From DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.orgWed Oct 4 23:55:10 1995 Date: Sun, 01 Oct 1995 16:41:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: WCW: Unifem's Noeleen Heyzer assesses Beijing [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## author : theearthtime@igc.apc.org ## date : 25.09.95 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Unifem's Noeleen Heyzer assesses Beijing By Noeleen Heyzer OPINION/ Earth Times News Service I am often challenged to explain how international organizations and conferences can make any real differences in women's lives. Was it crucial that the world community invest so much money in the UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing 4-15 September? The answer is yes! Over 35,000 women and men came from all over the world to Beijing carrying the hopes and concerns of the 2.5 billion women and girls who comprise half of humanity. They wanted their governments to take action on the unacceptable fact that 70 percent of the world's poorest billion people are women; and that women work two-thirds of humanity's labouring hours, but get only one-tenth of the world's income and own one percent of the world's property. Government delegates and NGO representatives adopted a Platform for Action that outlines new policies that support women's existing livelihoods, widens women's choices, and promotes new and equitable economic opportunities. In its scope, and in its positions, the Fourth World Conference on Women was not so much a conference about women, but a women's conference about the state of the world. The real work now lies ahead, in implementing the Platform for Action. Having just celebrated our 20th anniversary, Unifem, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, serves as an experienced and much needed base within the UN system to synthesize the critical issues raised and to ensure that the key recommendations of this Platform for Action are translated into catalytic and innovative programs that will empower women in the developing world. Without such a base, women's gains achieved at the UN world conferences will fragment and dissipate into the periphery of mainstream discourse. And women's concerns will once again be neglected in development planning and implementation. In Beijing, the international community called for the strengthening of Unifem to keep women's issues high on the agendas of mainstream organizations. We will continue to do so by playing a mediating role between grassroots women and the UN system. We will build partnerships with other UN agencies in bringing about sustainable and gender-equitable development. Unifem will be assisting Unfpa's technical advisors on integrating gender sensitive approaches into their development programs and will advise the UN Resident Coordinators in the implementation of the Platform for Action in selected countries. Unifem will also continue to develop cutting-edge approaches to development issues centred on women's experiences and needs. Unifem has launched a Women's Development Agenda as a new framework to guide the Fund's programming directions. This Agenda is based on gender realities and re-affirms women's rights as indivisible and inalienable human rights--including their personal, economic and political rights as full human persons throughout their life-cycle. Key elements include: % Economic and political empowerment of women through support to initiatives at both the macro- and micro-levels; % Innovative and catalytic support of existing livelihood options for women, as well as building capacity so that they can take advantage of new and emerging economic opportunities; % Strengthening women's organizations and networks at the local, national, regional, and international levels including technical assistance, provision of training and advocacy materials, and brokering linkages with international fora; % Partnering with UN agencies and other organizations to influence policies and programs and for leveraging maximum resources for women's programs; % Providing technical expertise in key areas including environment, human rights, credit and small enterprise development, alternative evaluation approaches, gender training and gender-sensitive development planning; % Inter-regional exchange of information as a way of sharing experiences and informing program design; and % Dissemination of experiences in working with and for women through documentation such as books, training manuals, monographs, technical source books, and advocacy materials. Unifem opens new choices, new possibilities, new worlds for women in their daily lives. We are the collective voice and conscience of women within the UN system. Now, after Beijing, our work begins anew.