Call for Applications for Partial Sponsorship: 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, New York 10-21 March 2025

The UN system in Bangladesh, under the leadership of the UN Women Country Office, is launching this call for applications for civil society organization representatives seeking partial sponsorship to participate in the upcoming sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 21 March 2025.

Background

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality, the rights and the empowerment of women. It was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946 as a functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and provides a pivotal moment to review state action and compliance in the implementation. As such, the main focus of CSW69 will be the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. The review will include an assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and its contribution towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Beijing+30 review process began in early 2024 with a call for comprehensive national reviews led by the Member States. The regional commissions of the United Nations were also invited to undertake regional reviews and convene regional intergovernmental meetings. Bangladesh submitted its national review and a delegation from Bangladesh participated in the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference in November 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand. These reviews will feed into CSW69 and the global synthesis report that UN Women will submit.

The engagement of civil society is an important component of the national, regional, and global review processes as well as the Commission’s annual sessions.

Selection Criteria for Sponsorship

• The applicant must represent an organization that is accredited to and in good standing with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
• The applicant must represent an organization that has registered to attend CSW69 before the deadline (24 January 2025)
• The applicant/representative must have experience working with women’s human rights, gender equality and intersectional feminist issues, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), Agenda 2030 and SDGs localization, among others.
• The applicant must work with/represent at least one or more of these constituencies:
  • Rural women
  • Migrant women
  • Indigenous women
  • Women with disabilities
  • Urban poor women
  • Young women and girls
  • Older women
  • Persons of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and/or sex characteristics
  • Women survivors of violence
  • Persons living with HIV and AIDS
  • Women workers from a diversity of sectors, including sex workers
  • Women in ICT (including gender data and artificial intelligence)
  • Women in media
  • Women in or affected by conflict situations (including women refugees or those who are internally displaced)
  • Women from religious minorities
  • Women affected by climate change

• The applicant/representative must be over the age of 18.
• The applicant/representative must have the ability to travel (e.g., have a passport valid for 6 months after the session) as well as a valid US visa.
• The applicant/representative must be a Bangladeshi national and represent an organization operating in Bangladesh.
• The applicant must represent an organization that is committed to and acts in accordance with global human rights principles and also practices inclusive and progressive feminism, whose work does not marginalize or exclude any person or group on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics, nor on grounds of ethnicity, nationality/citizen status, disability, race, age, caste, indigeneity, socio-economic status, migrant status, household status, HIV and AIDS status, sector of work, religion or other factors.

Documentation required

For a valid application, the applicant must fill out the application form available here and submit a nomination letter from your organization and your CV to this email: [ Click to reveal ]. Please follow this format for the subject line: "CSW69 Sponsorship: Your Full Name".

Selection process

The selection will be done by a Selection Committee chaired by the UN Women Country Office in Bangladesh, composed of representatives from relevant sister UN agencies in Bangladesh. The UN will convene dialogues and meetings with the selected participants before and after CSW69, as required.