In Focus: CSW66

Date: Monday, 14 February 2022

Commission on the Status of Women 66 (2022) - banner

Press releases:

Women need to be engaged as leaders and agents of change in addressing challenges linked to climate change, the environment and disaster risk reduction
UN Commission on the Status of Women reaffirms women's and girls’ leadership as key to address climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction for all

The sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place from 14 to 25 March 2022. Due to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSW66 took a hybrid format. All side events and parallel events were fully virtual.

Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world were invited to contribute to the session.

Themes

Priority theme: Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes;
Review theme: Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work (agreed conclusions of the sixty-first session);

Bureau

The Bureau of the Commission plays a crucial role in facilitating the preparation for, and in ensuring the successful outcome of the annual sessions of the Commission. Bureau members serve for two years. In 2002, in order to improve its work and ensure continuity, the Commission decided to hold the first meeting of its subsequent session, immediately following the closure of the regular session, for the sole purpose of electing the new Chairperson and other members of the Bureau (ECOSOC decision 2002/234).

The Bureau for the 66th session (2022) of the Commission on the Status of Women comprised the following members:

H.E. Ms. Mathu Joyini (South Africa), Chair (African States Group)
Ms. Pilar Eugenio (Argentina), Vice-Chair (Latin American and Caribbean States Group)
H.E. Ms. Antje Leendertse (Germany), Vice-Chair designate (Western European and Other States Group)
Mr. Māris Burbergs (Latvia), Vice-Chair designate (Eastern European States Group)
Ms. Hye Ryoung Song (Republic of Korea), Vice-Chair designate (Asia and Pacific States Group)

Preparations

Expert Group Meeting: Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes

Session outcome

The outcome document of the 66th Commission on the Status of Women is the agreed conclusions, on the priority theme “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes” and was adopted on 25 March 2022.

CSW66 Agreed Conclusions - Advance Unedited Version

Side events

Measuring the gender-environment nexus - side event to the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, 17 March 2022.

CSW66 Side Event: Building a Gender-just Response to Climate Change

Asia Pacific Regional Consultation

The Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation was jointly convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on 9 and 10 February 2022.

The objective of the Regional Consultation was to provide an interactive forum for ESCAP member States and key stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific to discuss ways to accelerate progress on key frameworks including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (in particular, the 2019 Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+25 Review), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Regional Consultation facilitated the exchange of knowledge and ideas among state and non-state actors in order to:

Foster better understandings of issues that impact women and girls and other vulnerable groups due to climate-related and other disasters. These issues may include women’s leadership and stewardship in the areas of natural resource management and environmental conservation, the water-food-climate nexus, loss of livelihoods, and relevant (social and physical) infrastructural support, sexual and reproductive health and rights, girls’ education as well as other relevant dimensions such as data collection, youth engagement and grassroots solutions for climate change and disaster risk reduction.
Consider possible areas for joint policy and programmatic interventions to account for the intersectionality of gender equality, climate change, environment, and disaster risk reduction and management, following the outcomes of the COP26.
Enhance collaboration and bring synergies to the implementation of the different frameworks in order to accelerate progress in the region. The Regional Consultation will also inform ESCAP member States’ inputs to the focus goals for the 2022 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), i.e. SDG 4, 5, 14, 15, and 17.

The Regional Consultation generated a set of recommendations on areas for accelerated action, based on the consensus reached by representatives of ESCAP member States and other key stakeholders such as civil society, academia, UN entities, and other inter-governmental organizations, private sector, international financial institutions, and others. The recommendations will feed into the CSW66 and inform membership contributions to the Agreed Conclusions.