Contents

• Shoko learns the JPO ropes in New York
• Nadine I: GENDER-AIDS Network
• Nadine II: Putting Presentation Skills Training into Practice
• Evelyn Gives a Presentation on Women and Politics in Thai
• Brown Bag Lunch No. 1: Who's Counting - Valuing Unpaid Work
• Second Gender Training Course NCWA Thailand
• Brown Bag Lunch No. 2: Trafficking in Women
• ESCAP HRD Meeting on Training for Social Development
• Field Trips to Petchaburi Province and Yannawa District, Bangkok for Thai-UNCAP
• Sub-Regional Programme on Trafficking in Women
• Asia-Pacific Regional Strategic Planning Meeting
• Fourth Asia-Pacific Congress of Women in Politics, Taipei 1-3 September 1997
• Second Global Conference of Women in Politics, New Delhi 26-28 February 1998
• Have you Read . . . ?
• Recent visitors
• We also visited/attended

Shoko learns the JPO ropes in New York

Whoever said that it is nice in New York in April was wrong - at least "nice" was not Shoko's experience of the weather when she attended the JPO Induction Course at UNDP Headquarters from March 31 to April 16. The second day she was greeted by snow! Thereafter, the temperature did not rise much above 10 degrees Celsius. Fortunately, Shoko found that the challenge of the Course and the excitement of meeting other JPOs and colleagues in UNIFEM New York kept her warm - although not enough to ward off a cold after the training ended.

During the course, the JPOs were briefed on the goals of UNDP and such important concepts as Sustainable Human Development, Governance, Poverty Alleviation and Gender Mainstreaming that are central to UNDP's work. They were also introduced to the intricacies of the procedures for project development, monitoring and evaluation, budgeting and so on. [We are all hoping that Shoko will now be able to explain these mysteries to us!]

The Gender Mainstreaming Session, led by Ms. Sarah Murison of GIDP-UNDP, focussed on organizational gender mainstreaming within UNDP. The session considered the difficulties of the UNDP work environment for people with family responsibilities -- an important issue for many staff, although not yet for Shoko. She was a little disappointed that there was little discussion of how to mainstream gender in programming at the field level and that the implications of the recently issued Direct Line 11 requiring UNDP to direct 20 per cent of its resources to the advancement of women were also not considered.

Shoko was also quite disappointed that there was not much mention of UNIFEM during the course. She suggests that perhaps on future courses someone from UNIFEM New York could act as a co-facilitator with GIDP-UNDP. This would be a useful opportunity to inform those in UNDP and the JPOs working in related agencies of the work of UNIFEM.

While on the Course, Shoko was able to meet a fellow UNIFEM JPO, Ms. Kristina Kuvaja-Puumalainen who is working in Nigeria. Thanks to the efforts of William Kwan, who set up appointments for Shoko and Kristina, they also met many of the UNIFEM staff working in the Headquarters. Both had very fruitful meetings with the UNIFEM New York staff and came back full of new knowledge and skills, inspired and reinvigorated.

Nadine I: GENDER-AIDS Network

With the support of UNIFEM Bangkok and others, this electronic e-mail network was launched by Nadine France on 8 March to commemorate International Women's Day. In the first two weeks, the site received no less than 135 subscriptions from all around the globe. In the first week, more than 150 files were down-loaded from the site, indicating that it is meeting a real need for information on gender and women's issues in HIV/AIDS.

The total number of members now stands at 170 and feedback has been very positive from all over the world. Members include organizations and individuals from Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, Northern America and Europe working in the area of HIV/AIDS who are interested in a gender approach in their work. The network is providing access to useful and practical information through its electronic storage facility, from which documents can be easily retrieved by members at any time. By contrast with more conventional sources of information, there is no cost for postage or for the publications; computerised text from the materials retrieved can be easily used in preparing presentations and speeches, documents are easily shared with colleagues and of course, the network saves paper. Members can also "post" materials to the network to share with others. Several researchers have contributed very recent bibliographies and articles.

The network is currently holding an international discussion on the definition of gender and sex and developing a practical definition of a gender approach to HIV/AIDS to foster a common understanding of the issues among members.

If you are not already a member of this exciting group, our HIV-AIDS page will tell you how to join.

During Nadine's six months in this office, she has worked tirelessly to promote a more specific focus on women's issues and a gender approach to HIV and AIDS activities in Bangkok and in the region. She is really making a difference and giving UNIFEM a high profile in an area where we have not previously been active. There is a clear need for women's issues and the advantages of a gender approach to be raised in this area, which unfortunately is affecting growing numbers of women in this region.

Nadine was also responsible for preparing a Best Practice Report for the Thailand HIV/AIDS Theme Group which we will be sharing with RPAs in other regions. In addition to presenting details of examples of best practice from UN projects in Thailand, the report specifically examines the gender responsiveness of each project. Perhaps not surprisingly, it found that none of the projects were really gender responsive; most had not progressed beyond the stage of recognizing a need to involve women as well as men! In view of this experience, Nadine is currently trying to identify what gender responsive means in practical terms in the context of HIV/AIDS programmes and projects. As noted above, members of the e-mail network on Gender and HIV/AIDS are also struggling with this issue.

Nadine II: Putting Presentation Skills Training into Practice:

Nadine has been putting her Presentation Skills Training into practice, apparently with great success as the following extract from Bangkok Women's Forum May 1997 Newsletter suggests:

"Nadine France gave a very informative talk on Women and HIV/AIDS. The statistics and facts about this disease are still frightening to many and there is still a lot of misinformation being given, particularly in the lesser developed parts of the world. By the end of 1996, 21.8 million adults were infected by HIV/AIDS and of those 9.2 million were women. The epidemiology of the disease has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Now transmission is mostly through heterosexual intercourse and nearly 30 % of infected women are under 25 years of age. Women most often catch it from their husbands and HIV/AIDS affects women in three ways: HIV infection leading to AIDS and ultimately death; the burden of passing the infection to their unborn children; and often the burden of caring for AIDS sufferers within their immediate circle.

HIV/AIDS is spreading among the female population - 50 % of new infections occur in women because: in many societies, women are usually sexually subordinate; they often have sex with older men; in many cultures women are not able to negotiate "safe" sex practices; there is a lack of sex education for women; and in many countries women are vulnerable to coerced sex in the form of abuse, rape and forced sex work. Even within a relationship, it is difficult to overcome the many years of teaching that the contraceptive pill is better than the condom as a form of family planning. Now condom use is encouraged because it also offers protection against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Physiologically, it is 24 times more easy for a woman to contract HIV/AIDS from a man than vice versa. This is because sores and abrasions occur more easily in the soft inner tissue of the vagina, STDs are less easily detected and treated in women, and women receive more blood transfusions on average than men. Thirty per cent of children born to women with HIV are also infected.

An interesting discussion was on the cost of medication required and insurance policy limitations. Drugs to treat HIV/AIDS are big business and, while developing countries may be used as testing grounds, not many people in these countries would be able to afford the medication. Women infected with HIV are often stigmatized on the assumption that a woman with HIV also has multiple sex partners or is a prostitute. In fact, the main route through which women contract HIV is through heterosexual intercourse with their regular partner.

Nadine also told us about the Phyathai Babies' Home located near the Victory Monument where children of HIV positive mothers are cared for. The children are often separated from their peers and not educated or cared for adequately because of the notion that they are going to die anyway. If the disease does not develop, the child is returned to society but is obviously seriously handicapped. Anyone willing to give some of their time and affection to children there can contact the Home on 245 5635, 246 4092 or 246 8748.

Nadine distributed copies of her overheads containing a lot of information on HIV/AIDS; please ask if you did not get one. We wish Nadine well in her useful research in this are and commend her on this important work to inform people, women in particular, on prevention of the infection."

Shoko has also been asked to address the Bangkok Women's Forum so expect a report of her "graduation address" in a forthcoming issue.

Evelyn Gives a Presentation on Women and Politics in Thai

Evelyn has also given her "graduation address" at the Northeastern Women's Forum held at Khon Kaen University from 2-3 May 1997. The Khon Kaen Forum was the third in a series of mobile workshops, organized by Thai Women Watch (TW2) to bring the message of Beijing to women at the community level all throughout Thailand. Evelyn's presentation on "Transformative Politics: What Is It?" traced the process of women's participation in decision-making from the home and to the community and ultimately national policy making. It described different characteristics and strategies that women could use to promote themselves into the corridors of decision-making, including: education, training and networking.

Brown Bag Lunch No. 1: Who's Counting - Valuing Unpaid Work

Our new series of Brown Bag Lunches organized through the Gender, Women and Development Working Group (GWAD) was launched on Thursday 13 March with a video of Marilyn Ware entitled "Who's Counting". The video was followed by short presentations by Mr Khalid Siddiqui on "Women's Contribution in the National Accounts: Present Practice"and Mr Low Meng Kow, National Accounts expert, both of the ESCAP Statistics Division. Lorraine Corner of UNIFEM also spoke briefly on the "boundary problem": the division between the monetized and non-monetized sectors of the economy and the implications of this for national accounts and labour force statistics.

Mr Siddiqui and Mr Low explained the reasons for the current UN System of National Accounts (UNSNA) which were attacked so effectively by Marilyn Waring in the video and her book. They noted that some of the criticisms really related to the uses to which the SNA have been put, which were not originally part of the rationale for their development. Lorraine presented some arguments from her book Women, Men and Economics to show that the UNSNA failed even in terms of the original objectives. She also showed how the household/market "boundary problem" was the key to the differential gender impact on women and men, since it largely coincides with the differences in their primary gender roles.

A spirited discussion followed among the approximately 30 members of the audience, many of whom were munching on the contents of the "brown bags". they had brought with them. Others ordered lunch from Khun Boon Liew, who seemed to be doing a roaring trade. The audience included the Chief of the ESCAP Statistics Division, members of GWAD, Professor Nisa Xuto from Chulalongkorn University and staff from other ESCAP Divisions and UN agencies. The discussion noted the wide variation among countries in implementation of the formal definitions and procedures outlined in the revised SNA 1993 and the lack of certainty among users as to what has or has not been included in specific countries. Mr Andrew Flatt, Chief of ESCAP Statistics Divison provided some useful clarifications.

The general sense of the discussion was that there was clearly a need for change in order to provide policy makers with more appropriate and complete information. This is widely recognized in developed countries and many are currently engaged in developing satellite accounts or making other improvements. However, there is little sign of recognition of the need among developing countries in the region or of similar measures to change the way in which unpaid labour is valued (i.e NOT valued).

UNIFEM Bangkok issued the first of its Gender Fact Sheets No.1 on Valuation of Unpaid Work in association with the first Brown Bag Forum.

Second Gender Training Course NCWA Thailand

As noted in the first newsletter, Lorraine conducted a second two-day gender training course for staff from the Office of the National Commission for Women's Affairs (NCWA) for Thailand. This second training, held on 11th and 12th March was attended by 21 more senior staff from the C6 and C7 levels in the NCWA, including one male participant from the Office of the Permanent Secretary. Khun Maytinee Bhongsvej of the Mekong River Commission again acted as co-trainer in Thai.

Lorraine and Maytinee are becoming quite an accomplished duo! Although virtually all the participants had previously participated in at least one session of gender training, they seemed to find this training useful in clarifying their understanding. The training dealt particularly with sex and gender differences and the relationship between sex and gender, and the differences among and reasons for WID, GAD and mainstreaming strategies and approaches to policies for the advancement of women.

Brown Bag Lunch No. 2: Trafficking in Women

An impressive and surprising total of 45 people crowded into the UNDP Conference Room from 12:00 to 13:00 on 26 April for the GWAD Second Brown Bag Lunch to hear Ms Suwaree Jaiham from the Occupational Assistance Division, Department of Public Welfare, Royal Thai Government, Ms Vachararutai Boontinand of Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women Thailand (GAATW) and Mr Chris McMahon from Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights (CPCR). The three speakers represented the respective experiences of Government, an NGO focussing primarily on women and an NGO focussing primarily on children in relation to trafficking in Thailand. The audience included staff from a variety of UN agencies, representatives from other NGOs and at least one member of the general public, although the event had only been advertised within the UN system through a notice in the elevator.

Khun Suwaree outlined the work of her Division and the laws in Thailand governing trafficking in women and children. Of particular interest were the details of the new Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act of 1996. The new act makes it a crime to use the services of prostitutes under the age of 18. It also subjects the parents or guardians of children sold into prostitution to penalties.

Mr Chris McMahon pointed out that it is not trafficking as such that CPCR regards as the real problem, but the exploitative situations in which the trafficked children are placed. Some trafficked children are fortunate and are not exploited, while other children who migrate legitimately may end up in exploitative situations. He noted that there is now a better level of protection for Thai children, but unfortunately this does not extend to cover foreign children in Thailand. In order to try to address this problem at its source, CPCR has set up a regional network with NGOs in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Southern China. Staff of the regional NGOs spend up to two months with CPCR to learn how CPCR operates. The network also assists in supporting children after repatriation to their countries of origin. NGOs have estimated that approximately 5000 women and children are trafficked each year from South China and even larger numbers from Myanmar. He emphasized that it is lack of social support system in the countries of origin that leads to trafficking.

Khun Vachararutai noted that GAATW separates the issues of prostitution and trafficking because the latter is not only for the purposes of prostitution. For example, a survey by IOM revealed that Cambodian women and children were being trafficked into Thailand to work as beggars and also as construction workers. She noted the lack of clear definitions of trafficking. The UN Trafficking Convention is restricted to trafficking for prostitution, while ILO and IOM have different definitions. GAATW uses its own definition: "the transportation of women from one place to another in order to subject them to actual and unlawful power by means of violence or the threat of violence, or by abusing a position of authority arising from a relationship or by misleading another person."

GAATW's aim is not to stop the migration of women but to ensure the protection of the human rights of those involved. It works from a human rights perspective to empower women rather than treat them as victims. Difficulties arise in dealing with trafficking because of its cross-border nature. e.g. Japan has legislation and deals with trafficking but ONLY for the trafficking of Japanese women, not for foreign women trafficked INTO Japan, which is of course the major problem. The trafficked women and children lack protection particularly because they are considered to be illegal migrants in the countries to which they are trafficked. It is easier for the authorities to deal with them as illegal migrants rather than as victims of trafficking. Efforts to prevent international labour migration for work merely contributes to the vulnerability of women and children.

An animated discussion followed the three extremely interesting presentations. The need to raise awareness about trafficking in the countries of origin and of providing accurate information to those (and their parents) who may fall victim so that they can protect themselves was noted. [See p. 4 of Gender Issues Fact Sheet No.2] [A visitor from Cambodia noted that there an NGO is using traditional shadow play theatre to tell rural people about trafficking and the kinds of situations that women and children who are trafficked are likely to encounter.] There is also a great need for better data and especially information on the networks of traffickers and recruitment mechanisms. The need for demand reduction was also recognized (if there is a demand, supply is likely to follow), although it is a difficult are for national NGOs to work in. ECPAT is addressing this to some extent in the international tourist industry. The meeting concluded -- reluctantly at 1:15.

UNIFEM Bangkok issued its Gender Fact Sheet No.2 on Trafficking in Women to coincide with the second Brown Bag Forum. Copies of the Gender Fact Sheets are available on request.

ESCAP HRD Meeting on Training for Social Development

18-21 March, Lorraine attended an Expert Group Meeting on Phase III of the Jakarta Plan of Action on Human Resources Development in the ESCAP Region in the UN Convention Centre. She also served as Team Leader for a Workshop that reviewed the specialized training needs of social development personnel on the advancement of women. On the basis of the Workshop output, the Meeting developed a draft curriculum on Gender Perspectives on Women's Issues in Social Development. Lorraine greatly enjoyed working with two experienced trainers in the workshop, Ms Jyoti Tuladhar, Director of the Centre for Women, Children and Community (CWCC), Kathmandu, Nepal and Ms Hina Shah, Director, International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career Development (ICECD) Ahmedabad, India.

Field Trips to Petchaburi Province and Yannawa District, Bangkok for Thai-UNCAP

In 1997, UNIFEM has been playing a much more active role in supporting gender mainstreaming in the work of UNDP and the UN system as a whole. In addition to providing technical support to UNDP, UNIFEM is involved as a member of several of the UN Theme Groups under the Resident Coordinator and as chair of the GWAD.

Cooperation between UNIFEM and the wider UN System has expanded particularly through the development of the Thai-UN Collaborative Action Programme (Thai-UNCAP). UNIFEM, through Lorraine and/or Evelyn has been a regular participant in the various meetings and other activities that led to the formulation of this exciting new UN initiative in Thailand. Thai-UNCAP is a collaboration between the Royal Thai Government and the UN System under the Regional Coordinator focussing specifically on the implementation of the holistic and people-centred thrusts of the Thai Eighth National Social and Economic Development Plan 1997-2001. Collaboration among all parties is guided by the Thai-UN Partnership Board through an Executive Committee and Joint Secretariat. Thai-UNCAP will develop programmes for four pilot provinces -- Phayao, Maha Sarakham, Petchaburi and Pattani -- and in Yannawa District Bangkok. These locations were selected in consultation with the Royal Thai Government based on a number of considerations, including the extent of poverty.

The RPA, together with the Heads of other UN agencies, has been involved in some of the field trips under Thai-UNCAP. Lorraine participated in a one day visit to and meeting with local officials in Petchaburi Province on 14 March and in a half-day meeting with community leaders and officials in Yannawa District, Bangkok on 17 April. At both meetings, she had an opportunity to raise the issue of women's concerns and the importance of integrating a gender perspective into the programmes as they develop. [Unfortunately, gender issues and mainstreaming are not yet well-recognized in Thailand's development policy.] UNIFEM has also been involved in assisting UNDP to ensure the integration of gender into the UN programmes that are being developed under Thai-UNCAP. The GID Facility for joint UNDP-UNIFEM programming in Thailand is being used to assist in this work.

Sub-Regional Programme on Trafficking in Women

UNDP established an informal inter-agency working group on trafficking in women and children to review current and planned UN activities in this and related areas with a view to the development of a UNDP sub-regional project/programme on trafficking in the Mekong Sub-region. Ongoing work of the UN System that is directly or indirectly related to this increasingly important issue included projects dealing with migration, international labour flows and child labour.

The Resident Coordinator sought a framework programme that would facilitate collaboration and coordination among UN agencies, as well as Governments and NGOs, and build on the comparative advantage of the UN System. The working-group suggested that three levels of activities be considered in order to provide a comprehensive framework within which a wide range of relevant activities could be linked and supported. To further develop and refine this concept, a smaller trafficking task force led by UNDP and UNIFEM was established.

At the Grassroots level, the working group considered that a potentially useful contribution of the UN System would be to facilitate creation of a network among Governments, NGOs and community groups working on trafficking or related areas. These networks could be modelled on the mechanisms developed under the UNDP/ESCAP Seven Sisters Project, suitably adapted to the Mekong Sub-Region. They would facilitate collaboration, cooperation and coordination in each country and with similar networks established in neighbouring countries.

At the Provincial level, the working group suggested that the focus could be on bringing about recognition that prostitution, trafficking and related social problems are the direct or indirect outcomes of particular patterns of development and developing appropriate policy responses. At the National level, the lack of mechanisms to facilitate cross-border cooperation and collaboration among the national agencies (police, immigration, social welfare, foreign affairs, NGOs and communities) involved in these issues was seen to be a problem. The working group felt that the UN was well-placed to promote and facilitate the establishment of appropriate sub-regional mechanisms for this purpose. In addition to facilitating horizontal linkages within the Mekong Sub-region, the UN should also seek to strengthen vertical linkages and cooperation among the grassroots, provincial and national components within each country.

UNIFEM is assisting UNDP to identify an experienced international consultant and national assistants who will be engaged to undertake a needs assessment and review of current activities in the Mekong countries. The consultant's report, which it is hoped will be published so as to be readily accessible to other agencies, will provide an appropriate foundation for the development of a trafficking component within the UNDP Mekong Sub-Regional Programme. S/he will work closely with the trafficking task force and keep the informal working group informed on work-in-progress.

Asia-Pacific Regional Strategic Planning Meeting

UNIFEM Bangkok was privileged to host the 1997 Asia-Pacific Regional Strategic Planning Workshop (SPW), which was held in the beautiful Hotel Sofitel in Hua Hin from Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th April. The SPW was attended by the Regional Programme Advisers from Bangkok, New Delhi and Suva, a representative from the Amman office and five staff from New York: Noeleen Heyzer, Director; Marilyn Carr, Economic Empowerment Adviser; Teckie Ghebre-Medhin, acting officer in charge of Asia-Pacific Section; Rema Pai Nanda, Political Empowerment Officer Asia-Pacific Section and Illana Llandsberg-Lewis, Human Rights Programme Officer.

The location was chosen by Noeleen, who assured us that it was only 2 ½ hours drive from Bangkok. Four hours after leaving Bangkok, our bus arrived in Hua Hin! Of course, the well-laden bus may have been a little handicapped by all the paperwork we were carrying. Noeleen's recollection of the time required may reflect the fact that on her last visit she was driven down by Evelyn and her husband Tik, who reputedly has a heavy foot and ambitions of becoming a Thai Niki Lauder. Marilyn and others from New York and other distant places, who arrived in Bangkok late on Wednesday and then had to face the bus ride to Hua Hin on top of their long flights for an early Thursday start, thought the drive to Hua Hin was never going to end! However, we all agreed that the delightful environment of the Sofitel and the excellent facilities and service were worth the effort.

Chandni Joshi from New Delhi and Laufitu Taylor from Suva arrived in Bangkok a couple of days early and spent a very useful day in the UNIFEM Bangkok office with Lorraine sharing their experiences and concerns in order to provide an RPA perspective to the SPW. Unfortunately, the other regional office representative, Nisreen Alami from Amman in Jordan, only arrived late on the evening of the night before the SPW so was unable to join the RPA meeting. Chandni shared her successes in working with the Government of India on the Ninth Development Plan and also on the next Indian census, while Laufitu reported on her work on women in politics and women in trade in the Pacific. The RPAs shared thoughts and experiences on the project formulation process, the usefulness of the draft project criteria form developed by New York and the need to be more explicit in identifying empowering processes in project design. They agreed that they need to share their "doings" more frequently with New York through the Higgins and e-mail systems and also to better document the work, particularly the non-project work, that UNIFEM is doing in the field. To this end, Chandni has promised to put the story of the Ninth Plan processes on paper before the end of 1997.

Noeleen and Teckie were the only two New York staff to arrive in time to join the "official" minibus to Hua Hin. Marilyn, Illana and Rema arrived later in the day, Marilyn from London and Illana and Rema from New York. Nisreen, who travelled down to Hua Hin with Marilyn, only just managed to make it to Bangkok from Amman: she was "bumped" from her confirmed seat in Kuala Lumpur and, after some negotiation with the airline, arrived Business Class in Bangkok but without any luggage. A case of gaining on the swings and losing on the roundabouts!

Although the SPW was very much a working event, it was also a family affair. [As befits the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM is very family friendly.] At Hua Hin Noeleen met up with her husband Fan, who arrived from Malaysia. Lorraine's daughter and son-in-law Kelly Corner and Hou Leong also came along, although they stayed in Evelyn's family condominium further along the beach. Penparn also brought her children Gong and Som, who enjoyed the hotel pools by day and the Hua Hin markets by night. To complete the family flavour, Evelyn with husband Tik and children TJ and Boom Boom also arrived on Saturday after "holding the fort" back at the office. In the evening they treated those of us who were left (several had to leave on Saturday afternoon to catch evening flights) to a great dinner at a local restaurant by the sea.

The SPW was a very stimulating, challenging and enjoyable experience that enabled those from the New York office to learn more of the work, concerns and perspectives of field staff. At the same time, field staff were better informed on the activities, priorities, concerns and perspectives of the New York staff. The SPW focussed on briefing field staff on recent developments in New York and briefing New York staff on the activities and concerns of the RPAs. From this mutual exchange and learning, we look forward to a stronger Asia-Pacific Programme and therefore a stronger UNIFEM.

Fourth Asia-Pacific Congress of Women in Politics, Taipei 1-3 September 1997

The Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP) is organizing the Fourth Asia-Pacific Congress of Women in Politics to be held on 1-3 September 1997 at the Grand Hotel in Taipei. The Congress will be hosted by the Chinese Women in Politics Institute (CWPI), an affiliate of CAPWIP. The theme of the Congress will be Why Women, What Politics? The Practice of Transformative Politics. Deadline for registration is 31 July 1997. The registration fee is US $50. For further information please contact:

Second Global Conference of Women in Politics, New Delhi 26-28 February 1998

The Global Network of Women in Politics in organizing the Second Global Congress of Women in Politics to be held on 26-28 February 1998 in New Delhi. It will be hosted by the South Asian Network for Political Empowerment of Women. For further information please contact:

Ms Melena de Montis of Red Latino Americana Y De El Caribe "Mujeres Y Politica" recently informed Remy Rikken that her organization has been promoting the Conference and has published in Spanish memoirs of the First Global Congress on Women in Politics held in Huairou. They have also formulated a project and are raising funds for their First Sub-Regional (Central America, Mexico and Caribbean) seminar on women in politics.

Have you Read . . . ?

I would like to share with you some of the interesting reading that has crossed my desk over the last month or two.

Gender and Development Volume 5 No. 1 February 1997. I found the special issue on Organizational Culture particularly fascinating. This is an excellent and extremely useful journal with very topical short articles written in readable style. Of particular interest were:

Goetz, Anne Marie. "Managing organizational change: the "gendered" organization of space and time", a study of gender policy in BRAC, the well-known Bangladesh NGO;

Husseini, Randa. "Promoting women in entrepreneurs in Lebanon: the experience of UNIFEM" (compulsory reading for all UNIFEM staff).

Also received were:

East-West Center Program on Population, 1997, "Change Comes Slowly for Women in Rural Bangladesh," Asia-Pacific Population and Policy Number 41 April.

This article summarized the results of a recent study of women's status in two rural areas of Bangladesh. It showed that rural Bangladeshi women have little authority in decision making on household expenditures or other family matters, including decisions that concern their own or their children's health. One-third even reported having little say in allocating money that they earned themselves. Contrary to expectations, more educated women were less physically mobile, and the wives of educated men were the least mobile. This suggests that rather than changing women's behaviour, education (and wealth) tends to support some prevailing social norms. However, educated women had much more decision-making authority than less educated women, and the wives of educated men also had more decision- making authority. The results indicate that programmes that target only individual women - such as providing education or work - may fail to raise the status of women in the absence of efforts to change broader institutions and attitudes.

Recent visitors

Among our recent visitors have been:

Ms Nguyen Thi Luan, Deputy Head of Personnel, Vietnam Women's Union (VWU); Ms Doan Thi Tien, Deputy Chief, Female Youth Council, Youth Union of Vietnam; Mr Trinh Quoc Tuan, Head of Faculty of Scientific Socialist, Hi Chi Minh Academy; Ms Tran Bich Thuy, International Relations Department, VWU; Ms Nguyen Thi Su'a, Director, Women's Training School I, VWU; and Ms Tran Thi Thuy, Deputy Director, Women's Training School II, VWU Mme Thi Luan and colleagues visited on 15 April while on a study tour to gain experience and collect materials on training and research on gender issues and gender analysis.

Ms Wang Wanying, Kunming, now our consultant for the documentation of Rabbit Raising in Shandong Province Project. Wang Wanying, who happened to be in Bangkok on other business, visited our office after we received her cv from a colleague in Kunming, where she is based. We subsequently arranged for to undertake the Shandong consultancy [28 March]

Ms Soon Young Chung, International Cooperation Department, Korean Women's Development Institute, Seoul [28 April]

Ms Sultana Alam, Gender Expert, UNFPA Country Support Team to discuss cooperation in relation to her forthcoming Lao UNFPA Project formulation mission [29 April]

Khun Sri Watana, Director, NCWA Thailand [29 April] to discuss the move to upgrade the NCWA over a two-year period to department status

Ms Gisela Mahler, former UNIFEM JPO New Delhi, visited with a South Asian study tour group on women and food technology to obtain current information on UNIFEM in East and Southeast Asia [30 April]

Mr Thierry Noyelle, Consultant for UNDP on trade, investment and development

Dr Lynn Thiesmeyer and Ms Mariko Komiya, School of Information Studies, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

We also visited/attended

International Women's Day Celebrations of Thai NGOs in the UN Convention Centre [3 and 4 March] and of the ONCWA [7 March]

Meeting on Poverty Alleviation with the Prime Minister and the UN System through Thai-UNCAP at Government House (called by the Prime Minister) [13 March]

Akiko Yamauchi, Gender Programme Advisor (outgoing) and Yukiko Yamamoto, Gender Programme Advisor (incoming) International Cooperative Alliance ROAP New Delhi [26 March]

Launch of Thai UNCAP at Government House [27 March]

UNDP- National Economic Social Development Board Seminar on Social and Economic Indicators, [2 April]

ESCAP WID Unit Expert Group Meeting on the Feminization of Poverty [15-16 April]

UNAIDS Theme Group Meeting, UNICEF [16 April]

David Brooke, NZ Embassy Development Counsellor [17 April]

A Regional Cooperation in the Greater Mekong Area on the Promotion and Protection of Children's Rights [which also touched on trafficking in women and girls] held at the Ramana Hotel. The meeting was organized by Child Rights ASIANET, the National Commission on Women's Affairs of Thailand and the Royal Thai Police in cooperation with Office of the Attorney General of Thailand and the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University. Funding was provided by AusAID.[17 - 18 April]

ESCAP 53rd Commission Session [28 April to hear opening address by Dr Nafis Sadik as the Commission Session coincided with the Regional Strategic Planning Meeting]

Heads of Agencies Meeting to meet Dr Nafis Sadik, Director, UNFPA [29 April]

UN Working Group on Trafficking on Women [Meetings during March and April led to formulation of a Task Force chaired by UNIFEM to assist UNDP to develop a project proposal on Trafficking on Women for the UNDP Regional Programme.]

Briefing by Ms Suwira Chaturvedi Consultant with the ESCAP Seven Sisters Project. The briefing was arranged by UNIFEM in relation to the Trafficking on Women Working groups and was also attended by representatives from two Thai NGOs working in related areas. [30 April].