September 15, 2010
This post also appeared on the Huffington Post.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday named former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet to head UN Women (full name: UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women), a new UN entity. Congratulations to Dr. Bachelet!While the selection process was criticized for lacking openness and transparency, I hope that those of us, like me, who have been awaiting this appointment will put that concern behind us and let her get on with the job. In many ways, Michelle Bachelet is the ideal candidate, with the right credentials to make this important new entity function effectively:
- Previous Head of State, Defense Minister & Health Minister of Chile—Check! (Read: Clout and Political Know-how)
- Woman—Check! (Read: Representation)
- From the South—Check! (Read: Representation)
- Pediatrician & Epidemiologist—Check! (Read: Technical skills)
- Set up an Advisory Group: Convene the best and the brightest thinkers and doers in global development from around the world—let’s not make it a NY-DC Club. Criteria for selection of members should include the following:a) Members should not only be gender specialists, but those who work in all sectors of development---trade, health, education, agriculture, climate, business, finance etc. By expanding the group of players, a two-way exchange of learning can occur. Those that don’t normally think about women in their day jobs will begin to do so, and those who focus on women can learn how to make the world work for women.b) Members should include technical and policy representatives, but also those who make things happen on the ground—that is civil society, including women’s groups.
- Forge Key Partnerships with Other UN Agencies: UN Women, like UNAIDS, will have to leverage the strengths of other UN Agencies to succeed in its mission. Without a doubt, the two Michel(e)’s—Sidibe and Bachelet—will establish a close relationship to share the do’s and don’ts of a UN entity vs. a UN agency. Like UNAIDS, UN Women’s success will hinge on the relationships and therefore outputs/outcomes of other agencies like UNFPA, UNDP, so early learning on how to make the UN system work for UN Women —including the country and field operations--will be critical.
- Develop and Share a Communication and Learning Plan: How will the world know about UN Women and whether it is making a difference? Early and careful thinking about how UN Women will share information (such as how it will define success) and learning as it progresses to a fully-functioning UN entity is key for its survival. If stakeholders are kept in the dark, UN Women will lose a powerful support base in countries where it could have the greatest impact and/or the financial support of its funders. Again, the smartest communicators will need to be part of the UN Women team—to create and share messages about its objectives, plan and results in addition to contributing to a knowledge base about women and development.
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CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise. CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.