and Social Council
• Wu Hongbo, Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, UNDESA

  Vienna Policy Dialogue: purpose and expectations

• Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, UNWOMEN (video message)
• H.E. Michael Linhart, Director-General for Development Cooperation, Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Austria

  Special address

• Wendy Harcourt, Senior Lecturer, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam

  Closing Statements

• Irene Dubel, Senior Advisor on Women’s Rights, HIVOS
• H.E. Michael Linhart, Director-General for Development Cooperation, Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Austria
• H.E. Luis Alfonso de Alba, Vice President of the Economic and Social Council
• Wu Hongbo, Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, UNDESA

Presentations

SESSION 1: Development cooperation and gender equality: achieving MDGs and translating gender equality commitments into national policies, practices and systems

• Mary-Anne Addo, Director, External Resources Mobilization Multilateral, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ghana
• Shailaja Chandra, former first Executive Director of the National Population Stabilization Fund, India

SESSION 3: Development partnerships for gender equality: How can actors be more accountable for gender-specific development impact?

Dialogue 3: Transparency for gender equality: The effectiveness of information systems measuring aid that targets gender equality

• Daša Šilović, Senior Advisor on Development Cooperation, UNDP [this is the AIMS slides]

SESSION 4: Gender-sensitive development cooperation hands-on: The success of gender-responsive planning and budgeting

• Gerhard Steger, Director General of the Budget Directorate, Ministry of Finance, Austria
• Krishna Hari Baskota, Secretary, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Nepal