On the status of the Pacific Regional Office of UN Women, and non-renewal of contract of incumbent UN Women Pacific Office Regional Programme Director, Ms. Elizabeth Cox
To: Ms. Michelle Bachelet, Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)
Cc: Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships, UN Women; John Hendra, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy and Programme, UN Women
Dear Ms Bachelet,
We are writing to you as participants of the recent Pacific Gender, Economic & Environment Justice (GEEJ) Workshop. This consultation* in September 2010 in Suva, Fiji brought together representatives from Pacific governments, regional institutions and civil society, including young and local women advocates, researchers, academics and social/media commentators. It was jointly convened by Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), with the support of the UN Women Pacific Office and Global Fund for Women.
We are extremely concerned to hear that there are plans for non-renewal of the contract of incumbent UN Women Regional Programme Director (RPD), Ms. Elizabeth Cox and further that there may be plans to downgrade the level of UN Women presence in the Pacific, including perhaps the appointment of an Officer in Charge (OIC) rather than a RPD from May 2011.
We are writing to firstly express our utmost confidence in Elizabeth Cox, to acknowledge both her remarkable leadership as Regional Programme Director of UN Women and her invaluable contribution to generally advancing gender equality and human rights work in the Pacific, and to urge your office to renew her contract as UN Women Pacific Regional Programme Director.
We also bring to your attention the importance of UN Women in the region at this particular time and call for increased resources and visible support for the work of the UN Women Pacific Office. We urge that, at the very minimum, the UN Women regional mechanism retains the current level of on-the-ground presence in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa and Kiribati and the Northern Pacific and that consideration be given to expanding its presence, to cover other Pacific Island states.
At our recent consultation on Gender, Economic and Ecological Justice (GEEJ) in the Pacific region in September 2010, the UN Women Pacific team assisted organisers of this regional consultation bringing together key regional government policymakers, regional institutions and civil society to strengthen and deepen urgent inter-linkage work relying on the leadership of global South women in regionalized and South-South processes of development debates and alternative policies. The UN Women Pacific Office was fully engaged during the development process and staff helped in strategic and practical ways throughout the regional consultation and training institute. They were key partners in its success. This was just one visible example of the involvement and effectiveness of the UN Women Pacific office under the leadership of Elizabeth Cox.
Since she became Regional Progamme Director in 2006, Elizabeth Cox has brought her keen understanding of the region, her long years of grassroots experience and her skills in conceptualising results-oriented programmes to the position to build UNIFEM Pacific into an office that was fulfilling its mandate under the UNIFEM Strategic Plan (2008-2011) and is now poised to fulfil the new mandate of UN Women. She has transformed a formerly ineffectual UNIFEM regional office into a credible office that works to support advocacy for gender equality and women’s rights in the region through innovative programme interventions, that has overseen the development and implementation of a now well-known and widely accessed EVAW Facility Fund, and that is represented at all strategic engagements in the region involving governments, donors and civil society organizations.
At this time of multiple and interlinked crises, an active women’s movement in the Pacific is critical to ensuring that development and human rights are prioritised in regional government responses to crises. Under Elizabeth Cox’s leadership the UN Women Pacific office has played an important role in both supporting women’s advocacy and bringing together diverse actors in different arenas. We are determined that this should continue.
There are many visible programmatic gains and these will no doubt be reflected in further letters from the region. What is absolutely clear to all signatories here is that the leadership of Elizabeth Cox in the period between 2006 and 2011 has been effective, transparent, ethical and stable and has allowed the women’s movement here to function in the face of major regional and global civil and political, economic, social and cultural challenges –in a way that has not been previously possible.
There is a growing consensus in the region that we require equal and differentiated attention from UN Women work in Asia, and we are concerned that this has not been adequately demonstrated under the leadership of the current Asia-Pacific office. If there are to be any criticisms as to Pacific deliverables, the focus should begin in an examination of structural issues linking the Asia-Pacific and Pacific offices to the management set-up of the previous UNIFEM-NY Head Office, not with the UN Women Pacific office that has increased effective implementation and representation of Pacific women’s issues despite a clear lack of support and resources from the wider regional office.
In line with the key priority areas of work for UN Women** we specifically request the following. In relation to:
1) Expansion of women’s voice, leadership and participation: A full review of the UN Women leadership in the Asia-Pacific office to ensure that sub-regions such as the Pacific are fully reflected in all programmatic design and development, and that the views of Pacific governments, institutions and civil society (and in particular national and regional women’s civil society networks) be included in such assessment; Also increased recognition and support for the existing UN Women Pacific office programme on Gender Equality in Political Governance which is active now in most countries in the region including at the highest levels of government in PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and with extensive civil society participation;
2) Ending violence against women: Increased recognition and support for the work of the Pacific Islands Forum Reference Group to Address Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), the Pacific Women’s Network to End Violence against Women, and recognition of the contributions of UN Women Pacific to their work and to the UN Women Pacific Facility Fund to End Violence against Women;
3) Enhancing women’s economic empowerment; Increased recognition and support for UN Women Pacific regional work including extensive participatory research on women and the informal economy, and an innovative project on rural women and markets in PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji;
4) Ensuring gender priorities are reflected in national plans and budgets, including capacity to support CEDAW reporting: Increased recognition and support of UN Women Pacific’s key input into CEDAW implementation and reporting support alongside partners such as Pacific governments, regional institutions such as the Regional Rights Resource Team at the Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC), and with key national women’s rights NGOs and networks.
The signatories of this letter express the hope that the momentum that is steadily building in the Pacific region on work to address interlinkages between gender, economic and ecological justice and rights can continue to call on the valuable support of a strengthened UN Women, and in particular the UN Women Pacific Office, under the continuing leadership of Elizabeth Cox.
Signed:
Claire Slatter,
Board Chair,
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN),
Fiji
Kairangi Samuela,
Manager,
Cook Islands Women’s Counselling Centre,
Cook Islands
Maureen Penjueli
Coordinator
Pacific Network on Globalisation
Suva, Fiji
Rosa Koian,
Bismarck Ramu Group,
Madang,
Papua New Guinea
Ender Naomi Rence,
Minana Communication Officer,
Honiara, Solomon Islands
Peni Moore
WAC Creative Director,
Women’s Action for Change (WAC),
Suva, Fiji
Dr Yvonne Underhill-Sem,
Director, Centre for Development Studies, University of Auckland,
Past Regional Co-ordinator (Pacific) for DAWN (1998-2008),
Cook Islands/ New Zealand.
Lice Cokanasiga,
Campaign Assistant,
Pacific Network on Globalisation
Suva, Fiji
Michelle Kopi,
Postgraduate Student,
University of Bradford, UK
Papua New Guinea
Professor Vijay Naidu
Director, Development Studies
Head, School of Government, Development and International Affairs (SGDIA)
Faculty of Business and Economics
University of the South Pacific,
Suva, Fiji
Noelene Nabulivou,
Management Collective Member,
Women’s Action for Change (WAC), Fiji.
Also, DAWN Associate – GEEJ/Rio+20
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
Fiji/Australia
*Participants were from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Tonga, Australia and New Zealand and they worked with feminist facilitators from the economic south including Fiji/Rotuma, Cook Islands/NZ, Madagascar, India and the Philippines.
**Speech delivered by Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet during the UN Women Launch Celebration held in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters on 24 February 2011.
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ADDITIONAL SIGNATORIES
James Zamora
Muslim Xtian and Indigenous Peoples Alliance
Cotabato Mindanao Philippines
Support group to the GRP MNLF Peace Process
Dr. Thanh-Dam Truong
Women/Gender and Development Studies
International Institute of Social Studies
Erasmus University of Rotterdam
Roshni Sami
Board Member
Fiji Women’s Rights Movement
Fiji
Kris Prasad
President
Drodrolagi Movement
Fiji
Sima Chand
Management Collective Member
Women’s Action for Change (WAC)
Fiji
Arietta Tuitoga
Women’s Project Officer
Rainbow Women’s Network
Fiji
Cynara Teresa Mackenzie
Fiji
Professor Shirley Randell AO, PhD, FACE, FAIM, FAICD
Director, Centre for Gender, Culture and Development
Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) Rwanda
Consuelo Prado
University Autonoma of Madrid
Robyn Slarke,
Current Donald Groom Fellow
Past Dunlop Asia Fellow
Foundation Manager & Former Executive Director
Magabala Books, First Aboriginal Publishing House
Dianne Goodwillie
Consultant and Former Canada Fund Co-ordinator
Queensland
Ruth Lechte
Retired Pacific Area Director of Energy and Environment
Co-ordinator, World YWCA
Barry Coates
Executive Director
Oxfam New Zealand
Ms Jean Kekedo CSM, OBE
Women’s Right Advocate
Papua New Guinea
Jaclyn Louise Bonnici
Aotearoa New Zealand
Dr. Betty McLellan
Chairperson
Queensland Women’s Health Network
Australia
Ms Savina Nongebatu
Solomon Islands
Ms IIlisapeci Namuaira-Juita
Lautoka, Fiji
SOQOSOQO VAKAMARAMA NI YASANA O BA
SSV Ba is an arm of the Ba Provincial Council to handle and address all women-issues of the Province of Ba. It concerns itself in empowering the iTaukei women of Ba economically, socially, politically and technologically.
Rogorogoivuda House
Lautoka
Fiji
Alison Aggarwal
Australia
Liane Timmermann
Organizer
MillionWomenRiseCymru
UK/Wales
For more information please contact: Noelene Nabulivou, Email: noelenen@gmail.com