Inputs from UNIFEM CEDAW South East Asia Program

Dear Colleagues,

I am the Philippine national coordinator of the UNIFEM CEDAW South East Asia Program since 2004 and recently took on the role of Managing Agent, in behalf of UNIFEM, of the UN Joint Programme to Facilitate the CEDAW Concluding Comments in the Philippines. This is a most recent  initiative of the UN in the Philippines  that  directly responds to the concerns raised by the treating monitoring body of  the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

1  CEDAW in the Philippines

1.1 The Philippines ratified the CEDAW Convention in 1981 and its Optional Protocol in 2003.  The government rendered its 5th and 6th Combined Progress Report to CEDAW in August 2006.  The CEDAW Concluding Comments urged the Philippine government to enact laws that define and eliminate gender discrimination. It enjoined government executives to include provisions to support women's human rights in national and local plans, budgets, programs and services, monitoring systems and reports.  It recommended priority action on violence against women, trafficking in women and protection of migrant women workers. It advised on accelerating women's equal political participation through temporary special measures and enhancing women's access to sexual and reproductive health services, especially among the indigenous, rural, Muslim women.  

1.2 UNIFEM, through its CEDAW South East Asia Program, initiated the awareness-raising campaign on CEDAW and supported the technical preparation of the government report and the NGO shadow report.  The UNCT also responded to the guidelines on the submission of a confidential report  to CEDAW and given only two weeks' notice, submitted for the first time its own report.   The technical work for the UNCT report was prepared by the UN-Gender Mainstreaming Committee, a  dynamic technical working group composed of gender focal persons from various UN agencies and led by UNICEF during the inception of the joint programme.     

2  UN Joint Programme on CEDAW Concluding Comments

2.1 The UN Joint Program to Facilitate the Implementation of the CEDAW Concluding Comments is a three- year comprehensive program that runs from 2007 to 2009. It is supported by pooled fund contributions from  UNDP, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNFPA and UN-Habitat.   It aims to enhance the capacities of selected national stakeholders in implementing the 2006 Concluding Comments of the CEDAW Committee in the areas of (a) policy advocacy for the enactment of  laws and policies that comply with CEDAW, (b) monitoring policy and program implementation at the national and local level to inform policy advocacy, (c) sectoral and local application of CEDAW to the rights of indigenous women; and (d) mainstreaming gender and human rights in UN agencies and programs.  It hopes to catalyze positive progress in women's human rights that will be reflected in the Philippine reports on the Millennium Development Goals, on the Beijing Platform of Action and in the 7th and 8th Philippine periodic report to CEDAW due in September 2010. 

2.2 The lead implementing partner for this joint program is the national women's machinery, the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, which will co-implement the program with partners from women NGOs;  sectoral women's groups from the indigenous, rural and Muslim women; and women's studies and research centers in the academe. 

2.3 Another interesting component of the program is the coaching and mentoring the UN program staff on mainstreaming gender and development (GAD) and human rights (HR) in development programming. This  will include the conduct of GAD and HR audit of UN organizations and selected projects. 

3  Initial Challenges and Lessons  

3.1 There is a need to invest in continuing human rights education and dialogue among UN program staff and heads of agencies. The joint programme on CEDAW may not have been hatched if it were not for a series of meetings and education sessions steered by the UN - Gender Mainstreaming Committee.   This process is continued by raising the gender bench mark through the conduct of GAD/ HR audit of UN programs and agencies.

3.2 There is a need for top-level GAD champions among the heads of  UN agencies.   In the present case of the Philippines, UNIFEM is not yet a resident agency and has only small project office.  Fortunately,  the UNICEF Country Representative  who chaired the gender working group, helped steer the agenda of the UNCT in favor of establishing the joint programme on CEDAW. 

3.3 The experience of preparing the UNCT confidential report to CEDAW helped heighten awareness on CEDAW and women's rights issues and built inter-agency ownership of the Concluding Comments.  However, It would have been better if the reporting guidelines were sent much ahead of time  to allow consultations among UN agencies to distill data and share analysis of priority issues to highlight in the report.   

3.4 While the mantra of `One UN' is invoked, the administrative process of joint programming is complicated and difficult. A `Harmonized Approach to Cash Tranfer' (HACT) approach is the required administrative process at the country level even if not all UN agencies at the HQ have been `HACT-ed'.   Hence the contracting process and implementation at the country  is slowed down as the UN agencies are still sorting out their systems and getting their acts fully together.

Luz Lopez Rodriguez

National Coordinator for the Philippines

UNIFEM -CEDAW South East Asia Program
Telefax: (632) 426-3772