April 13, 2005 - (UNIFEM) Women from North and South Sudan yesterday presented their recommendations agreed upon during a gender symposium on Sunday to the Oslo International Donors' Conference urging donors to reflect strong gender-responsive principles in the allocation of resources for Sudan's reconstruction and recovery efforts.

Sudanese women requested that at least 80 per cent of contributions go towards reducing stark gender inequalities in law, policy and practice, and directly benefit women and girls from disadvantaged communities and rural areas to increase their capacities and access to resources. Specific areas requiring immediate attention were access to basic health and social services, support for pro-poor economic policies to improve women's livelihoods and ensure food security, removing gender discrimination in education and training, and urgently confronting rampant gender-based violence.

"Women in Sudan have been marginalized for a long time. Development must start from rural areas so that we don't create slums in our towns," said women delegates.

According to them, the empowerment of women is paramount to the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which must recognize that women are the pillars of a lasting peace in Sudan. They agreed to work together to make sure that peace becomes a reality throughout the country.

In her address to the Donors' Conference, the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Noeleen Heyzer, emphasized that women are central to the enormous tasks ahead and can accelerate the building of peace, security and prosperity. "They are not just victims; they are also part of the solution."

Heyzer committed UNIFEM's technical support in three priority areas: security, governance and the rule of law, and economic security and rights.

In the lead up to the Donors' Conference, UNIFEM consulted extensively with Sudanese women throughout the country to understand their priorities and needs and ensure that these were reflected in the Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) process, which forms the guiding framework for the international community's engagement in the peace-building and reconstruction of Sudan. Consultations led to the convening of a gender symposium by UNIFEM, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) in Oslo a day before the official Donors' Conference, to bring more than 50 Sudanese women together to forge a common agenda so that women's concerns would be adequately reflected in what has been called the "Marshal Plan for the Sudan."

Addressing the symposium, Norwegian Minister of International Development, Hilde F. Johnson, said that if women are not part of the reconstruction programme, then peace might elude Sudan. "The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of Sudan is in place, but food and security are not. The women of Sudan must be central to the peace process," said Johnson.

She challenged women to become "watchdogs" during the reconstruction period and monitor the political process in order to expose gaps. She also urged women to be peace-makers at the local level, and to be advocates speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves, such as rural women who are often severely marginalized.

Heyzer emphasised that support for women's leadership and participation in Sudan's reconstruction process must involve strengthening governance and the rule of law, especially in regard to constitutional processes, and investing in security, pointing to continued gender-based violence and atrocities still taking place in Darfur. She also stressed the need to include gender-responsive budgeting to guide reconstruction efforts. "The best way to measure commitment to women is to follow the money and to make sure that the money works. We cannot treat this as a household budget where one sells eggs to buy shoes. A concrete budget line is necessary for each priority area."

The Donors' Conference, which brings more than 60 countries together to pledge support for the New Sudan, hopes to raise the US$2.9 billion needed to fund the first phase as identified in the UN-World Bank Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) Report. The Government of the New Sudan has pledged to put about US$5 billion of its national resources towards this process.

From: http://www.unifem.org/pressreleases.php?f_page_pid=6&f_pritem_pid=189