Last week, Michele Bachelet, the new director of UN Women held a meeting with representatives of the GEAR Campaign (Gender Equality Architecture Reform). The purpose was to discuss ideas on how civil society could be effectively involved in the work of UN Women and the development of its decision making structure. Jan Peterson, Chair of the Huairou Commission, joined 6 other global leaders of GEAR to participate in the meeting.

Jan reported that Bachelet was warm, open, transparent and eager to strengthen the role of civil society in the new UN Women's Agency. She noted that Bachelet mentioned grassroots women and their community organizations several times in her remarks, recognizing them as an important stakeholder within the women's movement.

The entire GEAR delegation left the meeting resolved to assist Michele Bachelet to develop actionable ideas that she could carry out in her first 100 days of office (January 1 until March 31.) Finally, we pledged to help her built a new UN Women's agency that would be ready to take on women's empowerment and gender equity now into the future.

Below are the proposals that the Huairou Commission has put forth and DAWN'S executive committee proposal for your review.

Grassroots Women Frame an Agenda for UN Women

Proposed Ideas for UN Women, From our friends at DAWN