I am quite honored and happy to be with you today as we begin the week that ends with IWD, the

theme of which this year is Equality for women is progress for all. It is a week and indeed a month when we come together in solidarity to affirm our achievements in eliminating discrimination and advancing the empowerment of women. On this day, we remember that our work is at the very heart of aspirations which are captured in the Charter of the United Nations which speaks to faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women. The world is changing. Definitely so! Today looking online on the IWD website, the banner Discover BPs feminine side! And as you know, this month CSW will be focusing on an assessment of the MDGs. There is therefore a great deal of consensus that the MDGs, whatever their merits of specificity and measurability, represent a failure of ambition, indeed, even an acceptance of status quo of inequality. How else will future generations understand a threshold of $1 a day in a commoditized world dominated by markets? The MDGs have been roundly critiqued for their minimalism. For women, they were a letdown from ICPD and from the Beijing Platform for Action, a document which withstands the passage of 19 years, reading so fresh and relevant in it comprehensive reflections and recommendations, a manifesto for global transformation. The BPfA is a remarkable document in its insights and recommendations. It challenges the status quo of intersecting inequalities and the macro-economic, political and cultural structures and processes that perpetuate, indeed thrive on those inequalities. The document is both highly practical and pointedly strategic. It takes on both

gender-specific issues as well as whole-of-society issues, recognizing that there is no business that is not womens business. The framers of the BPfA expressed their conviction that economic development, social development and environmental protection were interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development, all necessary to achieve a higher quality of life for all people. The perniciousness of inequalities is the thread that runs through the BPfA, inequalities between women and men and between and within states. Indeed, it is also recognized in the Millennium Declaration. And it is for these reasons that the MDGs felt like a step downward, if not backward for womens organisations. The MDGs did not address the transformation of harmful gender stereotypes They did not speak to the global scourge of violence against women They did not reflect that some macroeconomic frameworks maintain and exacerbate inequalities The discussions and discourse surrounding the MDGs did not address how inequalities are linked to the exploitation of labour They did not address the extreme depletion of natural resources for the purposes of consumption-led capital accumulation MDG roll-out was accompanied by the initiation of multi-lateral and bi-lateral free trade negotiations. Even as the development community was speaking to development aid and fair trade principles, small and under-developed countries found themselves locked in power asymmetries at the bargaining table in which they felt forced to make concessions on mechanisms for revenue generation, in the name of removal of tariff barriers and were unable to protect nascent local industries under the guise of open competition. Others were forced to give up preferential access to markets even while bigger countries continued to subsidize its agriculture industries.

And so many states found themselves more impoverished as revenue streams dried up with the decline of local industry and reduction in direct taxation revenues. Indirect taxation through consumption taxes, otherwise called intriguingly, valueadded tax were levied across the board increasing the tax burden on the poor and middle classes. Everywhere, there is an acknowledgement that whatever are the laudable achievements of the MDGs at the aggregate level, everywhere, everywhere inequalities increased as the global macroeconomic processes led not to competition but perhaps to monopolization. The informal economy grew and with that an enlarged swathe of people outside of social protection systems, the low decline in unionization, in which in any event women have been underrepresented. And so we get the depressing statistics that globally 1% of the population on and control 20% of the worlds resources; that 30% of the world control 70% of the resources. The richest 85 people in the world own the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the worlds population

Yet the MDGs if fully implemented would have and still can dramatically transform the life of the many. For example, reducing maternal and infant mortality can only result from an extensive commitment to universal primary health care. Similarly, achievements in educational enrolment with an equal focus on quality will increase livelihood options, release the creative imagination of the young and deepen citizen engagement with the state. Access to potable water and sanitation decreases the incidence of disease, reduces the time burden especially for women who still carry the burden of reproductive care and is essential for increasing productivity. Unfortunately, the progress on the MDGs has been uneven and also unequally experienced. While the Asia-Pacific region as a whole has moved forward, particularly in reducing levels of the most extreme poverty in some countries, it is off track when it comes to hunger, health and sanitation.

The region must still address poverty and inequality: The number of people living below $2 a day is a staggering 1.64 billion. Eighteen percent of people living in South Asia are undernourished. Income inequalities are evident between urban and rural areas, between women and men, and among different caste, ethnicity and language groups. 60% are in vulnerable jobs, in the informal sector, working on their own or contributing to family work, without adequate systems of social protection, and poorly compensated- the phenomenon of the always-working poor. Generating decent and productive employment remains a priority. But for sure, across the region, achievements in gender equality are evident. Normative standard setting has been followed by the adoption of laws and gender strategies and policies. Within the inter-governmental processes, a commitment to gender equality programming is widely expressed. The ACWC adopted a Declaration on EVAW in 2013, the Gender Equality Declaration was adopted by PIF in in 2012, along with a Pacific Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. And as a result of the implementation of these commitments we have seen the elimination of most forms of direct discrimination, equal access to education at all levels and in increased labour force participation across a wider range of occupations. Maternal mortality has decreased in most countries but remains alarmingly high in some. Still, there persists an abiding bias against women rooted in ideology, as culture and religious fundamentalisms are deployed as justifications for harmful or restrictive gender stereotypes and roles. Pre-natal sex selection and early child marriage are examples of expressions of persistent discriminatory and harmful practices. Too many women in all countries are denied value, voice, choice and safety in the private and public spheres. Fewer women than men are in paid work in every country in the region. Women still earn only 54 to 90 per cent of what men earn. All of this also limits womens access to assets and resources such as land, technology and credit.

With an Asia Pacific average of 18%, womens participation in political decision making remains low, whether in executive or parliamentary leadership or in political parties. VAW is widespread across Asia and the Pacific, with between 26-80% of everpartnered men reporting perpetration of physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. Cultural acceptance of GBV, inadequate resources for a multi-sectoral response and enforcement of existing laws and policies result in impunity for perpetrators and compromises womens access to justice. Ending discrimination is further complicated by plural legal systems. The co-existence of customary and/or religious laws can negate or limit constitutional nondiscriminatory guarantees particularly in the areas of family and inheritance. And so here we are once again, 19 years after BPfA, 14 years after the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs, in a period characterized by such an explosion of economic growth in some countries based on extreme extraction of natural resources and exploitation of cheap labour, by recession in others, by deepening environmental crises that threaten the planets very existence and the yawning gap of income inequalities. Recently, the head of the IMF spoke to this issue in London. Reflecting on Oxfam statistics that the richest 85 people in the world own the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the worlds population, Lagarde acknowledged that severely skewed income distribution harms the pace and sustainability of growth over the longer term. It leads to an economy of exclusion, and a wasteland of discarded potential. Lagarde makes some policy prescriptions much as we all would: more progressive taxation, improving access to health and education, and putting in place effective and targeted social programs. This is not neutral, win-win policy space. Such policies she acknowledges are hard to design and because they create winners and losers, they create resistance and require courage.

In AP region because of the multiple levels of engagement and advocacy, there is now a consensus on the need to hold states accountable for redressing inequalities. In consultations in AP 2012 and 20131, the centrality of ending gender inequality has been repeatedly reaffirmed because gender inequality is: i) universal; ii) crosscutting, that is to say it coexists with and compounds other inequalities; and iii) experienced in both the public and the private spheres. This clarity has already influenced the Post 2015 agenda and we can say that a consensus has crystallized on the need for a stand-alone goal and also for gender mainstreaming across all goals. The High level Panel speaks in the language of big transformative shifts: Leaving no one behind Putting sustainable development at the core Transforming economies for jobs and inclusive growth; and Building peace and effective, open and accountable institutions for all. Forging global partnerships Connection to Advocacy: This consensus has been expressed in the High Level Panel Report in its call for a gender equality goal. In making that recommendation, the panel was informed by advocacy by CSOs everywhere including here in the AP region where in at least 3 consultations convened by APFFD and UN agencies string calls were made for reinforced attention to GEEW. In Bali at a meeting attended by Parliamentarians and civil society leaders from 25 countries, the meeting agreed that: The post 2015 agenda must include a stand-alone goal on gender equality and womens rights to ensure the expansion of womens, participation, choices and capabilities, which also recognises that multiple inequalities increase womens experiences of marginalization, insecurity and gender-based violence. All other goals must have sex disaggregated targets and indicators.

See for example: Outcome Statement from womens and civil society networks and organizations present at the Regional Dialogue on Sustainable Development and the Post-2015 Development Agenda: DAWN/UN Women 3-5 November 2012. Also Bali Declaration by Parliamentarians and Civil Society on the MDG Acceleration and the Post 2015 Development Agenda. 26 March, 2013

Similarly at the 12th Triennial Ministerial Meeting of Ministers for Womens Affairs, that meeting called for the Post-2015 development agenda to adopt a transformative stand-alone goal to achieve gender equality, womens rights and womens empowerment, structured around several target areas: freedom from violence, gender equality in capabilities and resources, gender equality in decisionmaking power, and a voice in public and private institutions. In addition, the Triennial Conference called for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) to be guaranteed and for legislative reform to eliminate discriminatory laws and harmful practices that criminalise or impede access to abortion, emergency contraception and HIV/AIDS services. Just recently at the 8th Session of the OWG meeting, Argentina speaking on behalf of 40 states stated that Achieving gender equality and advancing the human rights of women, girls and all young people, especially those living in poverty or otherwise excluded and marginalized must be prioritized and the systematic inequities they and other groups face worldwide addressed. At the conclusion of that 8th Session, gender equality was affirmed as an end itself and as a means for sustainable development and poverty eradication. And so whilst we know that the MDGs specificity on GEEW will be maintained and strengthened, what is less clear at this moment, what is still to be decided is the content of that goal. In the HLPR, the Panel speaks to ending violence against women and girls, ending child marriage, ensuring equal right of women to own and inherit property, sign a contract, register a business and open a bank account; and eliminating discrimination against women in political, economic, and public life. That report also spoke to universal access to reproductive health and rights. In our consultations with women globally, they tell us that women need voice, choice and safety. We need international and national commitment to ensure that women participate in decision-making in the public sphere but also in the private sector and in the context of the household, to influence allocations of resources, power and authority. Women need more choice through enhanced capabilities through education, decent work, and access to productive resources, land, credit, reproductive health services, and social protection. Finally, violence against women is

a constraining factor against the lives of all women and girls and we need to eliminate this to ensure their safety. We know whats required. We approach this moment knowing that this is a time for bold vision and activism, knowing that there has never been a time such as now where we have reached the limits of the planetary boundaries of resources. We understand how despite our efforts, unequal power relations continue to oppress women and girls and certainly also harm men and boys. But addressing these oppressions requires us to think in profoundly integrated ways and to act in partnership and solidarity for the common good, in the interests of the collective. We must discuss how a certain kind of capital accumulation is predicated on extreme exploitation of labour (and is a cause of inequalities) and also on the reliance and under-valuing of womens unpaid labors in the reproductive and productive spheres. We have to understand how the state can be rendered incapacitated to play its role as redistributor, as provider of social protection, as regulator of the financial and productive sectors. We have to understand how militarism deflects resources and attention from peace building; how trade in arms and small arms fractures societies almost beyond repair to the benefit of a few. We have to understand how violence against women is a feature of patriarchy and that we cannot just respond with services for survivors or with improvements in the justice sector. We need to transform culture of inequality. The post-2015 agenda needs to speak directly to the imperative of structural change. And we need to close the implementation gap with political will, allocation of adequate resources and strengthening of institutions to support gender

mainstreaming. We need accountability to secure the transformation to the lives of women and girls, especially the excluded and marginalized, across their diversities. But let us not be nave and acknowledge that there is resistance. Power does not give up without a fight. And unlike Martin Luther King, I am not so sure that the moral arc bends towards justice. Rather it is our persistence in the three As- advocacy, activism and accountability, that will take us towards social justice. We can anticipate continued articulation of cultural specificity and respect for traditions as a counter to universality of human rights. We can expect push back on womens autonomy and decision-making in reproductive matters. We can expect arguments on a limited role of the state in securing universal access to health, a fair market and decent working conditions. We can expect intransigence to proposals for quotas to enhance womens inclusion in political and security processes, dressed up as arguments for meritocracy. The work of advancing gender equality is a work essentially about confronting and disrupting power relationships where womens worth and work is devalued. And those power relationships exclude womens voice, participation and influence in the private and public spheres. This is all contested terrain. But as we all know, change comes with the three As and women matter to public policy. Listen to Christine Lagarde this weekend calling for a new multi-lateralism: enabling women to participate on an equal footing with mencan be a global economic game changer. We must let women succeed: for ourselves and for all the little girlsand boysof the future. It will be their world let us give it to them.2 Concrete work: Asking the rights questions Supporting and centering the institutional mechanisms
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A New Multilateralism for the 21 Century: the Richard Dimbleby Lecture By Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund London, February 3, 2014

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 Inclusive of civil society organisations, including trade unions Accounting for results We need to really reaffirm that in the words of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, A sustainable world that is without poverty depends on gender equality. And we need to hold ourselves, those of us in the public international development cooperation realms accountable for supporting polices that advance this agenda. Roberta Clarke 3 March 2014