Section Two
The Five-year Review of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing +5): Assessing the Global Agenda for Gender Equality

Setting a Women's Agenda at the Global Level

The UN Fourth World Conference on Women, held in 1995 in Beijing, produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Many consider this to be a far-reaching document that is a blueprint for how to achieve gender equality and the advancement of women. All sectors of society-governments, NGOs, and various bodies of the United Nations system-came together to forge this agenda for gender equality, development and peace. Indeed, the Beijing conference offered extensive opportunities for broad-based participation, and women's organizations of all forms responded--to significant effect. The question now is how to continue the process of achieving gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century, and to ensure that the blueprint to which 185 governments of the world agreed is put into action. It is precisely this question that the five-year review seeks to address.

The Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) was built upon work that had been accomplished over twenty years, through a series of earlier world conferences on women: 1975 (Mexico City), 1980 (Copenhagen), and 1985 (Nairobi). These conferences were important mobilizing and awareness-raising events and culminated in the adoption of a consensus document, the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women (NFLS), which contains a comprehensive set of strategies for advancing the status of women worldwide. The FWCW, in 1995, was organized to assess progress and challenges faced in trying to implement the NFLS. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (PFA) was the result.

In addition to setting a global agenda for the advancement of women, these conferences made women more aware of the valuable opportunities for organizing locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally, and for influencing policy-making. On the one hand, participation in these conferences enabled women to have greater contact and communication with their own governments. On the other hand, it also brought women's organizations into greater conversation with each other-across issue areas and geographic regions. Throughout this process, national, regional and global networks focusing on a wide variety of concerns have been generated and sustained.

Why Participate in Beijing +5?

Many women's organizations and advocates--whether working locally, nationally, or internationally--assume that most UN meetings and their agendas have little direct relevance to their work. What impact will debates at a UN session on population issues or human rights have on the mobilizing, training, or advocacy work that is taking place in the areas in which your organization is working?

The Beijing +5 process will provide information on how governments and other actors have fulfilled the commitments they made in Beijing. The information generated through the five-year review process should improve the basis upon which future priorities for action are articulated by the global community--regionally and nationally.

There are a number of key opportunities to be gained by participating in the five-year review process:

Networking
The preparatory meetings, and the Special Session itself, provide opportunities for both government representatives and NGOs to share experiences about the achievements and challenges in devising gender equality policies and programs. The process offers an opportunity to learn about what organizations from a wide range of countries and with diverse concerns are doing to advance gender equality, how they are doing this, what works and what does not, as well as to build on-going contacts and communication.

Women's groups can benefit in a variety of ways from international solidarity and from building regional, multinational, and multicultural alliances. When women from different countries in the same region meet at a five-year review event, there is an opportunity to build a regional women's agenda. There are also opportunities to form international networks and alliances, which can become powerful sources of support and advocacy across borders. Today, there are a growing number of transnational efforts that link local and national concerns to global endeavors. Increasing access to information and communications technology through e-mail and the Internet can help to facilitate communications and collaboration.

Information and Communications
The Beijing +5 process provides an opportunity to explore the vast array of information available on the status of women and gender equality throughout the world. The information being collected as part of the review (by governments and NGOs alike) will help raise the visibility of a wide range of issues related to women's experiences in the effort to achieve gender equality.

The review also provides an occasion for developing a common body of information. The preparatory process and the Special Session call for the collection and analysis of information about the status of women in Member States and the UN itself, based on the commitments made in the PFA. NGOs can engage in dialogue with governments about this infor-mation--both in gathering accurate information and in assessing the implications of the data.

Moreover, the review will help to identify critical resources. The preparation of reports about implementation of commitments can help pinpoint where resources are being directed, how effectively resources are used, and where the resources allocated to particular issues are inadequate or ineffective. The process may also help in determining where and how additional resources may be made available and used most effectively.

Advocacy
Most of the countries in the world are members ('Member States') of the United Nations. These Member States make decisions and adopt resolutions at international meetings that carry implications and commitments for follow-up action in their own countries. The reports that your government prepares for the five-year reviews of UN world conferences and the commitments that your country's delegation makes are tools that can be used for national- and local-level organizing efforts. For example, community groups can advocate at the local and national levels for the implementation of the strategic objectives and actions in the twelve critical areas of concern in the PFA (see page 16 for the twelve areas). They can also call upon governments to fulfill the obligations they take on by adopting conventions and treaties. For instance, after a government signs the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), community groups can hold their governments responsible for ratifying and implementing the terms of the agreement.

The input of people working at the local level on specific issues ensures that UN debates reflect the realities that communities throughout the world are facing. The five-year review of a UN world conference is a chance for governments--and NGOs--to identify the areas in which progress has been made, and where there is potential for broader and deeper impact. It is also a time to address the areas that have been neglected or for which the current policies and programs are inadequate or ineffective.

In other words, the review is an opportunity for a wide range of sectors of society to participate in global agenda-setting. The Special Session calls not only for a review of implementation of the commitments already made, but also for a discussion of good practices in achieving the goals of the PFA. The Beijing +5 process will result in recommendations for overcoming obstacles and advancing the agenda for gender. A growing range of sources for gathering and sharing information, strategies and priorities is available through electronic communications networks, as in the case of WomenAction 2000 (see Annex Three).

Media attention
The Special Session calls for high-level participation of representatives of Member States. Such high-level participation often generates considerable media attention, particularly at the national and local levels. Engaging in this process may allow women's rights advocates to gain greater access to local, national and international media to present their views.

How Will Your Organization Participate in the Five-Year Review?

There are a number of choices to make about the kinds of activities to become involved in during Beijing +5. Based on experiences of other reviews, some choices about how you focus your activities for the meeting might include:

Assessing government accountability
To what extent have governments taken the steps they agreed to take? What are the good practices, gaps in implementation and lessons learned?

Working on national and alternative reports
Governments have been asked to prepare national reports about their implementation of the PFA and to respond to a questionnaire sent out by the UN Secretariat regarding implementation. As of early December 1999, 131 Member States and two Observer States had replied to these questionnaires. NGOs can prepare their own 'alternative' reports about government implementation of the PFA. The replies to the questionnaire will be available on-line in early 2000 (see Annex One).

Advocating for creation or implementation of national plans of action
The PFA called on govermnents to prepare national plans of action for implementing the PFA. As of October 1000, 115 Member States and two Observer States had submitted National Plans of Actin to the Secretariat.

Establishing processes for efffective review and assessment of the implemenetation of the PFA
Lessons learned from completed conference review processes reflect disappointment with: implementation at the national level; resource commitments at the international level; and the process of the review itself.