The post-2015 development agenda needs a comprehensive goal to promote the equality of women and men, according to panelists at a major UN forum on women’s issues and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Speakers at the forum, held 4-5 December 2013, also said that the empowerment of women and girls should be woven into all other future goals for sustainable development or poverty eradication because women worldwide play a key role in such issues and are greatly affected by them.

“There was very strong and consistent support for a stand-alone goal on women’s equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment,” said John Hendra, deputy executive director of UN Women, summarizing the first day of the “Forum on Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls – The road ahead.”

“There was also equally very strong support for the integration of gender equality across all the goals, across the whole framework, especially in the area of sustainability and global partnership,” said Mr. Hendra.

“In short, I think we heard a very strong call for women and girls to really be at the center, to really be at the heart, of the next development agenda,” he said.

Sponsored by UN Women in preparation for the 58^th Commission on the Status of Women, which is scheduled for March 2014, the forum brought together UN ambassadors, UN agency officials, and civil society representatives to discuss progress on MDG 3, which seeks to improve women’s education, and to consider new goals for women after 2015, when the MDGs expire.

Panelists said the world had made significant headway towards achieving MDG 3, which specifically called for the elimination of “gender disparity in primary and secondary education.” But speakers also said it did not go far enough, failing to address disparities beyond education.

“There are structural sources of gender inequality that are not adequately dealt with in the MDGs,” said James Heintz, a research professor at the University of Massachusetts. “And unless you address those structural sources of gender inequality, you will not achieve the MDGs.”

Dr. Heintz and others said structural inequities that set women apart from men in attaining development goals include issues related to unpaid care work, reproductive rights, pay and job differences in the labor market, and pervasive violence against women.

Indeed, violence against women was identified by a number of speakers as being an impediment to sustainable development and poverty eradication.

“On a daily basis, we deal with cases of women and girls being raped, girls being sold, forced into marriage, underage marriage, or girls being exchanged for a crime someone else has committed,” said Manizha Naderi, executive director of Women for Afghan Women, which has some 25 shelters or facilities in ten provinces across Afghanistan.

“The elimination of violence against women is very important because it addresses every other single MDG,” said Ms. Naderi. “Not being able to attend school is a form of violence. Not having access to health care is a form of violence. So in the next set of development goals, I would really recommend that violence against women is addressed.”

Radhika Balakrishnan, executive director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, said that a human rights-based approach to new goals can help to address such structural problems for women and girls.

Stopping violence against women is “critical and an important and we need to address it, but we need to address it in a much larger framework in which the multiplicity of issues that women’s lives confront” are addressed, said Dr. Balakrishnan.

Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the UN, said concern for women and girls “should be integrated more fully” into the next round of goals.

“We must all therefore recognize that women and girls are in every culture and society, whatever the differences, vital, effective and efficient contributors to families, communities, societies, and economies,” said Amb. Nusseibeh.

“Investing in women and girls, particularly their education, brings significant and measurable improvements in health, nutrition, survival rates, income, and well-being of entire households,” she said.

Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations, said one element of any comprehensive framework to advance the rights of women should be a greater emphasis on community-based efforts.

“An important actor, yet one that is seldom mentioned in relation to the development and implementation of development frameworks, is the community” said Ms. Dugal, an official discussant at the Forum.

“There is a tendency to overlook the relevance of community to human development,” she said, adding that “community is also the locus of culture.”

“And it is at the deep level of culture – of worldviews, attitudes, values and beliefs – where the most powerful and sustainable transformation can occur,” said Ms. Dugal.

Ms. Dugal’s comments were echoed by Lulu Xingwana, Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities for South Africa, who also stressed the importance of working with communities in the next set of development goals.

“Governments cannot do it alone,” said Ms. Xingwana. “This is what we do in our country when we address gender-based violence – we involve the government and the community, including local leaders and religious leaders. Without community involvement, we may not succeed, or even make an impact.”