Denmark, Ireland and Norway
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
OWG 10: Denmark, Norway, Ireland
Check against delivery
• Our troika supports both a stand-alone goal and the effective integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment across goals, targets and indicators. We recall the recent agreement on this at the CSW.
• All goals should support full enjoyment of all human rights for all women and girls, men and boys and recognise the need for gender-specific targets, as well as disagregation by gender across all areas relevant for human development –
• We would greatly welcome a stronger integration of gender across all goals in the next draft.
• The Post 2015 framework must be fully aligned with the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination of Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action.
• Gender equality is an important driver of poverty eradication. This potential can only be realised if progress on gender equality is achieved also for poor women. This means that progress under a gender equality goal and against gender targets under other goals must be monitored and measured in ways that disaggregate and prioritise impacts for the poorest women and communities.
In relation to Focus area 5:
• We welcome the main areas currently listed in this section, while noting that goals relating to equality of access should be integrated across all other relevant goals, including for example in the area of education, economic growth and climate change among others. A truly inclusive framework should encourage and measure equality of progress for women and girls, and men and boys, in each goal area.
• A standalone goal on gender must drive transformative actions, addressing structural impediments for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• The goal must drive the elimination of violence and of harmful practices like child, early and forced marriages, FGM and honor crimes against girls and women in all its forms
• Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights is critical. This includes access to contraception, access to post-abortion care, comprehensive sexuality education, skilled birth attendance, post-natal care and prevention and treatment of STDs, including HIV/AIDS.
• There is a need to include references to the importance of equality in leadership as well as participation in decision making at all levels, in both public and private spheres, including the household level.
• Equal access to and control over productive assets and resources, including natural resource management and access is critical and should be reflected here and throughout the framework.
• We must reduce the burden of and promote equal sharing of unpaid care work.
Focus area 3: Health and population
We support an ambitious goal and set of targets on Health.
The areas listed under Focus area 3 cover many of the key aspects that should be addressed in a health goal, including those needed to ambitiously address areas covered by the current health-MDGs.
We would like to highlight five issues in particular that should be taken forward as possible targets:
• First, we must eliminate preventable child and maternal deaths. (e)
• Second, and closely linked to the first: We must ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights; (k)
• Third, we must ambitiously prevent and treat communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; (g and h)
• Fourth, we must prevent and treat non-communicable diseases(NCDs) (i)
• Fifth, and closely related to the fourth, we must tackle environmental causes of disease, in particular air pollution, as well as exposure to harmful substances. A WHO report released last week showed that air pollution – indoor and outdoor – is the largest single environmental health risk, causing one in eight of total global deaths. A specific target to address this should be considered.
We must also ambitiously prevent and treat malnutrition
Universal Health Coverage will be important to adress within the new framework. Further development of concepts to include UHC is needed.
Health is closely linked to a number of other Focus areas. We must further explore how to reflect the cross cutting social, economic and environmental determinants of health within the SDG framework.
Focus area 4: Education
We welcome the text regarding education, which overall reflects many of the important aspects that should be addressed in a future goal on education. In particular, we welcome that Focus area 4 stresses the right to education .
We would like to highlight a number of issues and suggest some additions, which we propose be taken forward as possible target areas:
• universal, free primary and secondary quality education for girls and boys;
• ensure equitable access to education at all levels with focus on the most marginalized, including indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, persons living in rural areas, migrants, and children in conflict and humanitarian situations;
• achieving high completion rates at all levels of education for both girls and boys;
• providing universal early childhood care and education;
• ensuring effective learning outcomes at all levels, and imparting knowledge and skills that match the demands of the labour market and address youth unemployment, including through vocational training and skills development for youth.
• universal adult literacy and lifelong learning opportunities for all;
• integrating sustainable development in education curricula.
Focus area 11: Employment and decent work for all
Employment and decent work is key to poverty eradication and social inclusion and should be reflected in the SDG-framework.
The text includes many action areas of importance to poverty eradication and sustainable development and we would like to highlight just a number of important points.
Firstly, we welcome
- the focus on macroeconomic policy in promoting full employment.
- The emphasis on the participation of youth and women in the labour force and the importance of eliminating discrimination.
- the inclusion of social security and protection, as recognized in the human rights conventions. Effective social protection offers a powerful means to address inequalities.
- The emphasis on the rights of workers, which we believe should include all workers.
Secondly, we would like to encourage the co-chairs to include:
- the quality of jobs in rural and urban areas, and ensure safe and secure working environments including occupational safety and health..
- the creation of decent green jobs through a proactive approach to environmental challenges.
OWG 10: Denmark, Norway, Ireland
Check against delivery
• Our troika supports both a stand-alone goal and the effective integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment across goals, targets and indicators. We recall the recent agreement on this at the CSW.
• All goals should support full enjoyment of all human rights for all women and girls, men and boys and recognise the need for gender-specific targets, as well as disagregation by gender across all areas relevant for human development –
• We would greatly welcome a stronger integration of gender across all goals in the next draft.
• The Post 2015 framework must be fully aligned with the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination of Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action.
• Gender equality is an important driver of poverty eradication. This potential can only be realised if progress on gender equality is achieved also for poor women. This means that progress under a gender equality goal and against gender targets under other goals must be monitored and measured in ways that disaggregate and prioritise impacts for the poorest women and communities.
In relation to Focus area 5:
• We welcome the main areas currently listed in this section, while noting that goals relating to equality of access should be integrated across all other relevant goals, including for example in the area of education, economic growth and climate change among others. A truly inclusive framework should encourage and measure equality of progress for women and girls, and men and boys, in each goal area.
• A standalone goal on gender must drive transformative actions, addressing structural impediments for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• The goal must drive the elimination of violence and of harmful practices like child, early and forced marriages, FGM and honor crimes against girls and women in all its forms
• Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights is critical. This includes access to contraception, access to post-abortion care, comprehensive sexuality education, skilled birth attendance, post-natal care and prevention and treatment of STDs, including HIV/AIDS.
• There is a need to include references to the importance of equality in leadership as well as participation in decision making at all levels, in both public and private spheres, including the household level.
• Equal access to and control over productive assets and resources, including natural resource management and access is critical and should be reflected here and throughout the framework.
• We must reduce the burden of and promote equal sharing of unpaid care work.
Focus area 3: Health and population
We support an ambitious goal and set of targets on Health.
The areas listed under Focus area 3 cover many of the key aspects that should be addressed in a health goal, including those needed to ambitiously address areas covered by the current health-MDGs.
We would like to highlight five issues in particular that should be taken forward as possible targets:
• First, we must eliminate preventable child and maternal deaths. (e)
• Second, and closely linked to the first: We must ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights; (k)
• Third, we must ambitiously prevent and treat communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; (g and h)
• Fourth, we must prevent and treat non-communicable diseases(NCDs) (i)
• Fifth, and closely related to the fourth, we must tackle environmental causes of disease, in particular air pollution, as well as exposure to harmful substances. A WHO report released last week showed that air pollution – indoor and outdoor – is the largest single environmental health risk, causing one in eight of total global deaths. A specific target to address this should be considered.
We must also ambitiously prevent and treat malnutrition
Universal Health Coverage will be important to adress within the new framework. Further development of concepts to include UHC is needed.
Health is closely linked to a number of other Focus areas. We must further explore how to reflect the cross cutting social, economic and environmental determinants of health within the SDG framework.
Focus area 4: Education
We welcome the text regarding education, which overall reflects many of the important aspects that should be addressed in a future goal on education. In particular, we welcome that Focus area 4 stresses the right to education .
We would like to highlight a number of issues and suggest some additions, which we propose be taken forward as possible target areas:
• universal, free primary and secondary quality education for girls and boys;
• ensure equitable access to education at all levels with focus on the most marginalized, including indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, persons living in rural areas, migrants, and children in conflict and humanitarian situations;
• achieving high completion rates at all levels of education for both girls and boys;
• providing universal early childhood care and education;
• ensuring effective learning outcomes at all levels, and imparting knowledge and skills that match the demands of the labour market and address youth unemployment, including through vocational training and skills development for youth.
• universal adult literacy and lifelong learning opportunities for all;
• integrating sustainable development in education curricula.
Focus area 11: Employment and decent work for all
Employment and decent work is key to poverty eradication and social inclusion and should be reflected in the SDG-framework.
The text includes many action areas of importance to poverty eradication and sustainable development and we would like to highlight just a number of important points.
Firstly, we welcome
- the focus on macroeconomic policy in promoting full employment.
- The emphasis on the participation of youth and women in the labour force and the importance of eliminating discrimination.
- the inclusion of social security and protection, as recognized in the human rights conventions. Effective social protection offers a powerful means to address inequalities.
- The emphasis on the rights of workers, which we believe should include all workers.
Secondly, we would like to encourage the co-chairs to include:
- the quality of jobs in rural and urban areas, and ensure safe and secure working environments including occupational safety and health..
- the creation of decent green jobs through a proactive approach to environmental challenges.