UN-Women Strategic Plan, 2011-2013

The Executive Board,

1. Welcomes the presentation by the Under-Secretary-General/Executive Director of the first UN-Women strategic plan, 2011-2013, as contained in document UNW/2011/9;

2. Affirms that the Charter of the United Nations, General Assembly resolution 64/289, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as other internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and applicable United Nations instruments, standards, and resolutions that support, address and contribute to gender equality and the empowerment of women form the framework of the strategic plan;

3. Underlines that UN-Women, in implementing its strategic plan, will provide assistance in the field of gender equality and the empowerment of women, with the agreement and consent of the host country, in accordance with national priorities, and adopt a national ownership principle in field activities;

4. Underscores the importance of the role of UN-Women in leading, coordinating and promoting accountability of the United Nations system in its work on gender equality and the empowerment of women, with the aim of elaborating a clear division of roles and responsibilities in this area in close consultation with the relevant entities of the United Nations system within their respective mandates;

5. Acknowledges the need for the strategic plan to be driven by longer-term vision, goals and expected results to 2017 and by the principle of universality, and in this regard recognizes that the programme related to UN-Women as part of the proposed United Nations strategic framework is aligned with the strategic plan, and the need to ensure alignment of the strategic plan with the strategic planning cycles of other United Nations funds, programmes and specialized agencies and harmonization between Executive Boards, to the extent possible, as well as with the comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system;

6. Recognizes the results-based approach of the UN-Women strategic plan; in this regard, requests UN-Women to further develop the results frameworks and present a timetable for regular consultations with Member States on this matter, in order to further develop the linkages between outputs and outcomes, including clearly identifying indicators, baselines and targets of the results frameworks of UN-Women, and also requests the Under-Secretary- General/Executive Director of UN-Women to present the revised results frameworks to the Executive Board of UN- Women prior to its Annual session in 2013 for its consideration;

7. Emphasizes that UN-Women needs increased financial resources to fully implement its strategic plan, and in this regard encourages all Member States to increase their core contributions to UN-Women in a predictable, stable and, where feasible, multi-year manner;

8. Endorses the UN-Women strategic plan, 2011-2013;

9. Requests the Under-Secretary-General/Executive Director to submit to the Executive Board, beginning at its Annual session in 2012, an annual progress report on the strategic plan, 2011-2013, and to provide updates at its Regular sessions in 2012 and 2013;

10. Also requests the Under-Secretary-General/Executive Director to emphasize the importance of education and training as an enabling instrument for women's empowerment and leadership, to mobilize relevant United Nations bodies and stakeholders to strengthen the provision of specialized education and training, in particular by using existing modalities and mechanisms, and report on progress made in the annual progress report to the Board;

11. Recognizes the difficulties and challenges faced by the least developed countries in the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women and in this regard, welcomes the endorsement of the Istanbul Declaration (A/CONF.219/L.1) and the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-2020 (A/CONF.219/3/Rev.1) by the General Assembly in its resolution 65/280 of 17 June 2011; requests UN-Women, in accordance with its mandate, to provide special attention to the LDCs, and to the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action, and to report on this in the annual report of the Under-Secretary-General/Executive Director;

12. Further recognizes that, despite their achievements and efforts, middle-income countries still face significant challenges in the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women and in this regard, requests UN-Women to provide the appropriate and strategic support, within its mandate, taking into account the significant diversity of middle-income countries and the specific needs of each of those countries.