by Shaila Rao Mistry
President: Jayco MMI
Chair: Women and Men Decision Making Caucus
Official Delegate to CSW,UN 2006
NAWBO-OC Vice President of Public Policy

March 2006: Just today the final document on Women and Men in Decision Making has been published by the United Nations. Many of the concepts and much of the vision was the result of my chairmanship of the Decision Making Caucus at the 60 Commission on the Status Of Women United Nations, New York. I am gratified to note these items that I personally crafted were accepted and inserted in their entirety after debate by 191 countries at a CSW Assembly meeting. click to see document

Women and Men In Decision Making UN CSW 2006
The purpose of the caucus is to work on the main theme of the CSW and prepare this document pertaining to Women in Decision Making. As women leaders, this theme is of great of great concern to us. As an example, currently we have 0.5% woman at the World Bank. Surely we want more women in such key positions. Surely, several of us aspire to, and indeed qualify to be included. We are advocating for a Woman Secretary General for United Nations once Mr. Cofie Anaan completes his term. Should this happen, or should I say when this comes to pass, please know that it is through the efforts of many like me. We want to see a restructuring of the United Nations to make it more agile and responsive to deal with the current day issues of governance of our democracies and theocracies. A group of us are working on this very issue. And the list is endless.

Why Work at United Nations Level
To some, the United Nations may seem like an outdated infrastructure constructed from the ideologue of the 50's. Others may view the UN as favoring certain member states and less inclined to meet the needs of the United States. In response to both, I draw an analogy with our educations system, health care or indeed our State and Federal Government where we clearly see glaring faults. Are we going to ignore or boycott them, or are we going to zealously work to improve systems which over all do the job.

Relevance to Women Business Owners
Yet again, to some it may seem that this level of work with the United Nations is far removed from us as Orange women business owners. Indeed it is not. Let me highlight the direct link. We In NAWBO are linked through my participation, hence we all have representation of our views and interests. Please note the final document on Women and Men in Decision Making contains numerous inclusions on women in trade, commerce and business, including clear guidelines on trade agreements, micro loans to women, and micro trade. These inclusions are a direct result of my presenting the vision and contribution of women business owners.

Our role is also to educate and influence decision makers, and in this way reform in broad strokes. Efforts like this, now and in the past, shape the conditions and policies that we want in place so that women can play a rightful role at the helm. As Public Policy Vice President of NAWBO-OC, I feel that these strident accomplishments should be highlighted for our chapter.

What Happens to These Declarations and Documents?
There is a dissemination process that follows the publishing of the documents. The final policies and documents are given to the member governments who are technically bound to adopt all or a part of the agreements based on their theocracies. In practice the adoption is slow. Nonetheless, inch by inch, iIndividual governments adopt to varying degrees the intent and content of the document, and then policies are made. In the United States we may see some progress that we have worked toward for many years suddenly become law and practice, and we the people assume that our government has become enlightened. In actual fact, it is the hard work of real people like you and me working relentlessly behind the scenes that have brought us parity.

I am passionate in urging you to view the role of public policy in this ever-widening global context. Please share my excitement that OUR voice CAN and IS being heard at the highest levels. Together we can bask in the pride of our contribution on behalf of women.

For further information see document or email Shaila.

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