A Summary of the Outcomes of the NGO Consultation on the Millennium Review at the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

Underlying ideas that were repeated most frequently in the interventions:

1. What outcomes do you consider most critical for Heads of State to adopt at the Millennium Review Summit? 

•  Apply a gender perspective to all the MDGs.   It is important to ensure that the MDGs do not de-gender the Beijing Process. Fighting poverty is a limited concept without a gender perspective.

•  Address fair trade issues; the dumping of commodities on the world market hurt poor women.

•  Set immediate priorities of MDGs that can be accomplished soon by governments.

•  Ensure more women are involved in governance and decision-making processes.

•  Health and education access should be improved for women and young girls.

•  Governments should commit sufficient funds to meet MDGS.

•  Promote government transparency in developing countries and help fight corruption.

•  Prioritize debt cancellation.

2. How can NGOs help develop a strong unified voice for civil society while respecting its tremendous diversity?

•  Utilize national NGO caucuses to discuss priorities.

•  NGO should find a way to make the UN system more representative of civil society.

•  Make the Millennium Campaign more responsive to civil society organizations that are working for gender equality.

•  Voices can't be unified if there is no participation from diverse groups (i.e. with respect to race and poverty).   NGOs need to be accountability for inclusion of more voices.

•  Ensure that women have a voice in the process of reviewing the MDGs.   More women should be involved in the process with a specific mandate to look at them from a gender perspective.

•  Strategically assess the trade-off of women's rights versus other development goals (i.e. trade rights). What are women giving up by being a part of the MDG process?

3. How can NGOs strengthen and coordinate their advocacy efforts at the global, national and local levels?

•  Respond to lack of information in media, NGOs need to inform the media, write letters to the press, etc.

•  National processes need to be aware of global actions and how to input into international processes.   There is a need to construct a calendar of events.

•  NGOs should improve information access for the traditionally excluded, especially those without ready access to the internet.   Including these voices will make discussions fuller and more representative.

•  Develop indicators and targets within a national context.   Women and NGOs can undertake this with their own governments.  

•  If NGOs are excluded from input processes by governments they should construct their own shadow reports on the progress towards the MDGs.   NGOs should submit these reports to the Millennium Campaign or UN Agencies.

•  NGOs should be responsible to hold national officials accountable to achieving the MDGs.   Efforts must be made by governments and NGOs to explain clearly how MDGs relate to the public, including women and the very poor.

•  Analyze indicators and targets, especially education targets for women.   Must make governments provide clear information about the trade-offs in achieving the targets.  

•  Local campaigns can gain by talking to campaigns in other nations and sharing information and tactics.   Stress the importance of liaising with GCAP and the WSF.