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Lakshmi Puri: The world needs women's leadership
Lakshmi Puri
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span class="inline inline-center">Lakshmi Puri. JP/Rita A. Widiadana Lakshmi Puri is soon to take up one of the most prestigious and powerful jobs for any woman in the world: Acting executive director of United Nations (UN) Women, following the departure of Michelle Bachelet, who is now running for presidential election in her home country of Chile.
The mother of two daughters was a veteran diplomat of 28 years in the Indian foreign service; as the ambassador to Hungary, Bosnia- Herzegovina and many other influential posts before joining various agencies at the United Nations.
'We, in UN Women, are strongly dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. We also aim at accelerating progress on meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide,' said Puri.
There has been progress in so many different areas, but there are still major gaps. Sexual and reproductive health still eludes so many women and girls as she said on the sidelines of the Women Deliver 2013 conference in Kuala Lumpur recently.
Accessibility, affordability, sustainability, quality, accountability and availability throughout the life cycle without discrimination continued to be major issues in so many countries, she said.
'And to see real progress, we need to address root causes. These include poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices and misinterpretation and misuse of traditions, customs and religion that hamper women's rights.'
Puri stressed the importance of education, women's economic empowerment, political participation and leadership, ending violence against women and creating gender-responsive institutions, national plans and budgets.
For UN Women, this means women must be able to participate as equal citizens in a country's political and formal economic spheres. Women, she said, had to have the right to a life free from violence.
Women must have equal access to and control over productive resources. They must have greater access to information and prevention methods, and the power to use this knowledge. And their work in the care economy must be counted, valued and supported.
'To move forward, we need legal and policy reforms to protect women and girls from violence. We need to ensure their equal rights to education, social security, property, employment, political participation and an adequate standard of living.'
These systems must work for all women and girls wherever they are and whoever they are ' rural women, indigenous women, refugees and displaced women, older women, widows, women with disabilities, women living with HIV ' they are all entitled to the fulfillment of their basic human rights.
It can work. Rwanda in Africa leads the world with the most women in parliament, 56 percent; the country has reduced maternal deaths by half in the past 20 years, is on track to reach all Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and has made women's empowerment and equality a priority.
The very presence of female politicians has been shown to diversify the policy agenda and promote
equity and justice.
Increasing women's political participation is one of UN Women's goals.
Since last year, the number of countries with women comprising at least 30 percent of parliament has risen from 27 to 33. In India, around 65,000 elected women representatives in village councils have been trained to become more effective leaders.
In Indonesia, there has been slight progress in women's political participation and in combating violence against women. Political representation by women increased from 11 percent in 2004 to 18 percent in 2009.
UN Women has been supporting the Indonesian government and civil society partners in addressing national priorities for enhancing gender advocates and community-based initiatives to empower and protect the rights of women migrant workers.
An important result was the passing of the bylaw on the protection of migrant workers in Blitar in East Java, which is now being replicated in other regencies and provinces across Indonesia.
Data from the Indonesian Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry shows that between 6.5 and 9 million Indonesians are working overseas, with 78 percent of them women. The ministry also reveals that 20 percent of the female migrant workers are victims of human trafficking.
Meanwhile, the International Organization on Migration (IOM) stated that around 3,594 victims of human trafficking from Indonesia were living in poverty, 1,173 victims were elementary school graduates, 805 were school dropouts and 777 were junior high school graduates.
'Ending violence against women remains a top priority,' Puri said. 'Gender-based violence is an endemic problem, fueled by poverty, harmful gender stereotypes and impunity for perpetrators'.
Around 603 million women still live in countries, including Indonesia, where domestic violence is not a crime and up to seven in 10 women are targeted for physical or sexual violence, she said.
In areas of Indonesia ' such as Aceh and Papua, two conflict-ridden provinces plagued by violence against women, UN Women works with central and local governments to end all forms of violence and discrimination against women, girls and children.
UN Women has been giving technical assistance to the Aceh provincial administration to develop a gender policy and to increase women's participation in peace processes and addressing the needs and capacities of female ex-combatants.
It also supports community efforts to combat violence against women in post-tsunami and post-conflict environments through the 'Safe Villages' initiative ' piloted in two villages with high incidences of violence.
The initiative allows the community to build the capacity of service providers such as hospitals, counselors and law enforcers to respond effectively to violence against women.
UN Women also helped develop the capacity of local NGOs, legal practitioners including syariah judges to review and draft local Islamic-based laws, qanun, that align with the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women's gender-equality principles to protect women's rights. This has led to the passing of several important qanun, such as the Qanun on Women's Empowerment.
With the Indonesian government and NGOs, UN Women has worked to promote the domestic workers bill, the National Strategy on HIV/AIDS, the National Action Plan on Violence Against Women, the National Strategy on Gender Mainstreaming and research on masculinity and violence against women.
At present, UN Women works together with other UN Agencies including the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization, and the International Labor Organization to propose a stand-alone goal on gender equality in the post 2015 development agenda.
There are three critical areas that need changes, Puri insisted, 'Ending violence against women; Expanding women's capabilities and ensuring that women have voices and leadership.'
