Expanding social participation of women

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

The global initiatives of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) strengthen and consolidate regional programmes relating to: women, environment and development; women's rights as human rights; women refugees; women's changing roles in such strategic areas as finance, science and technology, international trade and political decision-making. UNIFEM works with parliamentarians throughout the world to increase their awareness of needs of female constituents; works to ensure that women are on the agenda of key international conferences; works to ensure that women's concerns are incorporated into mainstream agendas and that women play a role in setting these agendas. Women have made key contributions in areas such as sustainable development, human rights and violence against women.

The United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) stimulates and assists, through research and training and information activities, the efforts for the advancement of women and their integration to the development process at all levels. To multiply its outreach, the Institute works in close cooperation with UN, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and has established a growing network of focal points and correspondents at national level. INSTRAW's programmes in the 1992/1993 biennium can be grouped into two major substantive clusters: (a) mainstreaming gender in development strategies and planning and in the design, monitoring and evaluation of programmes/projects; and (b) making women visible – and the valuation of women's contribution to socio-economic development. Encompassed under these two clusters are sectoral issues, the environment, credit, migration, the informal sector. Also included is relevant training, evaluation and statistics.