Author: A. Wigfall

The NGO Committee on the Status of Women in Geneva has reached far and wide to prepare our response to the UN Secretary General’s UN80 proposed merger of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This reform proposal has forced us all to take a long, hard look at the imperative of the mandates, their track records, and the expected disruptions of a world without them. We recognize an opportunity for improvement without merger, and a broader sharing of administrative and financial burdens. This is our collective urgent appeal to Member States. 
After one year of meetings, research, preparation of position papers, gathering input from our NGO local chapters that represent many thousands, and, most recently, reaching out to other networks of women’s organizations and experts across the globe through a series of consultations, we agreed to the accompanying statement and recommendations. Many of us have worked alongside and in collaboration with both UN Women and UNFPA over many years and know their strengths and imperfections. We are all convinced that preserving the integrity of both entities is essential. Such reform should be guided not by administrative considerations but by the protection of internationally agreed mandates, continuity of essential services, and measurable improvements in the lives of women and girls that affect whole populations.