Workshop co-ordinator: Rhona Bautista,
(ISIS International-Manila, Philippines)

Participants in this workshop will present their experiences through case studies and examples of effective information projects that directly influence government policies or programmes, especially the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action. Each presentation will focus on a unique area such as the experience of setting up issue-based documentation centres or ways of making gender information visible. At the end of the workshop, participants will try to draw up models for strategies that women can use for gender sensitive policy making.

General
Rhona Bautista replaced Chat Garcia Ramilo who was unable to come to the conference as her father just pasted away. The first presenter called for a minute silence for the victims of the attacks on the Embassies of Tanzania and Kenya, and thanked the role of information that prevented more killing at the American Embassy in Kampala, Uganda. The approx. 25 participants of this workshop could all have their say within the time limits.

Presenters:

1. Jane Abonyo (University of Nairobi and Institute of Policy Analysis & Research, Kenya) Jane discussed the position of women in Kenya and the problems and challenges to mainstream gender in the development agenda. She stated that women's issues are trivialised and that the Kenyan government fail to implement the Beijing Platform of Action. Compared to Tanzania (30%) and Uganda (20%) the percentage of the national budget to women's issues in Kenya is 0.8%. Moreover women contribute 86% of the GNP of Kenya. There is lack of political will but the information infrastructure in Kenya is relatively advanced. The national Library of Kenya has 19 branches in the country and should act as focal points were information is made accessible for women and is spread to the rural areas. It is necessary to enhance women in decision making. Targeted information should be made visible, accessible and available to women. Only this can lead to the empowerment of women, needed for raising their status.

 

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2. Tran Mai Huong (Permanent Secretary, National Committee for the Advancement of Women, Vietnam) Tran discussed women's participation in leadership. Between the past two elections there has been an increase from 17% to 26 % improvement of women's share in the MP. This was achieved by special training programmes, needs assessments, information dissemination and mass media campaigns. Vietnam attained the 2nd highest number of women MPs in the Asian Pacific region.

 

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3.Jennifer Radloff (African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa) and

 

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4. Ruth Ojiambo-Ochieng (ISIS-WICCE, Uganda) Discussed the role of information services to effect gender equality through networking. Ruth stressed the importance of networking nationally and internationally. Uganda is relatively advanced in mainstreaming gender issues in governmental agencies. Although there are a lot of achievement regarding legislation, 55% of the Ugandan women are still illiterate, which makes it necessary to repackage information for illiterate women. And although there are a lot of women MPs in Uganda there is still a lack of political will among their more powerful male colleagues.
Policy makers can only be sensitised through networking. The Gender in Africa Information Network (GAIN) hopes to disseminate information through traditional means of information transfer. This is done in co-operation with other networks (Abantu for Development, UK).
Jennifer discussed the challenges of the new South Africa. Legislation had to be rewritten for this complex society. The number of women in parliament grew from 3 to 111. In general there is political will in South Africa, however violence against women is extremely high in South Africa. The police and magistrates have to be properly trained to face these situations. Womensnet(.org.za) is a network that encourages women to document their indigenous knowledge, encourage gender publications and the North-South-South-North dialogue.

 

Question raised:
What to do if governments are not listening to women's voices?
This is indeed very difficult as it is a matter of time. All these efforts are a start. And it has a lot to do with a change of minds and hearts and attitudes of men. And although the number of women's MPs are growing, this does not automatically mean that male MPs are already gender sensitised. It is a process.
Experiences from Zimbabwe (Southern Africa Research and Documentation Centre) Botswana, Burkina Faso, Palestine and Tunisia were shared. It is concluded that political will is most important as neighbouring countries like Algeria and Tunisia or Uganda and Kenya have complete different situations regarding the position of women. The Palestine Women Centre stressed the importance of networking with foreign organisations for feedback, support and sharing experiences, and especially not to direct the information flow in one way. Grassroots levels need feedback continuously.

 

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5. Gill Kerchhoff (Women and Human Rights Documentation Centre, South Africa) The Women and Human Rights Documentation Centre is set up by Gill and exists for only 2 years. Its strengths are the collection of grey literature. The publication side is in development as main activities are collecting and refining the collection. Drawbacks, challenges and successes are discussed. The Centre is a spin off of the Community Law Centre and focuses on 5 projects: 1. Democracy; 2. Children rights; 3. Street Law; 4. Social and economic Rights and 5. Women Rights. The Centre achieved important successes in the area of domestic violence, reproductive rights and equal employment opportunities for women. The Documentation Centre is also part of GAIN.

 

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6. Elisa Sanchez Perez (Direccion General de la Mujer, Valencia, Spain) Elisa discussed this documentation centre and its objectives: To have solidarity links, to spread information to women in the Mediterranean, give physical and virtual access to targeted women's information. Libraries and Universities should network and make women's information available.

Conclusions

1. For Gender sensitisation political will is vital

2. A change of hearts and minds (especially) among men is a matter of time, starts have been made, the battle has begun and there in no return.

3. Repackaging of information for the illiterate is essential, alternative media like radio, recordings, audio, poems, songs, theatre, documentary films, discussions, posters etc. should be used in combination with advanced technologies. And stay open for feedback.

4. Sharing Experiences South-North, N-S as well as N-N and S-S and networking form the Key

This page last updated on september 4, 1998. Copyright © 1998 IIAV.

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