National Coalition to End Child Marriage
End Gender-Violence Zonta Says NO!
US Women at the UN
From the report introduction: the Secretary-General commissioned an assessment of “the benefits of a merger between the United Nations Population Fund and UN-Women and their respective mandates to create a unified voice and platform on gender equality and women’s rights”. This assessment responds to a structural challenge, not an institutional performance gap. Both entities continue to deliver important results within their respective mandates.
Perspectives on the Merger:
“The truth about overlaps
Only 20 to 30 percent of the work between the two agencies overlaps, according to Fòs Feminista. UN Women leads efforts holding governments and UN agencies accountable to international gender commitments, while UNFPA delivers large-scale reproductive health services, population data and humanitarian aid in 150-plus countries.
Gender equality, sexual reproductive health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — the latter a focus for both agencies — have become contentious in the Security Council and across UN organs as the United States dissociates itself from these agendas in many ways, like repeatedly denouncing the SDGs.”
“Susana Malcorra, a former top UN official who is a founder of GWLVoices, which is holding a “dialogue” this week in Madrid on women leading the UN in the 21st century, said of the merger discussions: “It is a decision that is not easy to make and must be taken with the preservation of institutional mandates as a priority, while seeking opportunities to optimize resources.”
The merger may mean we “get the worst of both worlds,” Helen Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand and ex-head of the UN Development Program, told PassBlue regarding the two agencies.”
Fòs Feminista, an advocacy organization, said in its recent analysis on the merger that it would weaken the institutional ability to promote women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, dilute gender equality mandates and dismantle relevant infrastructure built in the last 30 years.
According to the group, the merger “would be felt most acutely at the national level, where governments, civil society organizations, and millions of women and girls depend on the technical support, operational infrastructure, and normative leadership these agencies provide.”
Similar considerations surfaced during recent closed-door meetings between UN Secretariat officials tasked with reform and the respective executive boards of UN Women and UNFPA. Recordings of the gatherings reviewed by PassBlue show board members repeatedly requesting data, legal analysis and clear alternatives to support the claimed benefits of a merger. One diplomat requested specific numbers, while another top donor questioned whether the union could really help solve the UN’s financial problem.
“The approach followed by LEAD+, the consulting firm assessing the potential UNFPA and UNWomen merger, appears to use a typical evaluation method. It maps out specific questions to evaluate whether a merger can enhance the impact, relevance, coherence, efficiency, and credibility of the UN’s work on gender equality. Many of these questions are framed around concerns raised by several member states and civil society groups. They worry that a merger would dilute the mandates of both UNWomen and UNFPA, making it a target for greater contestation by stakeholders opposed to gender equality or reproductive rights (see PassBlue’s recent summary of these concerns). While this approach seems reasonable, the preliminary conclusions reached are somewhat unsatisfactory.
The assessment finds that a merger will result in a stronger, more unified voice on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health. This could unlock a ‘seamless value chain’ of impact, from global standards to tangible change in communities. It may also provide greater resilience in protecting hard-won norms against backlash related to gender equality.”
-Source:Katja Hemmerich https://www.reformworks.org/post/un80-insights-assessing-the-value-of-a-merger-of-unfpa-unwomen
“IPPF is alarmed that the proposal not only fails to fulfil the imperative of the UN80 reform, but that it would have detrimental impacts on the UN’s work on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights and human rights for all. We are deeply concerned that institutional consolidation will dilute normative authority, disrupt operational infrastructure, and weaken the UN’s ability to translate global commitments into national action — at precisely the moment these commitments face intensified challenges. This proposed merger is not an abstract exercise – it is about peoples’ lives and the UN’s continued relevance for those it exists to serve: women, girls, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, LGBTQI+ and other marginalised and underserved communities. “
source: https://www.ippf.org/news/ippfs-response-unfpa-un-women-merger-assessment
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