Background

 The 2002 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Coolum, Australia, also called for further efforts by governments and the Secretariat to put gender mainstreaming at the centre of all policy and programme initiatives in four priority areas of HIV/AIDS; gender and macro-economic policies, including issues of trade and globalisation; women's human rights including violence against women; and participation in conflict resolution, peace-building and decision-making.

UN Member States in 1995 agreed to "assess regularly further implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action with a view to bringing together all parties involved in 2005 to assess progress and consider new initiatives, as appropriate, ten years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action". A similar recommendation on the monitoring of the 1995 Commonwealth PoA was called for from Commonwealth governments. Three biennial progress reports on implementation of the PoA in the Commonwealth were presented to Heads of Government in 1999, 2001 and 2003 respectively.  The analysis after four years of implementation of the Update to the PoA (2000-2005) reconfirms that the principles of the 1995 PoA are still valid but that there should be greater focus on gender and development policies and an increased rate of implementation at the national and regional levels. In this respect, a Preparatory Meeting of Heads of Commonwealth National Women's Machineries (NMWs) was held on March 1-2 March 2003 in New York, in the wings of the 47^th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Governments recommended that, based on a review of progress and emerging challenges, a new Plan of Action (2005-2015) for the Commonwealth needs to be developed to provide a guiding framework for member governments and the Secretariat, civil society and development partners for the next decade, in tandem with the global UN Beijing Review +10 process. The main recommendations called for improved dialogue with member countries, civil society organisations, and other development partners. The Commonwealth needs to concentrate on improving implementation, building capacity, and increasing the results and impacts of gender mainstreaming at national and regional levels.

Commonwealth governments have agreed that a coherent multi-stakeholder strategy, as called for in the gender mainstreaming approach, is necessary in order to sustain a fairer, people-centred development. The Commonwealth is committed to the gender mainstreaming approach and has developed the Gender Management System (GMS)as a practical and coherent framework for applications at national, local government, and regional institutional levels. 

During this reporting period which spans 2002-2003, a new Division - the Social Transformation Programmes Division (STPD)- was established by merging the Gender, Education and Health Sections of the Commonwealth Secretariat. This was in response to the need for the Secretariat to deepen the advancement of gender equality within the Commonwealth as well as cope with a series of emerging and complex issues like political stability, peace and conflict, trade and debt relief, HIV/AIDS as well as a more 'comprehensive' approach to international development, and broad-based participation between government, business and civil society.

The Secretariat's Gender Programme centres on the empowerment of women in the Commonwealth by eliminating discrimination, promoting equal opportunities for women, and building consensus that gender equality is essential to poverty eradication and sustainable development. This calls for a need to work with governments to put in place new initiatives that seek to reinforce the coalition of efforts and partnerships for sustainable development. Across the Commonwealth, a multi-stakeholder approach can provide for a cost-effective, knowledge-based framework for advocacy and action, training and capacity-building.

A Commonwealth Women's/Gender Ministers Reference Book is being published in 2004, to allow a comprehensive one-stop document that will bring together member countries' progress, good practices and challenges on consensus-building relating to gender equality and mainstreaming in the member countries of the Commonwealth. The monitoring and reporting processes and output documents are central to the accountability and transparency process for the Commonwealth.

Annual consultations of Commonwealth Heads of NWMs, preceding the United Nations Session on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), were held in March 2003 and February 2004. These annual consultations will feed into high-level Commonwealth decision-making fora such as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGMs) and Ministerial Meetings (e.g. 7^th Commonwealth Women's Ministers Meeting, and Commonwealth Finance Ministers' Meetings held each year prior to the World Bank/IMF consultations), as well as the United Nations global conferences and programmes, and the Beijing+10 national, regional and global preparatory processes. These allowed for cost-effective dialogue and cross-fertilisation between governments in the Commonwealth and United Nations systems and other key partners, including civil society and regional organisations.   A Commonwealth Gender Reference Group - a representational body of key policy-makers, practitioners and experts from all regions - was established in March 2003. This new consultative mechanism will enable a more coherent focus on the specificities in countries and greater implementation of the PoA in areas of democracy and conflict transformation; human rights and HIV/AIDS; women's social and economic empowerment; and civil society partnerships. Building on the cost-effectiveness of the Knowledge-Based Network (KBN) programme through the Commonwealth Gender website - with an annual reach of 8 million per annum in the Commonwealth and beyond - will be essential to ensure that a 'Commonwealth voice' and leadership in the area of gender equality development, and democracy will be enhanced in the next decade