Areas of Convergence Between the Intermediaries of Change Center’s Report and CEDAW General Recommendation No. 41

By: Suhaib Ahmad Rababa

Executive Director of the Intermediaries of Change Center for Sustainable Development (ICC)

I am closely following the outcomes of the 93rd session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), particularly the adoption of General Recommendation No. 41 on dismantling gender stereotypes, bias, stigma, and unequal power relations, as a new global normative document that broadens the interpretation of States Parties’ obligations to address the structural and social root causes that hinder the achievement of substantive equality for women.

This document is of particular importance to us at the Intermediaries of Change Center for Sustainable Development (ICC), following the Center’s submission of a specialized contribution on the situation of women in Jordan during the 93rd session. The contribution focused particularly on rural women, geographic inequalities, economic and political participation, and access to resources, services, and decision-making.

As the Center’s Executive Director, I was directly involved in the technical preparation of the report, from developing its analytical framework and linking the Center’s field experience to the provisions of the CEDAW Convention and the Committee’s previous concluding observations, through reviewing the evidence and findings accumulated from our projects and consultations across Jordan’s governorates, to formulating the questions and recommendations that we considered important to present to the Committee in the context of its review of Jordan.

One of the report’s key principles was that assessing progress should not be limited to the existence of legislation, strategies, or programmes, but should instead address a more fundamental question: Do these policies deliver substantive and measurable equality for women, particularly those living outside major urban centres?

Notably, General Recommendation No. 41 includes several approaches that clearly align with the priorities highlighted in the Center’s report. It places particular emphasis on rural women and underscores the importance of strengthening their access to political life, education, employment, business, and technology. It also establishes links between gender stereotypes, unpaid care responsibilities, and access to loans, credit, and business financing.

These issues have emerged clearly from the Center’s field experience with women across Jordan’s governorates. Our programmes and consultations have shown that training alone is insufficient to achieve economic empowerment if barriers related to transportation, childcare, financing, access to markets and services, and technology persist.

The Committee also emphasized the need to develop measurable quantitative and qualitative indicators to monitor the implementation of policies and plans and assess their impact, a key area of focus in the Center’s report. We called for moving beyond measuring success by the number of training sessions, participants, or programmes delivered, towards assessing deeper outcomes, such as employment opportunities and income, business sustainability, access to finance and markets, social protection, and meaningful participation in decision-making.

In the area of political and public participation, the new General Recommendation also aligns with the Center’s call to move women, particularly young women and rural women, beyond mere attendance and participation in activities and dialogues towards meaningful engagement in political parties, leadership, candidacy, and decision-making at both the local and national levels.

This approach has been part of the Center’s ongoing work, including its experience with the Reef Space Project: A Safe Political Space for Rural Youth, which has worked to establish channels of dialogue between young women and men in rural communities, political parties, and decision-makers, while strengthening the transition from civic participation to political engagement and leadership.

The General Recommendation also places clear emphasis on the intersecting forms of discrimination faced by women with disabilities, refugees, and migrant women, as well as the role of technology, digital spaces, and the media in either reinforcing or challenging gender stereotypes. It further underscores the importance of having national equality and human rights institutions and mechanisms equipped with adequate capacities and resources.

This convergence does not mean that CEDAW General Recommendation No. 41 was a direct result of the Intermediaries of Change Center’s report. It is a global document informed by extensive contributions and consultations with organizations, experts, networks, and institutions from around the world. However, the clear alignment between several of the priorities raised by the Center and the approaches adopted by the Committee reinforces the importance of bringing field-based experiences from governorates and rural communities into national and international policymaking and human rights standard-setting processes.

For us, the true value of this process lies not merely in preparing a report and submitting it to the United Nations, but in bringing the experiences of women and young women in rural communities from the local level into international human rights discussions, and then translating these international standards and recommendations back into the national context as tools for accountability, policy development, and impact measurement.

The Intermediaries of Change Center for Sustainable Development (ICC) will continue to follow the outcomes of the 93rd session of the CEDAW Committee, particularly Jordan’s List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LOIPR), and monitor the extent to which the priorities raised by the Center and civil society are reflected in the questions the Committee addresses to the Jordanian State. The Center will also continue working with women, young people, national institutions, and civil society organizations to translate international recommendations and standards into practical, measurable, and monitorable actions.