VOA标准英语2011--Funding Levels for UN Women Questioned

Funding Levels for UN Women Questioned

The mandate¹ of U.N. Women is large, and some supporters are concerned that its starting budget of $500 million dollars is not enough to promote women and gender² equality around the world, especially at the country level.
Activists³ compare the funding with the nearly $3 billion dollars annually⁴ for UNICEF and $4 billion for the U.N. Development Program. Funding for U.N. Women is less than 1% of the nearly $5 billion U.N. budget.
In comparison, the World Bank says it would cost $83 billion to reach the U.N. Millennium⁵ Development Goal of achieving gender equality in low income countries by 2015.
Daniela Rosche, a policy advisor⁶ for Oxfam in Amsterdam, is concerned about the failure of many governments to announce how much they will contribute to the new agency. She also says U.N. Women will likely need a larger annual budget.
"We are not satisfied with $500 million and we do not think it is enough," said Rosche. "We know that working at the country level and given the ambition, hopes and expectations of U.N. Women, $500 million is really little money."
"We know one thing: gender equality has always been underfunded in the system. It would be a shame if it didn't have the resources that everyone agrees women's rights and gender equality need for progress."
In the past, budgetary constraints⁷ meant the agency's predecessors⁸, including UNIFEM (U.N. Development Fund for Women), had a limited presence, with efforts often confined to pilot projects with minimal⁹ reach. UNIFEM also lacked the status, power and staff to promote its agenda.
Zohra Moosa is the women's rights advisor for ActionAid in London.
"The key challenge for previous gender equality bodies before U.N. Women is they did not have the seniority and global authority they needed," said Moose. "At a very basic level, for example, their staff wasn't senior enough to sit at important decision-making tables. So they couldn't be in the room when decisions were being made and they couldn't influence those agendas that impacted on women and girls'rights."
"An example is how UNAIDS operated in the past. UNIFEM was simply not consulted when UNAIDS was developing its work and that has meant that women and girls continued to bear an increasing share of the burden of HIV/AIDS around the world."
But the new agency, U.N. Women and its executive director, Michelle Bachelet, are expected to have a strong influence on U.N. policy. Among its duties is "gender mainstreaming," or trying to ensure that women's issues are taken into consideration by all agencies of the international body.
Moosa says the new agency must be accountable to the women of the world, not just to member states. Her organization, ActionAid, is encouraging U.N. Women to find new ways of allowing individuals and non-governmental organizations to report the failure of governments or institutions to protect their rights.
She says such a mechanism¹⁰ already exists in the protocol¹¹ of CEDAW, the [U.N.] Convention on the Elimination¹² of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
"CEDAW provides mechanisms¹³ for civil society to report [to a committee monitoring compliance¹⁴ to the convention] on how their governments are doing on women and girls' rights," explained Moosa. "There's also the annual meeting of the [U.N.] Commission on the Status of Women, where civil society, if they can get to New York, can talk about their countries' results on women and girls' rights."
"What we are looking for is similar mechanisms where, in addition to the official state process, women can also make claims on U.N. Women and can...voice their concerns directly."
Some activists are concerned about the agency's 41-member executive board, which includes countries that sometimes differ from the industrialized world in their views of women's rights.
But Charlotte Bunch says the executive board is not a policymaking body, and not likely to publicly comment on issues before it. She is the founding director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University and was a major voice in the campaign to establish U.N. Women.
"I think the important thing is that they are not allowed to stop anything from going forward," said Bunche. "And that really requires holding the executive board and the governments accountable to all the standards they've already set."
"So if a country like Saudi Arabia proposes wanting to change the strategic plan, we have to remind them that the strategic plan is implementing¹⁵ the Beijing Declaration on Women from the 1995 world conference, it has to be in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women's rights (CEDAW), with the standards that the U.N. has been setting for the last 50 years around women's rights. It's that kind of a discussion."
Bunch says women's rights are a complex and deep seated issue in many societies, particularly those where women are excluded from decision-making.
"It's not like a peacekeeping mediation," she said, "where the U.N. can come in and bring the mediators and you sit people in a room for a few hours and you come out with a plan to end patriarchy. In the case of women's rights of course you have multiple institutions in society that are a part of the change that needs to happen."
Bunch says the challenges are enormous. She says U.N. Women must decide where it can make a difference in moving governments and social and cultural forces forward.
Local NGOs are ready. A recent Oxfam survey of 100 civil society programs in 75 countries showed their interest in working closely with the new U.N. agency, because of its ability to open doors at the national level.
UN Women has responded by consulting closely with civil society groups covering 72 countries in five regions from January to April. The results of those discussions will influence the agency's Strategic Plan which is expected to be presented to the executive board in late June. UN Women's Under Secretary General Michelle Bachelet, who meets with local NGOs in every she visits, is also working to include civil society in the agency's advisory¹⁶ board.
The hope, says Daniela Rosche, is that the new agency can bring women's voices to the decision-making table. "It's essential," she says, "because in a democracy, without having as many women stakeholders at the table as possible, you can't speak of good governance."

1 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

5 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

6 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

7 constraints   

强制( constraint的名词复数 )； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• Data and constraints can easily be changed to test theories. 信息库中的数据和限制条件可以轻易地改变以检验假设。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• What are the constraints that each of these imply for any design? 这每种产品的要求和约束对于设计意味着什么？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

8 predecessors   

n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Will new plan be any more acceptable than its predecessors? 新计划比原先的计划更能令人满意吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

10 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

11 protocol   

n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节

参考例句：

• We must observe the correct protocol.我们必须遵守应有的礼仪。
• The statesmen signed a protocol.那些政治家签了议定书。

12 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。

13 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 compliance   

n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从

参考例句：

• I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
• She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。

15 implementing   

v.实现( implement的现在分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• -- Implementing a comprehensive drug control strategy. ――实行综合治理的禁毒战略。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• He was in no hurry about implementing his unshakable principle. 他并不急于实行他那不可动摇的原则。 来自辞典例句

16 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。