From JaniceB@EDC.ORGSat Sep 23 09:29:38 1995
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 95 18:25:58 EST
From: JaniceB@EDC.ORG
Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
To: beij-mod@tristram.edc.org
Subject: Beijing Speech by James Gustave Speth, Administrator, UNDP 

 The following speech can be found on  
 gopher://gopher.undp.org:70/00/undp/adminspeech/admin/950913105500 


> Isn't It Time For a Change?
> - - - - -
>
> - - - - -
> Final Text
> - - - - -
> Address at the Fourth World Conference on Women 
> Beijing, China
> 6 September 1995
> 
> 
> Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues, friends: 
> 
>      What an exciting, hopeful event this is!  What excites us 
> today is the palpable awareness that women have the keys to
> solutions to many of the problems we face. If only the world
> would let women use those keys!  We have the opportunity now -- 
> here in Beijing -- to commit ourselves to the empowerment and to 
> the full equality of women.  Let us not miss this opportunity.
> Life's unfair, we often say, but it is particularly unfair to
> women.  That must end, not "with all deliberate speed," but now. 
> 
>      The discrimination, deprivation and violence that women face 
> -- from their personal lives to the highest reaches of decision- 
> making power -- are all described in a very concrete way in this 
> year's Human Development Report.  The report brought good news -- 
> about the rapid strides being made in women's health and
> education.  But it also revealed that despite this expansion in 
> women's capabilities, the doors to economic and political power 
> are barely open.  The glass ceiling is global.
> 
>      I think we would all agree that today it is a man's world, 
> instead of a women's and man's world.  So the question that I
> would pose to you is, ISN'T IT HIGH TIME FOR A CHANGE? 
> 
>      Women are the primary nurturers of families.  They also
> spend more time than men at work. If their labour were paid or 
> given a proper market value, women would emerge as the major
> breadwinners in most societies.  Indeed, the 1995 report showed 
> that if women's work were properly valued, the statistical
> estimate of world economic production would increase by
> 50 per cent. A third of the world's work is uncompensated women's 
> work. The report also showed that while women are important food 
> producers, in many countries they do not have legal control over 
> the land they farm and receive only a small share of agricultural 
> and other credit.
> 
>      As food producers, water collectors and fuel gatherers,
> women in developing countries are first to feel the effects of
> environmental decline.  Yet women's concerns and knowledge about 
> the environment are too often ignored in designing programmes to 
> reverse these trends.
> 
>      We know that women constitute the majority of refugees, and 
> often suffer most as casualties of war.  Yet in most of the
> world's countries, women are virtually excluded from the lofty 
> realms of political power in which such situations of violence 
> are created. Men -- literally -- call the shots.
> 
>      ISN'T IT HIGH TIME FOR A CHANGE? 
> 
>      The need for change was brought home in the Beijing Express 
> Declaration.  The
> 200 women who travelled on this train from the conflict zones of 
> Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzogovina and Cyprus deplore the
> absence of women in the decisions taken that start and end
> conflicts. Their Declaration urges actions against those who
> commit rape and violate human rights.  The Declaration demands 
> the inclusion of women at the negotiating table and in peace- 
> building missions and all other mechanisms for decision-making 
> which are now male-dominated.
> 
>       As Bella Abzug said yesterday, the present conduct and 
> style of male leaderships has been a disaster.
> 
>      All of us have it within our means to help rectify this
> situation.  And for men who hold the reins of power there is a
> special responsibility.  Parliamentarians and heads of state must 
> seize the opportunity to revise legal codes to give women equal
> protection under the law, and to ratify the 1979 Convention on
> the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The 
> time is now. And the time is now for governments to commit to
> change the fact that only
> 4 per cent of the ambassadors to the United Nations are women. 
> 
>      Will you agree that that should be changed? 
> 
>      Policy-makers must recognize women's contributions to wealth 
> creation and the
> well-being of societies, and ensure full and equal access to 
> resources and opportunities. Specific targets must be set for 
> moving women into positions of decision-making power.
> 
>       We are here in China, and we should take a moment to
> recognize the steps that China has taken to move toward gender 
> equality.  In the Human Development Report, China outperforms 
> many richer countries in the Gender Empowerment Measure. While 
> China ranks
> 111 among countries in the Human Development Index, it is number 
> 23 in gender empowerment.  China proves that a nation's men can 
> share opportunity with women regardless of the amount of wealth 
> to be shared.
> 
>       Development planners and international agencies must work
> to create an enabling environment for equality between the sexes. 
> We must incorporate gender concerns into all policies and
> programmes -- to ensure that men and women have the same chance 
> to participate, and that the needs of both are met.
> 
>       I want especially to speak with you about UNIFEM.  I appeal 
> to delegates to recognize and support the work of the United
> Nations agency that is at the center of the struggle to advance 
> women in development -- the United Nations Development Fund for 
> Women. UNIFEM has proven itself a powerful catalyst for women's 
> opportunities and a formidable advocate for women's empowerment. 
> Paragraph 336 of the draft Plan of Action gives UNIFEM the
> mandate to "increase options and opportunities for women's
> economic and social development."  It also states very clearly
> that "Adequate resources for carrying out its functions should be 
> made available."  I second that motion.  UNIFEM can provide a
> lever to help women lift themselves to their full potential. But 
> the force of that lever is only as strong as the funds provided 
> by governments here assembled.  UNIFEM should double its size,
> and then double it again, if it is going to be the strong arm 
> that the world's women are justly demanding.
> 
>      ISN'T IT TIME FOR THIS CHANGE? 
> 
>      I hope you will respond to this appeal. 
> 
>      We must never forget that for many women it is not only
> economic and political deprivation that affects their lives. For 
> all too many, the most painful devaluation is the physical and
> psychological violence that stalks them from conception to grave. 
> For too many women, life is shadowed by a threat of violence.
> Laws can do little to help these women unless present cultural 
> and social values change.
> 
>      Equality begins at home.  The United Nations Development 
> Programme has instituted a policy of affirmative action to
> achieve gender equality among UNDP's professional staff.  We have 
> set a target to fill nearly 40 per cent of our professional posts 
> with women by the end of 1997.  And we have made gender equality 
> and the advancement of women one of our four main programme goals 
> in the 175 countries we serve.  I commit UNDP to building
> partnerships between women and men by "engendering" our 
> programmes.  And I make this pledge: To the extent that 
> governments make commitments to gender equality in their
> countries, UNDP will make special efforts to support them, in
> drafting agendas, setting timetables and creating programmes to 
> benefit women and build women-men partnerships.
> 
>      I do not want to understate the enormity of the challenge.
> Understanding the complex set of relationships and attitudes that 
> make up the universe of gender relations, and which vary
> enormously from culture to culture, is no easy task. And then 
> acting upon this understanding is another matter altogether.
> Eliminating gender disparities is a deep, system-wide problem and 
> needs a system-wide response.  But it must be done.   As Devaki
> Jain said yesterday, a revolution in gender equality requires a 
> fundamental change in consciousness.
> 
>      In closing, I would like to draw your attention to UNDP's 
> "Poverty Clock" that came alive at the Social Summit in
> Copenhagen and which is now ticking away at Huairou. From the 
> moment the clock was first activated on 3 March, until the
> opening of the NGO Forum here in Beijing on 30 August, over 12 
> million babies have been born into poverty -- into families
> living on less than one US dollar a day.  Many of them are girls, 
> who will grow up more disadvantaged than their brothers, simply
> because they were born female.  It is important to remember that 
> of the 1.3 billion people living in abject poverty, 70 per cent 
> are women. Poverty increasingly has a woman's face. UNDP's
> overriding priority is the Copenhagen objective of poverty
> elimination. Women must therefore be at the center of all our 
> work.
> 
>      At the Social Summit last March I addressed equity and the 
> emerging two-class world society of "haves" and "have-nots."
> Today, at Beijing, it is time to recognize that the most
> persistent disparity has been that between the sexes.  Without
> true and equal partnerships between men and women -- without the 
> talents, energy and aspirations of ALL OF US -- our common home 
> can never flourish.  My friends and colleagues, no society can
> realize its potential while repressing the talents of half its 
> people.
> 
>        CLEARLY, IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE. 
> 
> 
>