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News Archive


Consultation of Commonwealth National Women’s Mach
Released: 5 Mar 2009
An annual Consultation of Commonwealth National Women’s Machineries (NWMs) is held prior to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW).
Actions that result in stability must be pursued, Lamy tells agriculture conference
Released: 4 Mar 2009
Analysts differ in their view of whether commodity prices will rise or fall, but either way a Doha Round deal in agriculture would help stabilize the world economy and supply food to where it is needed,WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said on 4 March 2009
Financial crisis threatens legal protection for the poor
Released: 4 Mar 2009
Bangkok - The economic crisis will increase the demand for justice among the poor, especially to protect their property, jobs, working conditions and their right to do business without extortion, according to economists and development experts taking part in a regional UN Development Programme meeting here this week.
Global Compact and UNIFEM to Address Role of Business in Empowerment of Women
Released: 4 Mar 2009
New York — On 5 March, the United Nations Global Compact and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) will convene Advancing Women in the Global Marketplace, a consultation to explore the role of business in improving the status of women around the world.
The fifty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women will be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 2 to 13 March 2009
Released: 5 Mar 2009
Priority theme: The Commission on the Status of Women will consider the theme: “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS” at its 53rd session.
5 March 2009: Mainstreaming gender in trade policy, UNCTAD
Released: 5 Mar 2009
Gender inequalities undermine people´s well-being, diminish prospects for economic growth and make economies less efficient. Gender equality is a legitimate goal in itself, as better opportunities for women lead to improvements in human development.
Potential ODA crisis calls for bold new thinking, says UNCTAD
Released: 11 Mar 2009
If past experience is anything to go by, today’s financial crisis will deal a hard blow to official development assistance flows. It could take ODA years to recover, dampening prospects for achieving the MDGs by 2015.
Trade Finance: Make it work for women says WTO Deputy Director-General Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza
Released: 10 Mar 2009
Deputy Director-General Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza said in a press statement on 10 March 2009 that “women urgently need a gender-specific component built into responses to the international financial crisis to ensure they are not further left out of the shrinking credit pool”.
UNDP report outlines protection policies for countries receiving and sending migrant women
Released: 9 Mar 2009
In the midst of the global economic crisis, with rates of unemployment multiplying on a daily basis, the situation of migrant workers is under threat. When demand for labour wanes, those in the weakest bargaining position, usually temporary migrant workers and particularly the undocumented, will accept almost any conditions to hold on to their jobs.
Message from Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma on International Women’s Day 2009
Released: 8 Mar 2009
International Women’s Day celebrates its 99th birthday in 2009, while the Modern Commonwealth celebrates its 60th. Yet Women’s Day on 8th March and Commonwealth Day on 9th March honour the themes of time immemorial, and both are intrinsically linked.
A Call to Action: Accountability to Women in All Aspects of Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Recovery by the Executive Director UNIFEM
Released: 7 Mar 2009
Occasion: International Colloquium on Women's Empowerment, Leadership, Security, Monrovia, Liberia I am honoured to be here today, together with so many champions of women's rights in conflict. I know you will all have good ideas about how to accelerate the implementation of Security Council resolutions 1325 and 1820. My remarks today will therefore be brief.
Kenya’s Maasai women artisans eye global market
Released: 6 Mar 2009
Members of the Namayiana Women Group gather under an acacia tree beside their small storehouse. The women, from a Maasai community in the Rift Valley province of Kenya, chat and laugh together as they sew beads on leather bracelets and wire ornaments.
ILO celebration of International Women's Day 2009
Released: 6 Mar 2009
Each year the ILO celebrates International Women’s Day with an event honoring women of courage and conviction, from different aspects of the world of work.
Message of The Secretary-General UNESCAP on International Women’s Day 2009
Released: 6 Mar 2009
One year ago, I launched a campaign calling on people and governments the world over to unite to end violence against women and girls. The campaign will run through 2015, the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
ILO warns economic crisis could generate up to 22 million more unemployed women in 2009, jeopardize equality gains at work and at home
Released: 5 Mar 2009
GENEVA (ILO News) – The economic crisis is expected to increase the number of unemployed women by up to 22 million in 2009, the International Labour Office (ILO) says in its annual Global Employment Trends for Women report (GET) (Note 1), released here today, adding that the global jobs crisis is expected to worsen sharply with the deepening of the recession in 2009
Pacific island countries and UN discuss maintaining development amid global crisis
Released: 13 Mar 2009
Bangkok (UN/ESCAP Information Services) – What are the effects of the current economic crisis on Pacific Island States? How will that impinge on their efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? These are the focuses of an international conference being held 16-20 March 2009 on Denarau Island, Fiji.
More measures needed to realise the rights of women: Secretary-General
Released: 13 Mar 2009
Kamalesh Sharma urges governments to strengthen commitments to eliminate gender-based discrimination
WTO - Committee focuses on monitoring agriculture commitments
Released: 12 Mar 2009
EU and US domestic support featured among delegations’ questions in a 12 March 2009 committee meeting devoted almost entirely to monitoring how WTO members are implementing their present commitments in agriculture.
Credit crunch deepens the hunger crisis
Released: 16 Mar 2009
The UK is contributing almost an extra £1m to tackling global hunger as fears rise that the economic downturn will leave many millions more of the world’s poorest people without enough to eat, International Development Minister Ivan Lewis announced today.
Women’s empowerment gains must be protected
Released: 18 Mar 2009
Bangkok (UN Information Services) – Though women have contributed significantly to the Asia-Pacific region’s economy, they have born a larger brunt of the economic downturn with unemployment and underemployment rising. As a result, it is crucial to protect the gains made in empowering women and to include a stronger focus on gender investment in any planned response to the economic crisis.
Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network to come into force in June 2009
Released: 18 Mar 2009
BANGKOK (UN/ESCAP Information Services) – The Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network will come into force on 11 June 2009 with China becoming the eighth country approving the Agreement.
US$18 million to fund UN forestry programme combating climate change
Released: 18 Mar 2009
Nairobi - A United Nations programme aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from forests and boosting livelihoods in tropical nations has approved $18 million in support of five pilot countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
UNCTAD launched the report “The Global Economic Crisis: Systemic Failures and Multilateral Remedies"
Released: 19 Mar 2009
The Report has been prepared by the UNCTAD interdivisional Task Force on Systemic Issues and Economic Cooperation set up by the UNCTAD Secretary General in late 2008. It provides a sober analysis of the reasons of the global economic crisis.
WTO sees 9% global trade decline in 2009 as recession strikes
Released: 23 Mar 2009
The collapse in global demand brought on by the biggest economic downturn in decades will drive exports down by roughly 9% in volume terms in 2009, the biggest such contraction since the Second World War, WTO economists forecast today (25 March 2009). “Trade can be a potent tool in lifting the world from these economic doldrums.
UN’s Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific Analyses Threat of Triple Crises to the Region
Released: 26 Mar 2009
Bangkok (UN/ESCAP Information Services) – While most governments are focused on dealing with the worst economic crisis in many decades, two other longer term crises should not be forgotten. Food-fuel price volatility and climate change are converging with the present economic crisis to create what is now being referred to as the triple threat. With almost two thirds of the world’s poor and half of its natural disasters, Asia and the Pacific is at the epicentre of the triple crises.
ILO Governing Body concludes discussions on policy responses to global economic and jobs crisis
Released: 27 Mar 2009
GENEVA (ILO News) – The International Labour Office (ILO) Governing Body concluded its discussions on the financial and economic global crisis, recommending a series of measures aimed at mitigating its impact and shaping a sustainable recovery.
Call for employment and social policies to drive growth and recovery
Released: 30 Mar 2009
ROME (ILO News) – At a special G8+6 Social Summit, International Labour Organization Director-General Juan Somavia called for new employment and social protection policies to drive economic growth and a recovery from the global economic crisis.
UNDP calls on G-20 Leaders to curb a full-fledged human development crisis
Released: 30 Mar 2009
New York – The current global economic crisis, which began with the severe strains on the financial and banking system in parts of the developed world, now risks triggering a human development catastrophe in the world’s poorest countries.
IPC One Pager: Confronting Crises: Learning From Labour Markets in the Past
Released: 30 Mar 2009