by Andreas S. von Warburg
United Nations Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon released today his report to the General Assembly on the improvement of the status of women in the United Nations System, including latest statistics, progress made and obstacles encountered in achieving gender balance, as well as recommendations for accelerating progress.
In the report, the Secretary-General stressed that the pace of progress towards the goal of gender parity has been slow, even marginal, and added that the regrettable trend must be addressed with urgency.
He did, however, underline that in spite of the marginal progress, the issue of gender balance in the UN system has gained prominence since the last reporting period. This, together with an increased awareness of the absence of even suboptimal progress since the previous reporting period, has contributed significantly to this renewed interest which has the potential of instigating concrete advance in a stagnant situation.
The report shows that in the UN system, the representation of women in the Professional and higher categories increased negligibly from 36.9 percent to 38.4 percent between December 2004 and December 2007 – an annual average increase of only 0.5 percent.
In the Secretariat, the percentage of women staff in the Professional and higher categories showed a meager improvement of 0.2 percent during the two-year period 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2008, increasing from 37.4 to 37.6 percent.
The report includes information on the representation of women in organizations and agencies of the UN system from January 1 2005 to December 31 2007, and the UN Secretariat from 1 July 2006 to June 30, 2008.
Stressing that efforts must be made to overcome the UN system’s informal organizational cultures which constrain the advancement of women staff, the Secretary-General reiterated his commitment to achieving gender parity in the Secretariat.
For more on the subject, please visit the following links:
- Film documentary “Why is Kofi Annan not a woman?”
- The Pink Book on the status of women diplomat at the United Nations
To download the report of the Secretary-General, please click here.
1 Response to “Slow progress for women in the United Nations system”