KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Eun-Kyung Kim

Eun-Ha Chang

Mi-Jeong Lee

Young-Taek Kim

Seo-Hee Kwak

Young-Sook Cho

 

While the Millenium Development Goals have been a milestone initiative in driving global and national development efforts, its achievement has been uneven across the region and countries. With the MDGs slated to end in 2015, international development community is deliberating on a new development agenda. A new agenda that reflects both the MDGs and the sustainable development goals(SDGs) are in the making.

 

This research aims to trace and examine the integration process of gender agenda in the Post-2015 discussion. For this purpose, a literature review of major publications of international organizations will be conducted. The research borrows the analytical framework from the UN Women’s 2013 report which identifies three components of the transformative stand-alone goal on gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment. They are: 1) Freedom from violence, 2) Capabilities and Resources and 3) Voice, Leadership and Participation.

 

The current research first reviews the evaluation of MDGs by various groups. Feminists criticizes that the MDGs have overlooked the following agendas. First, in terms of women’s economic empowerment(Goals 1B and 3A), MDGs did not mention women’s ownership of economic assets and access to paid work. Second, in terms of women’s access to education(Goals 2A and 3A) MDGs missed issues of early marriage, safe school for girl child, and gender-equal school culture. In terms of women’s reproductive health(Goals 5A and 5B), MDGs ignored violence against women issues and women’s reproductive rights. Fourth, MDGs miss on women’s political representation issues(Goal 3A).

 

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW) also points out some of the shortcomings of MDGs. First, MDGs Goal 3(Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women) ignores violence against women and women’s asset ownership. Second, MDGs also misses the need for data related with discriminatory social policy, early marriage, violence against women and women’s access to land and credits. Third, MDGs failed to mention about countries with weak infrastructure or in conflicts.

 

The inclusion of gender issues in the Post-2015 development framework is being carried out by many actors. In the Open Working Group proposals for Sustainable Development Goals, gender agenda was included as a standalone goal(Goal 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls). In the on-line discussion among the UN Women and women’s civil society organizations in 2013, issues such as violence against women, health, laws for gender equality, education, participation of local community and policy-making based on women’s rights were included as discussion topics. OECD proposed seven priority areas: women’s secondary education, women’s economic empowerment, violence against women, sexual and reproductive health and rights, women’s leadership and voice, influence, women and war, and women’s contribution for environment and energy sustainability. Women Major Group(WMG) has suggested eight positions on gender agenda that has to be included in the SDGs and Post-2015 framework.

 

The next part reviews the progress made in the women and development arena since the Declaration of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 using UN Women’s framework of three components of the transformative stand-alone goal. As for “Freedom from violence,” the violence against women issue was adopted as one of the 12 areas of Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. MDGs misses out on this issue, but in Post-2015 discussion, violence against women issue was actively incorporated such as in the UN High-level Panel Report(2012), OECD’s 11 areas for Post-2015 agenda and OWG focus areas. As for “Capabilities and Resources,” the incorporation status of the following targets in the Post-2015 discussion was examined: women’s poverty, decent work for women, women’s access to, and control over, productive assets, education and skills for women and girls, women’s and girls’ health, maternal mortality & women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights, women’s sustainable access to energy and water and sanitation. As for “Voice Leadership and Participation”, the incorporation level of the following targets were reviewed: equal decision making in households, women’s participation in public institutions, women’s leadership in the private sector and women’s collective action.

 

This research concludes with policy implications and recommendations for South Korea’s women and gender policy. As Post-2015 framework applies both to recipient as well as the donor countries, South Korea should be equipped with concrete data for establishing and implementing gender mainstreaming, and with mechanisms to stimulate gender responsive budgeting. South Korea also needs to mainstream gender in both formulation and implementation phases of their ODA execution.