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NEWS FROM THE FIELDAugust - October 1999
Contents
More Staff changes in E&SEAROIn October we were very happy to welcome Kellie Caught, who has joined us for 6 months as Information Officer under the Thailand Australian Young Ambassador's Programme (TAYAP). She arrived just as we were preparing for the UN Day and Beijing +5 exhibitions so was soon up and running (literally!) to help Zareen put these very successful exhibitions together. Kellie has also been working closely with Geoff and the rest of the staff to put together many of the pieces that you will be reading in this update of our web site. We would also like to welcome Siriwan Grisurapong, our new HIV/AIDS Consultant who will represent UNIFEM E&SEARO on the HIV/AIDS Theme Group and other AIDS-related activities. UNIFEM collaboration with UNDP-APGEN ProjectOn 5th and 6th August, Lorraine joined the Regional Resource Group for the UNDP Regional Project Asia-Pacific Gender Equality Network (APGEN for short) for a workshop on the Paid and Unpaid Work component of the project which is being executed by the ESCAP Statistics Division. This innovative component draws together the experiences of three time allocation surveys initiated independently at the country level in India, the Philippines and Republic of Korea to address a key gender issue: the counting and valuation of unpaid work, most of which is done by women. As this relates closely to E&SEARO's ongoing work on gender statistics, UNIFEM was invited to join both the Regional Resource Group and the Project Advisory Council. APGEN has its own web site with more details. Our very own Webmaster, Geoff Corner, is currently giving the APGEN web site a comprehensive facelift which should be completed by mid-December, so make sure that you go back then for more up-to-date APGEN information. UNIFEM Director visits the Asia-Pacific RegionAlthough her busy schedule did not bring her closer to the E&SEARO office than the end of a telephone line from Singapore, Director Noeleen Heyzer visited several countries in the Asia-Pacific region in July and August. Her first stop was as the keynote speaker at the Conference on Older Women in Asia, held in Singapore and co-sponsored by the Singapore National Committee for UNIFEM. While in Singapore, she launched the Singapore UNIFEM National Committee at a very successful dinner and art auction organized under the sponsorship of Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large, and Dr. Aline Wong, Senior Minster of State, Health and Education. Noeleen also met with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and presented a lunchtime seminar to Ministry staff on the challenges facing multilateral organizations. On July 14-19, Noeleen visited China where she was accompanied by Chen Lanyan at meetings with Ms Gu Xiulian, a Vice President of the All China Women's Federation and Deputy Director of the National Working Committee on Women and Children, and with Liang Dan, Director-General of the Centre for International Cooperation on Economic and Technology Exchange, which is under the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. She also met with the UN Resident Coordinator, Ms Kirsten Leitner, and members of the UN Country Team in Beijing. Noeleen travelled to a project with laid-off women workers in Tianjin to be implemented by the Women's Federation with financial support from UNDP and AusAid, and visited the Shannxi Women's Federation in Xian. UNIFEM gained visibility in China through Noeleen's interview with the China Daily and coverage of her inauguration of the first public viewing of the UNIFEM Videoconference on Violence Against Women in local newspapers, including People's Daily, China Daily, and Women's Daily. Excerpts of the Videoconference were later on shown on a Beijing TV (BTV) program called "Hello, the World" and also in the "Half of the Sky" program of China Central TV (CCTV), both of which featured Noeleen prominently. From China, Noeleen travelled to Mongolia, where on the initiative of the Government of Mongolia, she signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government. In Mongolia, Noeleen met with the UN System and with local women's NGOs. Finally, Noeleen also visited the Philippines to act as a resource person for a Global Workshop to Prepare NGOs and Women's Groups for the WTO Seattle Conference. The workshop was organized on a theme of "Economic Crisis, Social Consequences and Peoples' Response" and aimed to generate concrete ideas for follow up action. While in Manila, Noeleen met with the UN System and with the UNIFEM National Committee for the Philippines. In Manila, Noeleen enjoyed a very moving performance of an educational drama on violence against women entitled: "Tumawag Kay Libby Manaog" at the Teatrillo Casa Manila in Intramuros. The play was devised and staged by the PETA Theatre Group in collaboration with the National Family Violence Prevention Programme and was part of the UNIFEM Campaign to End Violence against Women activities. The RPA continues to Ramble!Lorraine thinks that this refers to her travels - some of us may have other ideas! Again, she has been almost constantly on the move, keeping abreast of office affairs by email. Sadly, her travels included an unexpected short visit to Australia 17-20 August to attend her mother's funeral in the small township of Digby, Victoria where her mother was born and Lorraine grew up. Gender Training Seoul, Korea 22 August - 1 SeptemberAt the invitation of UNDP Seoul, the Korean Women's Development Institute (KWDI) and the Presidential Commission on Women's Affairs (PCWA), Lorraine conducted no less than four gender training workshops during a rather hectic visit to Seoul. The week began with a three-day gender workshop on 23-25 August for staff from KWDI, a number of Korean NGOs, and UN staff funded by KWDI and the UN Resident Coordinator. The workshop was conducted in both English and Korean with the assistance of Dr Yeong-Ran Park of KWDI. Yeong-Ran was a very effective co trainer despite having been brought in at the last minute to replace Dr Soon-Young Chung, Director General of KWDI, who was unable to participate due to the call of other urgent business. The same group of approximately 30 participants also attended a two-day workshop on gender analysis held the following Monday and Tuesday 30-31 August. The Workshop series was officially opened by the Director, Dr In-Duck Park, and Mr Somsey Norindr, Resident Representative for UNDP and Resident Coordinator for the UN System. Participation in the KWDI workshops was very disciplined, the facilities were excellent and Lorraine was pleased to find a small number of men among the participants. In between, Lorraine conducted a one-day workshop on Thursday 26th introducing gender and gender mainstreaming to the staff of the Presidential Commission on Women's Affairs. On this occasion, the Deputy Director of the Commission, Ms Christy Lee, acted as the co-facilitator. The smaller number of participants at this workshop included newly recruited staff (some on their first day in the Commission!) and representatives from women's NGOs. On the Friday, Lorraine and Christy again teamed up for the daunting task of introducing gender to no less than 120 young people at the Civil Service Training Institute. The 100 young men and 20 young women had just qualified in Korea's extremely competitive entrance examination for the civil service and were undertaking their entry-level training for a career in public service. Many of the young men were "Sensitive New Age Guys" who were accustomed to helping their wives with housework. Since they were just beginning their careers, having just completed up to five years of study for the examination, many were earning less than their wives and felt they were quite progressive in terms of gender roles. It was clear that many were having trouble seeing what they had to learn about gender! Lorraine and Christy tried to challenge them to see that gender is about institutions, institutional cultures and policies rather than just the willingness of individual men (and women) to change roles. They asked whether these young men expected to continue to be so helpful around the house once they embarked on their careers in a civil service where ambitious young officers are expected to work long hours and to socialize in the evenings in order to gain advancement. And what would be the career prospects for the 20 young women in this very competitive civil service when the demands of career and the needs of their children and families clashed? With only a short afternoon and such large numbers, it is difficult to know whether the questions had an impact. However, Lorraine was fascinated to hear the trainees reports on changing gender relations between the generations in their own families. They described the grandparent generation where patriarchal Grandfather ruled supreme, a parent generation where Mothers had some say but Fathers still never set foot in the kitchen, and their own generation where there was considerable role change at an individual level, but much less change in overall social structures. Sons who routinely shared the housework in their own homes still could not wash a dish in their mothers' kitchens. Instead, one described how he meekly sat with his father to be waited on by his wife during visits to his family home!
Between the workshops,
Lorraine found time to meet with an old colleague, Dr Mi-Hye Roh, former
Deputy Director of KWDI and now Assistant Mayor in charge of Women's
Affairs Division in the Seoul Municipality. Dr Roh is one of six Assistant
Mayors, which is a Grade I position in the civil service, in Seoul
Municipality. However, as the Assistant Mayor for Women's Policy, she is
the only Assistant Mayor to work directly under the Mayor. Board Meeting of APHADA, Bangkok - 2 SeptemberLorraine attended part of the Board Meeting of APHADA, the ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association which is a potential partner in the UNIFEM E&SEARO Globalization, Gender and Markets programme currently being developed. APHADA is a non-profit, non-commercial organization with NGO status within ASEAN that promotes the total development of both traditional and contemporary crafts. The meeting, attended by representatives from all ten ASEAN countries, as well as UNESCO, UNIFEM and a private sector adviser, proposed some changes to the constitution to make the organization more service oriented and locate it more firmly within the context of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) and globalization. The meeting also explicitly discussed the link between crafts and gender issues and some possibilities for UNIFEM-APHADA collaboration. Asia-Pacific NGO Symposium Stakeholders Panel 2 SeptemberFollowing the APHADA meeting, Lorraine drove out to the Kampaengsaen Campus of Kasetsart University at Nakhon Pathom, the venue of the Asia-Pacific NGO Symposium Asia-Pacific Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace to be a speaker on the Stakeholders' Panel. Panelists were asked to present their vision for women in Asia-Pacific in the future. Lorraine's presentation focused on three lessons learned in UNIFEM E&SEARO's work over recent years. The first was the importance of mainstreaming, in which she distinguished between mainstreaming women and mainstreaming a gender approach, and argued that both are essential. The second was the importance of women's groups working together across differences, learning to build on their individual strengths and to accept and respect differences. The third was the continuing need for and the importance of advocacy, particularly at the highest levels. She noted that the women's movement has been quite successful in advocacy among women themselves, while development agencies have also had success in raising awareness of gender issues within particular sectors. However, the most senior policy makers in the Cabinet and particularly those in key economic and political ministries such as Finance, Treasury and Foreign Affairs remain largely unaware of the entire mainstreaming debate. This must be our target for the future. Thus, Lorraine's vision for the future focused on successful mainstreaming of women and gender at the highest levels of decision making, and solidarity on the importance of this among women's groups from all walks of life and at all levels of society. The Symposium is written up on our Beijing+5 page, which also has links to other information. Mission to Cambodia 8-10 SeptemberLorraine attended the First National Conference on Gender and Development in Cambodia, held by the Ministry for Women's and Veteran's Affairs and the GAD Office on the theme of Looking Back, Moving Forward: Women, Men and Change in Cambodia. The GAD Office is the core of the Gender and Development Programme for Cambodia which coordinates the GAD Network of Cambodia. The network comprises over 60 development organizations, including NGOs, UN and donor agencies, government departments and ministries working on gender issues and concerns. The Conference, presented in both English and Khmer, was attended by more than 120 delegates, opened by the Minister H.E. Ms Mu Sochua and closed by the acting Prime Minister, H.E. Sar Kheng. In addition to attending the conference, Lorraine met with Minister Sochua and her staff on Friday prior to her afternoon departure to provide technical advice on various issues raised by the Ministry. Discussions focused particularly on the National Policy for Women, the Five Year Strategic Plan of the Ministry and a project proposal Building Together. Toward Achieving Gender Equity and Social Development prepared for submission to UNDP. While in Phnom Penh, Lorraine met with UNIFEM partners Nivana Cheng of Lotus Pond Foundation and the Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre and enjoyed a pleasant lunch with the new UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Ms Dominique Ait Ouyahia-McAdams. UNIFEM-UNFPA Project Workshop Indonesia 19-23 SeptemberThe main purpose of this mission was to attend the first workshop to be held under project INS/99/PO2 held at the Hotel Novotel in Bogor. Although it was the first step in the implementation of INS/99/PO2, the workshop was actually organized and financed by CIDA Canada Women's Support Project II (WSP II) because funding for the UNIFEM/UNFPA Project has not yet been released. This is an indication of the high level of cooperation that has been achieved between the UNIFEM and Canadian projects that are both working with the Ministry for Role of Women and share related objectives. The workshop involved 46 participants from the Ministry for Role of Women, Police, National Commission on VAW, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Centre for Population and Manpower Studies), Department of Labour (section dealing with women overseas workers), Department of Justice, Department of Foreign Affairs, and NGOs, including KOWANI, Solidaritas Perempuan, Mitra Perempuan, Rifka Anisa from Yogyakarta, and others from Aceh, South Sulawesi, and Surabaya. The workshop commenced with each participant contributing a short statement on the experience related to VAW that made the greatest impression on them. The experiences shared related to domestic violence, rape, sexual violence against children, violence in the work place, sexual harassment, state violence and marital rape. Many participants referred to their involvement in activities to eliminate VAW, others explained how VAW impinged on their routine work, some related their experience in witnessing the testimonies of victims, while others shared personal experiences. During the session, the assistant to the facilitator noted the main points on a white board. The facilitator then very skilfully summarized the experiences in a nicely illustrated slide entitled "Who are we?" and "Our experiences". These were grouped under the headings:
The session revealed both the extent of participants' experience of VAW, and of existing initiatives to address the issue. Although the introductions were rather long, the session was very valuable in forging a strong sense of common commitment.
Mr Cholil Abdullah,
Secretary to the Minister, then summarized the outputs of the January 1999
seminar funded by UNFPA as the first step under this initiative. He
emphasized the understandings and agreements reached on the importance of
a partnership between government and NGOs, a Zero Tolerance Policy as the
principal policy objective, and a National Plan of Action as the principal
project output. He also emphasized the importance of gender equality in
eliminating VAW, as well as being a principal focus of national policy.
The strategic approach is gender mainstreaming in all sectors. The
elimination of VAW is the responsibility of, and requires efforts from,
the entire society, including all individuals, community and civil society
organizations, not just government. Women's rights, including the right to
a life free of violence, are basic human rights. Preparation of a national
plan of action requires a process and the active participation of society
as a whole, particularly NGOs and the mainstream government agencies, in
order to be regarded as a national POA. After several formal presentations by both national and international experts, the workshop broke into small groups in order to identify the consultative processes through which the POA would be developed. It was interesting to watch the interactions between NGO activists and Government personnel, and impressive to see that the topics identified by the workshop included such things as the role of militarism in violence against women. In the Indonesian context, this is a very exciting and innovative project. Women in APEC Meeting, ONCWA Thailand, 25 SeptemberLorraine was invited by the Office for the National Commission on Women's Affairs (ONCWA) in the Prime Minister's Office to speak at a round-table discussion on Women and APEC with an emphasis on the case of Thailand. The round table was organized by ONCWA in cooperation with the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Regent Hotel and attended by economic policy makers, leaders of women's groups and leading women in the business sector. The objective of the discussion was to emphasise the importance of women in the economy and the role of women in economic cooperation, particularly in the context of APEC which has recently introduced a Gender Mainstreaming Framework to be implemented across all APEC fora and bodies. Other speakers were Mr Kobsak Chutikul, Director-General, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms Siti Nugraha Mauludiah, Program Director, APEC Secretariat, Dr Narongchai Akarasanee, Senator and Mrs Oranuj Osatananda, Commissioner ONCWA. The session was moderated by Associate Professor Dr Pawadee Tonguthai, Commissioner, ONCWA.
A number of interesting
points emerged during the discussion. One prominent businesswomen from a
non-traditional sector for women (motor spare parts) reported that she
often did not get information on APEC activities. The Ministry for Foreign
Affairs pointed out that they normally disseminate such information
through the Chambers of Commerce and Industry etc. However, most women are
not members of the Chambers, partly due to the difficulty of managing
meetings and their family obligations also due to the rather masculine
culture of many of these organizations which does not encourage women to
participate.
ILO Regional Meeting to Review Beijing +5, Manila, 5-10 OctoberOn 5 October, Lorraine set out on the first leg of a three-country mission to attend the ILO Regional Consultation on the Follow-Up to the Beijing Platform for Action in the World of Work - Progress and Challenges in Manila, flying on to Kobe in Japan and then to Pyongyang via Beijing. The Meeting, attended by representatives from Employers, Trades Unions and Governments, as well as observers from UN agencies and NGOs, was organized in cooperation with the Department of Labor and Employment, Government of the Philippines. The purpose was to review implementation of the relevant sections of the Beijing Platform for Action in Asia Pacific. Lorraine was able to meet with many UNIFEM partners in Manila, including: Indai Sajor of ASCENT; staff from ISIS Manila; Gillian Brown, from the Asia-Pacific Gender Unit in the World Bank Washington; Jurgette Honculada, Indai Ofreneo, Rina David, Karen Tanaka members of the writing team for the UNIFEM monograph on the history of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW); Manoshi Mitra of the Asian Development Bank; Marian Nash, UNIFEM marketing consultant on DRK/92/WO1 in Pyongyang; Tessam Castillo, former Executive Director of the NCRFW; Daphne Roxas, of Philippine Scoreboard for the Beijing Platform for Action; Ermie Valdeavilla, the incumbent Executive Director of NCRFW; and Terrence Jones, the new Resident Coordinator of the UN System in Manila and Resident Representative of UNDP and Victor Salas, Programme Officer UNDP. Lorraine also visited the workshop of Ms Cora Jacob. Cora is an internationally known fashion designer who designs for Christian Dior and other famous labels but is also very active in designing and promoting products for poor producers. She is now interested in working with women in micro and cottage industries through a project of the Women's Business Council of the Philippines and UNIFEM under the Globalization, Gender and Markets programme. In between, Lorraine also managed to write the paper that she was to present the following week in Kobe! WHO Global Symposium on Violence and Health, Kobe Japan 11-17 OctoberLorraine had been invited to present a paper on Policy and Management of Gender-Based Violence and Health: an overview of national approaches in the Asia-pacific region and the role of international organizations at the WHO Global Symposium on Violence and Health held by the WHO Kobe Center 12-15 October. (A copy of the paper will be available on the web site soon.) The Symposium was attended by an interesting and impressive line-up of international experts on various aspects of violence, including violence and sexual abuse of children, female genital mutilation in Africa, violence against the elderly, handicapped and chronically ill patients, communal and ethnic violence, suicide, victim empowerment in South Africa, successful youth mentoring by retired people in the US, honour killings in Jordan, mass murders in the United States, domestic violence in Japan and gender-based violence. Participants were drawn from North and South, with strong representation from both faculties of public health and police forces in the USA and Canada. Civic administrators were also represented, including the Lord Mayor of Honolulu and a woman who has been the Mayor of one of Canada's largest cities for many years. Participants from Asia-Pacific (India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea) and Africa made up most of the developing country representatives Although gender-based violence was officially on the agenda for only one session, the issue of gender came up in almost every session and several participants - including men - suggested that the Symposium could have been well have focused entirely on the issue and covered much the same material. Among the more interesting comments: the Mayor of Honolulu said that the best way he had found for getting Violence Against Women onto the policy agenda was to use graphic case studies of such violence in the media to arouse the anger of the public. They would then demand that governments take action. He felt that statistics were not important at this stage, although they were important later on for identifying the nature of the problem and monitoring interventions. Similarly, the medical doctor from Jordan who presented horrifying photographs of the women slaughtered by their own families in honour killings argued that such images were necessary to shock people into recognizing that such killings were actually inexcusable crimes. The Mayor of Honolulu also said that although changing the law did not bring immediate changes in patterns of domestic violence, it was an essential step in gaining police and community recognition that domestic violence is a crime. A sheriff from the US who has spent 15 years as a negotiator during hostage situations commented that most of the men he had to face were people who, at some stage in their lives, had been unable to call for help when they needed it because of stereotypical images of masculinity. In fact, much of the discussion is several sessions focused on the need to change current images of masculinity if issues of violence and gender-based violence were to be addressed. Tripartite Review of DRK/92/WO1, Pyongyang, 18-23 OctoberThe last leg of Lorraine's three-country mission was her first visit to the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea. As only regular access to Pyongyang by air is through Beijing, Lorraine stayed there overnight in order to collect her visa and catch the connecting flight. During her half day in Beijing, the UNIFEM Gender Adviser Lanyan Chen arranged for Lorraine to meet with staff at the National Bureau of Statistics to discuss future UNIFEM support for gender statistics in China. The following morning, after a very efficient visit to the DPR Korea Embassy to collect a visa en route to the airport, Lorraine flew to Pyongyang on Air Koryo. She was met at the airport by representatives from GBCIO, the government agency responsible for international cooperation, including the UNIFEM project. On the way to the hotel, like all other international visitors, Lorraine was taken to visit the statue of the late President Kim Il Sung. The following day, Lorraine's first meeting was with Ms Chon Yon Ok, the President of the Women's League, the national organization for women in North Korea. The meeting had been arranged by the acting Resident Representative of UNDP, Ms Kirsten Jorgensen, who joined in the meeting together with one of her staff Mr Li Yong Nam who acted as interpreter. The Women's League was founded in November 1945, although its origins go back to the 1930s. The main purpose of the visit was to attend the Terminal Tripartite Review (TPR) of the UNIFEM project Rationalizing Cottage Industry in Pyongyang, which was held at the factory location in Pyongchon District, a suburb of Pyongyang. The factory moved to its current location, which it shares with the GTG Centre, only in December 1998 on the recommendation of the UNIFEM consultant Ms Sylvia Ordonez. Lorraine and Ms Kirsten Jorgensen, acting Resident Representative for UNDP, who has been extremely supportive of the project and of UNIFEM's work in DPR Korea, first toured the project site. The Women's Cooperative now produces in three workrooms each housing approximately 20 machines operated by women who, because of their family responsibilities, are unable to work standard factory shifts. Ms. Kirsten Jorgensen, the Acting Resident Representative, UNDP Pyongyang and Mr. Kim Myong Chol, Division Director of General Bureau for Cooperation with International Organizations (GBCIO), co-chaired the meeting. (GBCIO is a committee under the Ministry of Foreign Trade that handles all the external assisted projects of the government.) Also in attendance were Mr Li Yong Nam, Programme Officer of UNDP, Ms Kim Yong Suk and Mr Suh Chulman of GBCIO, as well as the staff of the Cooperative, Manager Ms Pak Chun Hui and Ms Kim Un Kyung. Ms. Pak Chun Hui reported that the aim of the project was to build the capability of the Government Bureau for Light Industries of Pyongyang (GBLIP) to assist women with household responsibilities. (GBLIP oversees the various women's cooperatives which are the beneficiaries of this project.) The project aimed to strengthen GBLIP by setting up a Garments and Trading Center of GBLIP (GTGC) as a service centre within GBLIP to serve the needs of the Pyongchon Cooperative Factory (PCF - the project cooperative), as well as those of other existing and future satellite garment factories of GBLIP. Both GTG Center and the PCF were in principle run by women, and all of the activities in the project document were successfully accomplished. The PCF and GTGC have been equipped with modern sewing machines and computers. One hundred and twenty sewing machines were delivered and installed in May 1995 and August 1997. Two computers and 1 caravan were also purchased. Training was conducted under subcontract by the Institute for Garment Technology (IGT) and UNHA Trading Company, which has been involved in garment exports for more than 20 years. Under the project, 89 women were trained by UNHA on garment manufacturing and management, and 160 sewers and management staff were trained at the IGT on design, technical and general management, and computerized garment production. New staff have also been trained in-house by the PCF. International marketing and design consultants also trained GTGC staff in order to provide the PCF and future satellite factories with the capability to handle domestic and international orders. As a result, GTGC has become a good support unit in design and marketing, not only for the PCF but also for other women's cooperatives. All the well-qualified designers, sample makers and traders are women. PCF, equipped with modern sewing machines and a good management team, has been producing 10,000 pieces of garments per month under subcontract for orders from China and Japan. With the training provided by the UNIFEM project, the women workers have attained a very high level of skill in sewing, as was evident from the quality of the garments that they were stitching and which surrounded us in the project office. The international buyers introduced to the project by the UNIFEM marketing consultant and those who saw garments produced by the project at the Hong Kong Fashion Fair were extremely impressed with the quality of the work. From this point of view, the project has been highly successful and some international buyers have expressed interest if their business concerns could be addressed. However, serious economic issues remain, since all materials down to the last pin and button must be imported, transport costs are very high and the factory does not have access to foreign exchange. It is currently producing on a CM basis under sub-contract to producers in China and Japan, and also produces some garments for the local market. Most of its marketing is currently in the hands of a general trading company that handles all the output of cooperatives in the Pyongyang area. Both UNIFEM and UNDP felt that, despite the success of the project on the production side, the project had yet to achieve economic sustainability. It was therefore too early to consider replication by other cooperatives as originally envisaged in the project document. UNIFEM and UNDP also felt that the women needed to become more involved and more independent on the business side. Kirsten Jorgensen noted that only one woman had attended the Hong Kong Fair under the project in January 1999, and that it was important for women to be directly involved in management and business decision making in order to achieve sustainability. The GTG Center should deal directly with international clients to earn money for materials in order to meet the demands of international and local markets while providing women with better jobs and improved living standards. The main problems and issues encountered in the project implementation were practical. They included: a lack of specialized machines such as a bar tacker and stationary cutter; dependence on orders through subcontracts and GTGC was not permitted by Government to deal directly with outside clients for export; and lack of space in the GTG Center and PCF for displaying garment samples and for packing garments. The TPR agreed that UNIFEM would prepare a final budget revision and, upon receipt of this, UNDP will consider the transfer of uncommitted funds for 1999 for the purchase of additional needed equipment. GBCIO was requested to negotiate with the Government for GTGC to be permitted to deal directly with outside clients. If agreement was obtained, UNIFEM and UNDP would consider seeking funding for a new project to provide GTGC and PCF with training in business and production management and modern business techniques. In addition to the TPR, Lorraine also conducted a two-day gender workshop for UN staff under the Resident Coordinator System. The workshop was held in the UNDP Conference Room in what was formerly the UNDP Resident Representative's residence and was attended by approximately 26 international staff from a wide range of countries and several agencies. Lorraine said that she found it a particularly relaxed and rewarding workshop, although the case studies were rather different from the usual because UN activities in DPR Korea are rather limited compared with those in other countries of operation. High Level Intergovernmental Meeting on Beijing +5, 26-29 October, Bangkok
Lorraine spoke at the lunchtime panel on Paid and Unpaid Work held jointly by UNDP-APGEN, ESCAP Statistics Division and UNIFEM, moderated the ISIS panel on Women and the Media and presented a paper on mainstreaming in one of the Plenary Panels. Through ISIS Manila, E&SEARO also supported an NGO press team which was being trained on-the-job by professional journalists while providing extensive press coverage for the event. You can read a more complete report of the Meeting on our Beijing+5 page. |
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UNIFEM E&SEARO was an active
supporter of and participant in the Asia Pacific High Level
Intergovernmental Meeting to Review the Regional Implementation of the
Beijing Platform for Action 26-29 October, 1999 in Bangkok. We supported
the participation of both Government and NGO participants; Kellie and
Zareen put together a very popular exhibition and distributed lots of
UNIFEM materials; while Geoff (from an idea of Evelyn's, with equipment
from PM Productions, and logistics support from Marge and ESCAP) 'stole
the show' with the Powerpoint display and videos showing on the huge
high-tech projection wall that dominated the ground floor exhibition area.