Michele Bachelet's

The "Must Haves" for Rio+20

To ensure women's voices are heard, Bachelet outlined some of the core themes on the UN Women agenda to be raised at the Rio+20 Summit.

"Women have a vital role in environmental management and development, full participation is therefore essential to achieve sustainable development," reads the draft outcome document for Rio+20, symbolic of the progress gender related concerns have made at the global level.

Leaders will be urged to take measures to accelerate women's roles and equal participation in governance at all levels and to ensure leadership in the decision-making process.

Other vital aims include the need for the elimination of all discriminatory barriers to women in urban and rural areas, and concrete action against factors that prevent women from equally accessing, owning or managing productive resources.

Equal access to opportunities, including employment has long formed a part of women's calls for equality and remains a central objective, alongside the urgent need to end gender-based violence.

Whilst the issue of women's health and reproductive rights has proved a sticking point in the face of differing positions voiced in the negotiations leading up to Rio+20, Bachelet emphasised that calls for the respect of women's rights including women's health and reproductive rights would be on the UN women agenda.

Last but not least, ideas cannot come to fruition without funding, and Bachelet emphasised "the need to commit to providing the necessary financial resources so that all of these initiatives can be implemented".