fem’TALK
The monthly e-news bulletin from femLINKpacific: Media Initiatives for
Women, Suva, Fiji Islands

In this bulletin:

• Spaces of Our Own
  
• fem’TALK 1325: Defence and Security is women’s business too says the Fiji Women, Peace and Security Committee; On to Dili …..& Nominate a women peace-builder for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
  
• The Women’s Civil Society: More women sharing an umbrella; Measuring our Achievements since Beijing 1995, the Asia Pacific NGO Forum, & information on a current Gender Budgets research initiative
  

Space of our Own:

Greetings from femLINKpacific, and we hope that our first bulletin for 2004 finds you safe and well.

Production pipelines: femLINKpacific has been busy through the festive season with our current community media productions, in particular completing the video and magazine productions of fem’TALK: Sharing the Light. We would like to acknowledge the technical support from Star Printery and Guerilla Media for their additional assistance to us. This community media production has been made possible with funding assistance from WACC and UNESCO.

Meanwhile femLINKpacific’s volunteer Eta Tora together with UNIFEM Pacific’s intern Anna Stone, and other contributors are transcribing – scanning – writing – editing – articles for the first edition of our new regional community magazine project, fem’TALK 1325, which is funded by UNIFEM Pacific. If you have a story to share about a women’s peace initiative or activity, especially in the Pacific region…femTALK 1325 would be keen to include your story…..so please contact us.

fem’TALK Radio: femLINKpacific’s community radio volunteers, the participants from the UNESCO funded Community Radio workshop held in September 2003, regrouped in late December at the Fiji Girl Guides Hall to receive their personal copy of the radio demo and take time out for a “listening session” of the completed demo….and then it was on to more community radio training, this time linked into ISIS Manila’s Radio plugs initiative! Regrouping again in the new year, Sai from the Ministry of Women, Ecelini from the YWCA, Lusi and Sushila from the Fiji Disabled People’s Association Women’s Group, Henry from Interfaith as well as WIN-Net members Sheena, Maya and Sangeeta got together to develop a series of local concepts for radio ‘plugs’ based on scripts provided by ISIS Manila.

The working group was motivated also by confirmation from Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited which is supporting this community-based training initiative with the donation of free production time and airtime in the lead up to International Women’s Day on their Fijian and Hindustani national stations, Radio Fiji 1 and Radio Fiji 2.

Many thanks to the FBCL for their generosity and support, which is very encouraging for the volunteers, as this gives them valuable practical experience. Production takes place on Monday 19 January.

The training is part of our commitment to develop a pool of women and young people who will be part of the active pool of community radio broadcasters and producers, once we get our mobile women’s radio station up and running….right now the focus is on finalising regulatory issues, and undertaking some serious fundraising to bring in our very own “radio in a suitcase” …stay tuned for details.

On to Dili: Several members of the WPS Fiji Coordinating committee, including femLINKpacific’s Coordinator and Susana Evening of the Catholic Women’s League, will be attending the Consultation on Nonviolence for Pacific Women jointly organized by The International Federation on Reconciliation (IFOR) Women Peacemakers Program (Netherlands), and the Peace and Democracy Foundation (East Timor), in Dili from January 23rd to the 28th. The consultation will bring together approximately 20 women from Bougainville, East Timor, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, West Papua and the Solomon Islands. The goals of the consultation are to help deepen the participants peacemaking skills, in particular around active nonviolence; to exchange strategies, experiences and information; and to strengthen solidarity and support among Pacific women peacemakers.


The Project 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 is seeking to nominate 1000 women to be collectively honored with this political prize in recognition of their contributions to us all in the cause of peace.

14 women from 14 regions are the coordinators of the Project and will propose 1000 women through drawing upon existing women’s and peace networks.

In the Pacific, there is a small team who are informing the region’s networks, identifying women and are responsible for ensuring those Pacific women’s approaches and impacts will be researched and documented:

“An important element of the project”, said Nicci Simmonds who is working with Koila Costello-Olsson to identify women in the Pacific, “is to challenge the conventional peace concept and its focus on military security, treaties, agreements and handshakes between heads of state. Peace is more than the absence of violence.” The project’s understanding of Peace is that it must be grounded in justice, and is reflected not necessarily in wealth or stability, but in creativity and respect for all life.

The project 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 is a Swiss initiative with global support. The President of the association of the same name is Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, member of the Swiss National Council and of the Council of Europe. The Association is working closely with swisspeace, the Swiss Peace Foundation, where the main office is located. The Project will come to a close in 2006. The financing of the project is a challenge. The initial phases of the Project are being partly financed by the Swiss Ministry for Foreign Affairs. An important instrument is a "share over 1000 francs", which has drawn a large positive response, especially from private persons and interest groups.

The Pacific team welcomes your support in whatever form. You can find further information on the website: www.1000peacewomen.org. And you can contact us through Koila Costello-Olson at gencom@ecrea.org.fj or Nicci Simmonds at nicci.simmonds@1000peacewomen.org.

You may also obtain further information and media documentation under www.1000peacewomen.org.

“Unless the moment is seized, the opportunity will pass. We are all advocates of Resolution 1325 and we must ensure that rhetoric becomes reality” (1325 Enews September 6 2002)
Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security was passed on October 31, 2000. For the text of the resolution please visit:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/1325.html

The Women’s Civil Society:

More women sharing an umbrella:

At the final council meeting of 2003, the National Council of Women Fiji welcomed several new affiliates under the umbrella of collectively working for the advancement of women. The inclusion of the Sikh Women’s Association, the Sanatan Nari Sabha and the women’s wing of the Fiji Disabled People’s Association brings the number of affiliates of the NCWFiji to 37. The membership now includes: ACS Old Girls Association, Arya Mahila Mandal Fiji, Ba Province Soqosoqo Vakamarama, Bulu Council of Women, Catholic Women's League, DORCAS Welfare Society, Fiji Association of Women Graduates, Fiji Disabled People’s Association Women’s Wing, Fiji Girl Guides Association, Fiji Girmit Council of Women, Fiji Women’s Support Group for People with Disabilities, Fiji Muslim Women's League, Fijian Teachers Association Women's Network, Fiji Nursing Association, Kai Viti Naisoro, Korotabu Village Women's Club, Nadi, Lautoka Market Women's Club, Methodist Women's Fellowship, Nabouwalu Village Women's Club, Kadavu, Namatakula Women's Club, Nadroga, Nadi Tikina Women Association, Nadi Women's Advisory Council, Nadi Women’s Collective, Nakavu Women's Club, Nadi, Namoli Women’s Network, Pan Pacific South East Asia Women’s Association – Fiji, Poor Relief Society, Rotuma Women Association, Saunaka Women's Club, Nadi, Shri Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Nari Sabha, Sikh Women’s Association, Soroptimist International- Fiji, Stri Sewa Sabha, Salvation Army- Women Wing, Tavua Tikina Women Association, Vuda Soqosoqo Vakamarama, Yavusa Nasogoika Women’s Club – Kadavu, Young Women’s Christian Association.

The National Council of Women Fiji’s Annual General Meeting dates have been set by the Executive for April 21 – 23. For more information please contact the Coordinator, Tabua Salato-Prasad: ncwf@connect.com.fj.


Measuring our Achievements ….since Beijing 1995

It seems already 2004 is gearing up to be a year for very important women’s meetings at national, regional and global levels. In May this year, Fiji will be hosting the SPC Triennial Conference of national and regional partners in Women and Gender development in the Pacific – a chance to review the Pacific Platform for Action. With a vibrant theme of “Gender Equality: Tokenism or commitment” the outcomes of this meeting will undoubtedly play an important part in the Pacific content of the High Level Intergovernmental Meeting which UNESCAP will be holding a in connection with Beijing + 10 on September 6-9, 2004 in Bangkok.

According to Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) there is also consensus in the NGO community that despite some reservations about the holding of such a meeting because of the danger that there might be attempts to renegotiate the language of the Beijing Platform for Action and therefore the possibility of sliding backwards, the Asia-Pacific women NGOs cannot ignore this meeting. Recent informal meetings of NGOs held in Manila and in Bangkok as well as sentiments expressed by members of the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) Steering Committee and their networks have clearly supported the holding of an Asia-Pacific NGO Forum 10 years after Huairou.

In the UN/ESCAP region, there will be a comprehensive regional paper. The regional paper will be based on the reports emerging from the questionnaire and other sources.

The Asia-Pacific High Level Intergovernmental Meeting on 6-9 September 2004, governments’ will assess the implementation but may also discuss emerging issues may in this High Level Meeting. The outputs from this regional government meeting will input to the Extended Meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women for the Review and Appraisal of Implementation of the BPFA and the Outcome Document, to be held in March 2005.

For the results that they have achieved, the women’s movement must continue to participate in international agenda setting and policy making. They must continue to engage governments and other actors, at all levels, in order to ensure women’s human rights and gender interests especially in these challenging times.

The Asia Pacific NGO Forum

The planned NGO Forum for Beijing + 10 is a logical and important follow through by the women’s movement of what, by far, has been an effective civil society engagement with official UN sponsored policy making processes. APWW has initiated the process, to prepare for the High Level Meeting by serving as a lead group and has agreed to serve as the catalyst until the NGO Conveners’ Group is organized. As a catalyst APWW is providing the institutional base and resources to set the preparations in motion. It is clear, however, that participation will be as inclusive as would be feasible, both in the logistical and substantive preparations.

The NGO Forum is tentatively scheduled for July 1-3 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand


BPFA in the Asia-Pacific Region: Ten Years of Work

The Asia-Pacific region has been organizing and monitoring around the Beijing process for at least 10 years. In 1993 Manila hosted the first regional NGO Preparatory Meeting with Thanpuying Sumalee Chartikavanij, International President of Pan Pacific and South East Asia Women’s Association (PPSEAWA) and Noeleen Heyzer who was then Director of The Asian and Pacific Development Centre (APDC) and is now the director of UNIFEM. Out of the process came The Asia and Pacific Non-Government Organization Working Group who published the “Yellow Book” that contained the NGO positions.

The Asia and Pacific Non-Government Organization Working Group transformed itself into Asia Pacific Watch (APW) whose intention was to monitor post Beijing agreements and implementation. This group led to other monitoring groups that includes the South East Asia Watch (SEAWatch) that carried out monitoring project and developed indicators for several of the BPFA critical areas of concern and other national monitoring groups.
In preparations for the five year review (Beijing + 5) key regional groups (PPSEWA, Asia Caucus, Asia Pacific Watch, Isis International, APDC, and SEAWatch to name a few, came together to prepare for the review process. It was this group that organized and hosted the NGO Symposium, Asia-Pacific Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty First Century that took place on 31 August to 4 September 1999 in Thailand. This symposium is the precedence to the current plans as the 1999 forum was an exceptionally successful meeting, attended by over 385 women from 28 countries in the Region. A report emerged out of this Symposium, which contained the Declaration by the women of Asia-Pacific, their summary evaluation of the implementation of the BPFA and their analysis of its twelve critical areas. The report came to be known as “The Big Blue Book.”

APWW is an expansion of the management committee for this Asia Pacific Regional NGO Symposium and formalized as a regional monitoring group at the Symposium itself.

How Can You Participate?

If you belong to a regional women's NGO network, a regional network with women's program, a regional or subregional research and resource center on women, donor -- multilateral and bilateral, women's groups at national and local level and want to participate in the Regional Forum, the committees for the Forum, contribute findings to the research process, etc, please send an e-mail message to Luz M. Martinez, Secretariat for APWW, luz@isiswomen.org.

Gender Budgets Research: Dr Samantha Hardy an Equalities Specialist, originally from the UK and now living in Queensland, has been commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat to research and document the existence of gender responsive budgeting procedures in Commonwealth Finance Ministries in the Pacific region. Sam was recently senior consultant at Aurora – Europe’s leading corporate and entrepreneurial women’s network, where she established and build its consultancy proposition. She is now a freelance equalities specialist, working with the Commonwealth Secretariat, the UK Government’s National Employment Panel and companies such as IBM and Lehman Brothers. Previously, Sam was Head of Gender Research at The Work Foundation, a London based Think Tank, where she authored Small Step or Giant Leap: Towards Gender Equality At Work

Writing to femLINKpacific she said: “I will also be reporting on any gender responsive budget initiatives taking place elsewhere among government ministries, women's groups and other key stakeholders.” Gender budgeting initiatives contribute to gender mainstreaming by focusing on the gender equality implications of how government funds are collected and spent. They can take place both inside government (ideally by finance
ministries) and outside government by women's NGOs or other key stakeholders. The most successful gender budgeting initiatives work in
partnership with all stakeholders.”

According to Dr. Hardy, the underlying objective of this study is to understand and explain the presence or absence of gender responsive budgeting practices and to identify any opportunities for gender responsive budgeting activities in the future. The countries covered by the study are: Australia, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

Dr Hardy is very keen to hear from anyone who maybe able to assist her in this study, so if you would like to share your knowledge of gender budgeting activities in the countries listed above and contacts that might help me with this study or suggest any background papers or documents that might help – please contact Dr Samantha Hardy: samanthaevehardy@hotmail.com.

From the Women’s Media Network:

ISIS MANILA TO HOST PANEL PRESENTATION ON “THE INTERLINKAGES OF GLOBALISED MEDIA AND ICT SYSTEMS” AT THE WSF 2004

Isis International Manila is organising the Panel Presentation “The Interlinkages of Globalised Media and ICT Systems and Structures to Economic Globalisation, Militarism and Fundamentalisms” as part of its active participation at the World Social Forum 2004. This will be held on 18 January 2004 at the NESCO Grounds, Western Express Highway, Goreagon, Mumbai, India.

Isis Manila will bring together a cross section of activists from different regions and different struggles to contribute in the discourse of the emerging and cutting-edge issues of globalised and corporatised media and ICT (information and communication technology) systems, economic globalisation, fundamentalisms and militarisms. By examining the interrelationship of these issues through a panel discussion, Isis hopes to help enhance the body of critical analyses of today’s global information and communication order. With a panel that includes activists from all regions, Isis hopes to be able to broaden the scope of debate and discussion on the issues and alternatives, to ensure the viewing of these issues from various vantage points: Southern, feminist, geo-political, historical and in relation to political economy.

While Isis International Manila is a feminist organisation, it will bring together voices that are not necessarily feminist, though all are strongly political, as a way of enhancing the dialogue and enriching the debate on these issues through an encounter of different political vantage points.

Specifically, the panel aims to:

-Create a venue for more activists in the area of media and communications, globalisation, miltarisms and fundamentalisms to present their positions and raise their concerns on critical issues;
-Raise awareness amongst social justice activists who are well versed on issues of social justice, and economic globalisation, but less aware of the linkages between their issues to the political struggles of communications and media activists;
-Strengthen the voices of activists seeking to radicalise the current IT for Development discourse with incisive and a more critical analytical framework on the relevance, impact and meaning of media and ICT systems and structures for the South.

To find out more about the event, please write to Susanna George <susanna@isiswomen.org> or Raijeli Nicole <raijeli@isiswomen.org> or call (632) 435-3405 or 435-3408 or 436-0312 extension 107, or send a fax to (632) 924-1065. In Mumbai, they may be reached at Hotel Apollo, telephone nos. (91-22) 202-0223 (91-22) 287-3312 or by mobile phone 0981-926-3686

This initiative is a continuation of an earlier dialogue between feminist communicators from the South around the issues of "Globalised Media and ICT Systems and its Intersection with Globalisation, Fundamentalism and Militarism" organised by Isis Manila during the three-day World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) last 10 December 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland.

This update was compiled by fem’LINKpacific: MEDIA INITIATIVES FOR WOMEN, a Media-based NGO committed to the research, development, production and distribution of community media initiatives:

“Maturity means recognizing that you exist in an inequitable community of people, with wide disparities of opportunities, of incomes, of privileges and of power or access to resources. Maturity recognizes your privileged situation within that community… We are all in this world to serve.” (Savenaca Siwatibau)

For more information about our work write to:
The Coordinator
P O Box 2439, Government Buildings, Suva, Fiji Islands
Phone 679 3316290 Mobile: 9244871
Fax (c/- Caines Jannif Limited Head Office) 679 3301925