UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment established in Moldova

Chisinau, December 5, 2012 – The first meeting of the newly established Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) was held. Members representing the civil society networks and women’s groups as well as gender advocates came together to launch the platform for strengthening dialogue and cooperation of UN Women in Moldova with civil society organizations.

UN Women Strategic Plan provides foundation for UN Women to further strengthen dialogue and cooperation with civil society organizations (CSOs) at global and local levels, including by establishing a civil society advisory groups at the global, national and regional levels.

In Moldova UN Women has a strong and vibrant relationship with civil society organizations across the country through its various programme interventions. Recognizing the vital role that civil society organizations, in particular women’s organizations, play in promoting women’s rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women the UN Women launched the idea of establishing Civil Society Advisory Group in Moldova to create a space for continued dialogue and to continue the existing practice of effective consultation with civil society organizations to ensure their meaningful contribution to the work of the new entity.

The process of selection of 11 members of the CSAG was highly transparent and participatory. Thus, six members were nominated by the largest and most representative civil society networks – National Participation Council and the Council of NGOs. The other 5 members were selected by UN Women through an open competition announced in national, regional and local newspapers and electronic media. The members of the CSAG have a strong combined expertise and wealth of practical experience with policy development, women’s rights advocacy, gender equality legislation drafting, capacity development in such areas as economic empowerment, elimination of violence against women, political participation etc.

During the first meeting, the CSAG members were introduced to the UN Women mandate, goals and objectives, its governance, core principles, opportunities for partners as well as the challenges, the entity faces. Also, the members discussed the current and planned UN Women programmes and initiatives and the view of CSAG members and their respective networks on them.

A significant part of the meeting discussion was devoted to the roles, responsibilities and obligations of the CSAG members. The members took their members role responsibly and came up with a set of concrete recommendations for ensuring effective CSAG work in future. Also, a number of proposals for increased visibility and outreach of UN Women and its CSAG were made, including usage of social nets, e-platforms etc.

Another important discussion, which took place during the meeting, was on the Post-2015 development framework. The CSAG member appreciated the open and inclusive consultative process launched by the UN System at global and country levels. They underlined the importance of the UN Women efforts in ensuring that gender equality advocates, experts and practitioners of Moldova receive opportunity to influence the development framework from the earliest stages of the process and provide a set of recommendations on gender equality and women’s rights.

It was agreed to arrange next CSAG meeting in January 2013.

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