FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 8, 2024
From March 11-21 2024, government officials, international policy leaders, and civil society activists will convene in New York for the 68th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68). At the CSW68, Member States will make commitments to accelerate gender equality by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective. Activists and civil society organizations contribute to this process by bringing the demands and needs of women around the world to this international platform and by providing expertise about the most effective solutions to addressing women’s economic justice.
Women’s Learning Partnership, a partnership of autonomous women-led organizations from the Global South, have produced recommendations that provide insight and strategies to reduce poverty among women and girls and advance women’s economic rights. The recommendations align closely with many found in the CSW68 zero draft and provide support and context to enhance policymakers' deliberations at the CSW68.
WLP and our partner organizations call on Member States at the CSW68 to:
- Ensure that equitable laws and policies are in place to protect and promote women’s economic rights.
- Address the challenges of care work and informal labor by implementing policies and programs that recognize, value, and support these contributions, ensuring that women engaged in these sectors have access to social protection, decent working conditions, and opportunities for advancement.
- Identify and reform laws that limit women’s full participation in the economy and their financial rights including gender-discriminatory family laws and codes.
- Advance legislation and policies that protect the land rights of women and their access to decision-making processes concerning land ownership, which is crucial for economic empowerment in rural areas.
- Prioritize the inclusion of women-led civil society organizations (CSOs) in all stages of policy development, implementation, and monitoring related to women's full participation in economic life.
- Address the social and structural inequalities that exacerbate poverty and economic insecurity among women and girls and promote new economic systems that prioritize equality and human rights.
- Allocate funding to programs that integrate economic empowerment initiatives with women's leadership skill-building and capacity development, aiming to foster holistic empowerment among women.
- Finance programs that engage communities to challenge and transform gender-discriminatory socio-economic norms and practices, working towards more inclusive and equitable societies.
- Finance and expand programs led by civil society organizations that promote economic models that support women’s leadership and organizing such as small-business cooperatives and agricultural farming networks.
- Collaborate with women-led organizations to address women's safety concerns in both public and economic sectors, implementing measures to ensure safe and conducive environments for women's participation and advancement.
- Promote gender-responsive programming within governmental institutions at all levels, ensuring that women's expertise is not only recognized but actively integrated into economic empowerment frameworks and decision-making processes.
- Invest in the production, collection and analysis of gender-disaggregated data to inform gender-responsive national budgeting processes, policy-making, and policy implementation and review processes, enabling evidence-based interventions that address gender inequalities effectively.
- Expand the scope of economic measurement beyond GDP to incorporate broader indicators of well-being and societal progress, reflecting the full range of contributions and needs of women and marginalized groups.
- Support meaningful collaborations with women-led civil society organizations to advance gender equality by addressing poverty and the economic rights of women.
- Finance collaborations between women-led civil society organizations (CSOs) and governmental bodies. These funds could be earmarked for projects focused on advancing gender equality, addressing poverty, and promoting the economic rights of women.
- Establish platforms that facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration among CSOs, governmental bodies, and other stakeholders. These platforms could include online forums, workshops, or conferences where organizations can exchange best practices, lessons learned, and resources.
- Allocate resources to support capacity building initiatives for CSOs at both national and international levels. These initiatives could include training programs, workshops, and educational materials focused on understanding human rights instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.
The following organizations contributed to the knowledge production of these recommendations and have endorsed their use by Member States at the 68th Commission on the Status of Women.
All Women's Action Society (AWAM)
Association des Femmes Chefs de Famille (AFCF)
Aurat Foundation
Bir Duino
Center for Advancement of Development Rights (CEADER)
Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação (CEPIA)
Democratic Association of Moroccan Women (ADFM)
Forum for Women in Development (FWID)
Fórum Mulher
Groupe d'Initiatives pour le Progrès Social/West Africa Region (GIPS-WAR)
Kadın Emeğini Değerlendirme Vakfı (KEDV)
Shymkent Women's Resource Center (SWRC)
Solidarity is Global Institute/Jordan (SIGI-J)
Women and Youth Development Institute of Indonesia (WYDII)
Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace (WLP)
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Please direct any queries to:
Tori Pell, Senior Program Associate for Communications and Advocacy
Phone: +1 301-652-2774
Email: tpell[at]learningpartnership.org