‘Poverty eradication - greatest global challenge’ - Part X:

Gender equality and women’s empowerment

Text of the final declaration issued by the world community at the conclusion of the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Summit recently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Our Common Vision

236. We reaffirm women’s vital role and full and equal participation and leadership in all areas of sustainable development, and decide to accelerate the implementation of our respective commitments in this regard as contained in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as well as Agenda 21, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Millennium Declaration.

237. We recognize that, although progress on gender equality has been made in some areas, the potential of women to engage in, contribute to and benefit from sustainable development as leaders, participants and agents of change has not been fully realised due, inter alia, to persistent social, economic, and political inequalities. We support prioritizing measures to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in all spheres of our societies, including the removal of barriers to their full and equal participation in decision-making and management at all levels, and we emphasize the impact of setting specific targets and implementing temporary measures, as appropriate, for substantially increasing the number of women in leadership positions, with the aim of achieving gender parity.

238. We resolve to unlock women’s potential as drivers of sustainable development, including through the repeal of discriminatory laws and removal of formal barriers, ensuring equal access to justice and legal support, the reform of institutions to ensure competence and capacity for gender mainstreaming and the development and adoption of innovative and special approaches, to address informal, harmful practices that act as barriers to gender equality. In this regard, we commit to creating an enabling environment for improving the situation of women and girls everywhere, particularly in rural areas and local communities and among indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities.

239. We commit to actively promote the collection, analysis and use of gender sensitive indicators and sex disaggregated data in policy, programme design and monitoring frameworks, in accordance with national circumstances and capacities, in order to deliver on the promise of sustainable development for all.

240. We are committed to women’s equal rights and opportunities in political and economic decision-making and resource allocation and to remove any barriers that prevent women from being full participants in the economy. We resolve to undertake legislation and administrative reforms to give women equal rights with men to economic resources, including access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, credit, inheritance, natural resources and appropriate new technology.

241. We are committed to promote the equal access of women and girls to education, basic services, economic opportunities and health care services, including addressing women’s sexual and reproductive health, and ensuring universal access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable modern methods of family planning. In this regard, we reaffirm our commitment to implement the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the key actions for the further implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development.

242. We recognize that gender equality and the effective participation of women are important for effective action on all aspects of sustainable development.

243. We support the work of the UN system, including UN Women, in promoting and achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in all aspects of life, including with respect to the linkages between gender equality and women’s empowerment and the promotion of sustainable development. We support UN Women leading, coordinating and promoting the accountability of the UN system in this regard.

244. We invite donors, international organizations including the UN System organizations, as well as international financial institutions, regional banks, major groups including the private sector, to integrate fully commitments and considerations on gender equality and women’s empowerment and to ensure the participation of women and effective gender mainstreaming in their decision making and full programming cycle. We invite them to play a supportive role in developing countries’ efforts to integrate fully commitments and considerations on gender equality and women’s empowerment and ensure the participation of women and the effective gender mainstreaming in their decision making, programme planning, budgeting and implementation, in accordance with national legislation, priorities and capacities.

Sustainable development goals

245. We underscore that the MDGs are a useful tool in focusing achievement of specific development gains as part of a broad development vision and framework for the development activities of the United Nations, for national priority setting and for mobilisation of stakeholders and resources towards common goals. We therefore remain firmly committed to their full and timely achievement.

246. We recognize that the development of goals could also be useful for pursuing focused and coherent action on sustainable development. We further recognize the importance and utility of a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are based on Agenda 21 and Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, fully respect all Rio Principles, taking into account different national circumstances, capacities and priorities, are consistent with International Law, build upon commitments already made, and contribute to the full implementation of the outcomes of all major Summits in the economic, social and environmental fields, including this outcome document. These goals should address and incorporate in a balanced way all three dimensions of sustainable development and their inter-linkages. They should be coherent with and integrated in the United Nations Development Agenda beyond 2015, thus contributing to the achievement of sustainable development and serving as a driver for implementation and mainstreaming of sustainable development in the United Nations system as a whole. The development of these goals should not divert focus or effort from the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

247. We also underscore that SDGs should be action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate, limited in number, aspirational, global in nature and universally applicable to all countries while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities. We also recognize that the goals should address and be focused on priority areas for the achievement of sustainable development, being guided by this outcome document. Governments should drive implementation with the active involvement of all relevant stakeholders, as appropriate.

248. We resolve to establish an inclusive and transparent intergovernmental process on SDGs that is open to all stakeholders with a view to developing global sustainable development goals to be agreed by the United Nations General Assembly. An open working group shall be constituted no later than the opening of the 67th session of the UNGA and shall comprise of thirty representatives, nominated by Member States through the five UN regional groups with the aim of achieving fair, equitable and balanced geographic representation. At the outset, this open working group will decide on its method of work, including developing modalities, to ensure the full involvement of relevant stakeholders and expertise from civil society, the scientific community and the UN system in its work in order to provide a diversity of perspectives and experience. It will submit a report to the 68th session of the UNGA containing a proposal for sustainable development goals for consideration and appropriate action.

249. The process needs to be coordinated and coherent with the processes considering the post-2015 development agenda. The initial input to the work of the working group will be provided by the United Nations Secretary General in consultations with national governments. In order to provide technical support to this process and to the work of the working group, we request the UN Secretary-General to ensure all necessary input and support to this work from the UN system including through establishing an inter-agency technical support team and expert panels as needed, drawing on all relevant expert advice. Reports on the progress of work will be made regularly to the General Assembly.

250. We recognize that progress towards the achievement of the goals needs to be assessed and accompanied by targets and indicators while taking into account different national circumstances, capacities and levels of development.

251. We recognize that there is a need for global, integrated and scientifically-based information on sustainable development. In this regard, we request the relevant bodies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, to support regional economic commissions to collect and compile national inputs in order to inform this global effort. We further commit to mobilizing financial resources and capacity building, particularly for developing countries, to achieve this endeavour.

To be continued