Training: Women’s rights in development cooperation
KARAT Coalition and One World Action (UK) invite you to participate in the one-day training on gender perspective in the international cooperation for development. Women’s rights and development NGOs are particularly encouraged to apply. Would you like to know more ? Learn about the women’s activities in the countries of Global South ? Go through the most important regulations in the development policies ? Link gender / development issues into your work ? Join us on Tuesday, November 24th in Warsaw.
Why women ?
Women are the most vulnerable group, doesn’t matter if we are talking about good governance, conflict, access to water, education, climate change or the indigenous communities rights. Gender crosscuts everything. At the same time, these are women, who are often the most powerful agents for social and political change. Effective development cooperation requires strong gender perspective and financing for women’s rights. EU NMS decisions on quantity and quality of development aid also do have an influence on the conditions of women’s live in the countries of Global South.
The training
We do not stand for the technical and expertise knowledge. We do not focus on the project aid, either. Instead we invite you to take ‘gender look at development,’ get familiar with the alarming challenges, basic regulations as well as selected activities of women’s organizations in the Global South. The training will cover :
• Linking gender and development perspective
• Living realities in the countries of Global South. The most important challenges, effective strategies
• Gender and aid effectiveness. The basic regulations, international documents, civil society demands. Global and Polis perspective
• What do the women form the Global South do for their own development ?
• Follow-up strategies
The training will be run by the resource persons form KARAT Coalition and One World Action. Working language will be in English and Polish. We do not secure the translation.
The organizers cover the travel and accommodations costs based on the prior arrangements.
Where and When ?
The training will take place in Warsaw, on Tuesday, November 24th. Interested applicants please fill the questionnaire and send it back to Kasia: on kasia.staszewska@karat.org.pl till Monday, November 16th.
* Gender and development are of the most important issues in the agenda of Global Social Watch Initiative
The project has been produced with assistance of the Education for Democracy Foundation within the framework of the Polish Aid Programme of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2009 and European Commission. The contents of this project is the sole responsibility of KARAT and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.
2009-11-06
The economic dimension is the next challenge towards global gender equity
More than half the women in the world live in countries that have made no progress towards gender equity in recent years. That is one of the findings of the Gender Equity Index (GEI) 2008 that Social Watch launched here as a contribution to the 52nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women that will end next March 8, the International Women’s Day.
The GEI, developed and calculated by Social Watch, ranks 157 countries in a scale where 100 would imply complete equality between women and men in education, participation in the economy and in decision-making bodies (empowerment). Yet the highest-ranking country in the world (Sweden) has an index of 89 and the world average if of 61. Finland (85) and Norway (84) follow Sweden in the table, and after that come Germany and Rwanda, both with 80. While the first four countries are among the richest of the world, Rwanda is one of the poorest. German Women are obviously better educated and live longer than those in Rwanda. What the index shows is that the gap separating their condition from those of men is similar.
“The GEI for 2008 clearly shows that income alone is no guarantee for gender equity”, emphasizes Social Watch coordinator Roberto Bissio. Countries with very high per capita incomes, such as Luxembourg or Switzerland, have the same equity level as Mozambique, a country with a much lower income level.
On 10th of December 2008, at the 60 anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first national report of the Polish Social Watch Coalition (PSWC) Czas na prawa has been launched in the Polish Parliament. Among the speakers were Ryszard Kalisz (chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee of Justice and Human Rights), prof. Irena Rzeplińska (expert in the field of human rights) and Magda Pocheć (coordinator of Polish Social Watch Coalition). The conference was coordinated by Katarzyna Szymielewicz (Polish Section of International Commission of Jurists).
During the press conference, the report which reflects the voice of the wide spectrum of civil society organizations in Poland has been passed to the chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee of Justice and Human Rights, Ryszard Kalisz. Kalisz welcomed the report on behalf of decision makers and assured that it would be treated with due seriousness.
The first polish social watch report focuses on major human rights issues in Poland. It includes 14 articles elaborated by experts of the Polish Social Watch Coalition. It goes in depth into such burning problems in Poland as jurisdiction (problems with litigation of rights), conditions in prisons (overpopulation remains to be huge problem) or rights of minor victims of domestic violence.The report also deals with lingering discrimination against certain groups: women, sexual minorities, disabled people and refugees. As far as women’s rights are concerned, the report focuses on the problem of low participation of women in politics, discriminatory pension system and violations of sexual and reproductive rights.
The report also reviews the governmental proposal of antidiscrimination act which leaves much to be desired in the view of Polish nongovernmental organizations. This theme has been also raised during the press conference and Kalisz assured that when the proposal is delivered to Parliament, civil society organizations’ contributions to amendments would be much welcomed.
Furthermore, the report challenges two important but constantly neglected in the public discourse issues: human rights related to multinational corporations’ activities and the right to development.
During the press conference, Irena Rzeplińska spoke on the major challenges linked to human rights in the 21st century. She highlighted that the protection of life and death is emerging as new issue which would be more and more heatedly debated. The expert also indicated that intensified migration puts rights of immigrants and right of asylum into the spotlight of today’s discussion on human rights.
The first Polish Social Watch Report is available in Polish.
2008-12-10
International capacity building training
An international training for national Social Watch coalitions from Italy, Poland and Czech Republic took place in Warsaw, Poland, on 7 – 10 July 2008. Participants had the opportunity to acquire more information on how the Social Watch network functions; how to build and coordinate coalition on the national level; as well as how to carry out activities that relate to social watch in their home countries. The need for the production of the European Social Watch report has been identified and participants widely discussed its possible content and objectives. The meeting created also a room for the exchange of experiences and ideas.
2008-07-15
Launch of the project
With the 1st of March 2008, KARAT has started a new three-year project Promoting Social Development: building capacities of Social Watch Coalitions co-financed by European Commission. Social Watch is an international network of non-government organizations monitoring national policies and alternative policy proposals from a “grassroots” perspective. The project goal is to enhance actions and impact of Social Watch coalitions in Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland, that is above all, to improve capacities of analyzing public policies and their impact upon development objectives, mobilize civil society and dialogue with national, regional and local decision makers to shape policies within national coalitions of Social Watch, especially Poland and Czech Republic. KARAT will participate in capacity building sessions and will become a competent Social Watch coalition leader in Poland. The monitoring activities will focus on gender and social development issues. The project is led by a Consortium of three organizations - two Italian: UCODEP and MANITESE and KARAT Coalition, and realized with several partners, including Oxfam Novib, Eurostep, Ekumenische Akademie Prague, Lunaria, Fondazione Culturale Responsibilita’ Etica, Carle.net.
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