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“The strategic plan before you is our shared roadmap for the next few years,” Bachelet declared at the annual session of the agency’s executive board at the U.N. headquarters in New York. “Like any good map, it sets out a general direction to be followed. We will need to come back to it regularly to see if we need mid-course corrections and whether we are on the right track.”

The plan builds on the vision and 100-day action plan unveiled by UN Women in January and includes the longer-term vision, goals and results up to 2017.

The vision of UN Women is:

"The UN-Women vision is a world in which societies are free of gender-based discrimination, where women and men have equal opportunities, where the comprehensive economic and social development of women and girls is ensured so that they can lead the changes that they want to see, where gender equality and women’s empowerment are achieved and where women’s rights are upheld in all efforts made towards further development, human rights, peace and security."

The current plan is due for review in 2013. It outlines six goals that U.N. Women aims to achieve over the next six years:

- Increase women’s leadership and participation in all areas affecting their lives.

- Increase women’s access to economic opportunities and empowerment.

- Prevent violence against women and girls and boost access to survivor services.

- Boost women’s leadership in peace and security and humanitarian response.

- Strengthen the responsiveness of national budgets and development plans to gender equality.

- Ensure visible link between agreements and operational plans to increase attention to gender equality.

Aside from these six development-focused goals, the strategic plan also includes four priorities for the agency’s management team which focus on gathering international support for UN Women and cross agency work.

Bachelet identified three elements that she said are essential for U.N. Women to fulfill the goals and vision outlined in the strategic fund: focus, financial resources and strategic presence at the national level.

On focus, Bachelet said U.N. Women is developing a “minimum package” of support services based on priorities set by its partner countries and identified by U.N. country teams. On the issue of financial resources, she said the agency is “finalising a comprehensive partnership strategy which seeks to expand the current donor base, to deepen existing partnerships with increased level of financial contributions, and to diversify our supporters by building up strong partnerships with the private sector and foundations.”

Bachelet also identified U.N. Women’s criteria for determining which countries it should have a strong national presence in:

“We propose a particular focus on LDCs and middle income countries with high inequality as well as countries in conflict and post-conflict situations with particular insecurity for women."

To read the Strategic Plan, click here.