Gender Parity in UNDP
Promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women has been at the heart of the UNDP advocacy and programme interventions for many years. Helping countries develop policies that would ensure equal opportunities for women and men and provide them with mechanisms for attaining equality as a fundamental human right is an intrinsic part of our efforts to advance sustainable human development and reduce poverty. But how are we, as an organization, doing in terms of implementing ourselves what we urge the people of the world to act upon?
I am happy to say that over the last years, UNDP has made significant progress in making sure that women and men are equally represented in the organization and enjoy equal opportunities in terms of career growth, professional and personal development. More and more talented women join the UNDP team every year and stay in the organization providing great contribution to the achievement of our common goals. The number of women continuously have grown in all staff categories, including - which is particularly important - in the management positions. Noteworthy is the fact that the number of women at the Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) level has recently increased from two to five thereby constituting a majority.
Despite obvious successes as mentioned above, we still have a long way to go. For UNDP to achieve full parity among women and men and retain the best and brightest of them, we should explore new and innovative ways in which we can support our staff in pursuing successful careers and maintaining healthy personal lives. Experience confirms that it is not enough to develop right policies. We have many of them and more will be put in place in the near future. Creating functional and effective mechanisms for actual implementation of these policies, their consistent application, and regular analysis of root causes of inequality combined with fostering an effective change in behaviors and attitudes of staff at all levels is a much greater challenge. This should become the key focus of our efforts in the years to come and I am fully committed to it, as the Director of the UNDP Bureau of Management.
The present report on Gender Parity in UNDP takes us a step closer towards our objectives. It does not only provide a comprehensive account of the UNDP approach to ensuring gender equality among its staff, it sets forth a number of useful and very practical recommendations, which I am sure will help us ensure that UNDP is a truly people-oriented organization which values diversity, equality, creativity and talent.