1. UN-WOMEN EXECUTIVE BOARD
January 2015
Jean-Luc Bories
Secretary of the Executive Board

2. THE GOVERNANCE: A MULTI-TIERED INTERGOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURE
THE GOVERNANCE: A MULTI-TIERED INTERGOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL EXECUTIVE BOARD COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN Operational activities and Normative support functions and the operational policy guidance the normative policy guidance
UN-Women has a dual governing body which both report to the General Assembly through ECOSOC
The first pillar is the Executive Board overseeing all operational activities and coordination activities of UN-Women
The second pillar is the Commission on the Status of Women which provide normative function and normative policy advises.
The relationship between the Board and the Commission is non hiarchical and based on cooperation

3. EXECUTIVE BOARD ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Within the overall framework of policies formulated by the General Assembly; coordination and guidance from the Economic and Social Council
The functions of the Executive Board are:
Receiving information from and give guidance to the Executive Director
Oversight of the Entity operational and coordination activities
Approving UN-Women overall governing documents such as the UN-Women Strategic Plan, Integrated Budget, audit reports, evaluation plans and other managerial documents.
Approving global overarching policies guiding UN-Women (such as evaluation policy)
Providing inter-governmental support
GA Resolution 48/162 (14 January 1994) created the governing bodies of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNICEF into Executive Boards and outlines the roles and responsibilities of all Executive Boards. The UN-Women Executive Board follows this model.

4. THE EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERSHIP
41 members who serve on a rotating basis:
10 from the Group of African States
10 from the Group of Asia-Pacific States
4 from the Group of Eastern European States
6 from the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States
5 from the Group of Western European and Other States (unique rotation scheme)
6 from contributing countries
The Economic and Social Council elects members to the Executive Board for a term of three years.
During the negotiations of the Resolution 64/289, there was a lot of discussions around the Board of UN-Women being more representative of the world of today and more in line with each regional group population size. The result is what you can see on the slide.
In addition, UN-Women Executive Board has six seats reserved to the top contributing countries, 4 from OECD DAC (Development Assistance Committee) and 2 non OECD DAC.

5. Eastern European States
The Executive Board
MEMBERSHIP
Executive Board 2015
African States
Algeria (2015)
Djibouti (2015)
Equatorial Guinea (2016) Gabon (2015)
Gambia (2015)
Malawi (2015)
Senegal (2016)
Somalia (2016)
South Africa (2016)
Togo (2016)
Asia-Pacific States
Bangladesh (2016)
China (2016)
India (2016)
Japan (2016)
Maldives (2015)
Philippines (2015)
Republic of Korea (2016) Solomon Islands (2015) Thailand (2015)
United Arab Emirates (2015)
Western European and Other States
Germany (2015)
Israel (2016)
Italy (2016)
Portugal (2016)
Turkey (2015)
Contributing Countries
Denmark (2016)
Spain (2016)
United Kingdom (2016)
United States of America (2016)
Eastern European States
Bosnia and Herzegovina (2016)
Latvia (2015)
Poland (2016)
Russian Federation (2015)
Latin American and Caribbean
States
Brazil (2015)
Colombia (2016)
Cuba (2016)
Suriname (2016)
Uruguay (2015)
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (2015)
Contributing Countries not Members of the OECD/DAC
Mexico (2016)
Saudi Arabia (2016)
This is the composition of the Executive Board in 2015, that you can also see on our website. As you can see this year only members of the WEOG are rotating.
In addition to the 41 members, the Board sessions are also opened to non-members. This category is composed by
observer delegations
Representatives of the secretariat, other UN agencies, etc.
Non-governmental organizations and civil societies accredited to ECOSOC

6. The Executive Board Bureau 2015
Members
Functions
Presidency
Ambassador Ib Petersen (Denmark)
Four Vice Presidents
Ms. Bakhta Selma Mansouri (Algeria)
Mr. Barun Dev Mitra (Bangladesh)
Ms. Dragana Anđelić (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Ms. María Paulina Dávila (Colombia)
Coordinate preparations of board meetings
Facilitation of transparent decision making
Promotion of dialogue
ELECTIONS
This year for the first time the elections of the bureau were held in a separate meeting of the Executive Board on the 7th of January, as per Board decision 2014/5.
The President and the Vice Presidents are elected during the same session. Each regional group elects a representative to sit in the bureau of the Executive Board. The President is chosen by a rotating schedule of regional groups. The first President was from Nigeria, followed by the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Uruguay and Denmark for 2015.
The rotation in the Presidency of the Executive Board ensures equitable geographic representation
The members of the Bureau are only eligible for one second consecutive term.
FUNCTIONS
The bureau has mostly a role of information sharing and coordination between the Member States and the Secretariat. It meet regularly, especially with regards to the preparation of the sessions.

7. The Executive Board KEY EVENTS in 2015
Executive Board Events
First Regular Session
Annual Session
Second Regular Session
Joint Meeting Executive Boards UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS, UNICEF, UN-Women, WFP
9 February 2015
30 June-2 July 2015
15-17 September 2015
2 February 2015
Joint Field Visit of the Executive Boards
Jordan
24 Apr. – 2 May
At the start of each session the Executive Board adopts the agenda and workplan for the session at hand.
The annual workplan for the Executive Board is adopted at the first regular session each year.
As a member of the joint executive boards, UN-Women participates in an annual joint field visit of the Executive Board. Last year UN-Women was the coordinating agency of this exercise..
At least two weeks before each session of the Executive Board, the secretariat shall convene an meeting, called Pre session informal (this year 23 January) of the Board in order to provide a briefing on the matters to be covered under the items on the provisional agenda.
Pre-Session Meetings
Informal briefings

8. THE EXECUTIVE BOARD First regular session 2015
Report on the Assessment of Evaluation Function and Management Response
HeForShe Campaign
Informal lunch briefing on the operational response of UN-Women at country level focusing on the response to the Ebola crisis in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Structured dialogues on financing the SP
Briefing on the report of the Board of Auditors
in addition papersmart
Decisions:
In accordance with the UN-Women Executive Board Rules of Procedure
The practice of striving for consensus in decision-making is encouraged.
Draft decisions shall be submitted by members of the Executive Board as early as possible to allow for thorough consideration.
The Executive Board may consider draft decisions on official reports; however, any member of the Executive Board may request that such decisions and amendments be considered only when 24 hours have elapsed after the distribution of the text to all members in all working languages.
Executive Board decisions are considered and negotiated amongst members during informal discussions which take place on the margins of the formal session of the Executive Board.

9. THE EXECUTIVE BOARD ANNUAL SESSION 2015
Official reports in 2015 (Decision)
Annual report on the implementation of the Strategic Plan (June)
Report on the evaluation function (June)
Report on internal audit and investigation activities for the period 1 January to 31 December 2014 and Report of the Audit Advisory Committee (June)
Integrated budget (Sep)
Strategic brief on Resource Mobilization (Sep)
Official reports are reports that are mandated by inter-governmental decisions from ECOSOC, GA or the Executive Board itself. Official reports are translated in to the 6 official languages of the United nations and posted on the website 4 weeks before the session.

10. THE EXECUTIVE BOARD ANNUAL SESSION 2015
Other reports in 2015
(conference room paper)
Corporate evaluation of the contribution of UN-Women to women’s economic empowerment (June)
Meta-analysis of evaluations managed by UN-Women (Sep)
Corporate evaluation of the contribution of UN-Women to global norms, policies and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment (Sep)
Joint systemic review of the contribution of UN Entities to gender equality development results at the country level (Sep)
Non official reports are reports that are share with the Executive Board for its information. They are conference room papers that are translated in the working languages only. They are posted 4 week sin advance on the website.
In addition to official reports and conference room papers, the Board will also have briefing on different issues of interest to Member States. For example, at every board session, there is a briefing on the operational response of UN-Women at country level, where the operational response of UN-Women at country level is presented. Last year for example we looked at Syria at the first regular session, PNG at the annual session and Colombia at the second regular session.
We will also have this year several formal and informal briefings on Beijing plus 20, the HEFORSHE campaign and several structured dialogues on the financing of the strategic plan.