[New York, 10 May 2010] No agreement between Member States was achieved in the detailed discussion of the draft resolution on the new UN women's agency that took place at the UN on Friday 30 April and Monday 3 May. In the meeting the Member States went through the draft paragraph by paragraph, making suggestions for new language.

Egypt who spoke on behalf of the Joint Coordination Committee (G77 countries, the Non-aligned Movement & China) presented some very hard positions, requiring for example that the new entity should respect national and regional cultural particularities.

On the other hand, many countries made substantial improvements to the draft text by suggesting among other things language on civil society participation and a deadline for when the entity is to be operational (1 January 2011).

The main issue that continues to divide the developing and developed countries is the Executive Board. EU, USA, Canada, and Japan were very clear that they want the new entity to be governed by the UNDP/UNFPA Board. Egypt on behalf of JCC, as well as Russia argued consistently that a new Executive Board should be established. Furthermore, they demanded that the new governing body should have the geographical representation of Commission on the Status of Women or the Human Rights Council. This would mean that more seats would be allocated for developing countries and less for donor countries than currently in the UNDP Board.

The facilitators of the System-Wide Coherence process who prepared the first draft are expected to send a new version of the whole draft System-Wide Coherence resolution, including the section on the gender equality entity, to Member States later this week. The Member States are going to meet to discuss the new text on 25th May.