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STU/66th Council/14/019
22 October 2014

195 EX/5: Follow-up to decisions and resolutions adopted by the Executive Board and the General Conference
at their previous sessions

Part V: Human resources issues

A. Geographical distribution and gender balance of the staff of the Secretariat

STU Addendum

Paragraph 22, page 6, of document 195 EX/5 Part V, concludes that “as of June 2014, near gender parity has been achieved in the Professional and above category (P/D) (49% are women)”. STU would like to emphasize that this conclusion does not accurately reflect the detailed information set out in the document, which shows clearly that “women’s representation is high in the junior levels, with 58% at P-1/P-2 level and 54% at P-3 level. At P-4 and P-5 levels, women represent 46% and 36% respectively”. Finally, as of 1 June 2014, only 34% of management posts were occupied by women.

STU is of the opinion that women in 34% and 36% of management posts does not correspond to “nearly established” parity.

Accordingly, STU would like the conclusion in paragraph 22 to be amended as follows: “Gender parity is well established in junior grades but is still to be implemented in the most senior grades”.

STU would also like the recommendation to take note of the situation and to invite the Director-General to make additional efforts to achieve gender parity at all grades in the Organization.

The recommendation might then read as follows:

2. Takes note of the information provided in document 195 EX/5 Part V regarding the situation of the geographical distribution and the gender balance of staff as at 1 June 2014;

3. Requests the Director-General to improve geographical representation in Secretariat positions at all levels, in particular for those countries which are non-represented or under-represented, and to improve gender parity in particular at senior and director grades, while recalling that appointments are first and foremost made on the basis of competence and merit, and to submit to it at its 197th session a report on the results achieved.

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