Secretariat News

After two wonderful years in Bangkok, this is my last Update as regional coordinator of APA, and the first from APA's new office. Our new address is on the 43rd Floor of the United Centre at 323 Silom Rd, Bangrak, Bangkok 10500. The new telephone/fax number is +66 2 631 1121. Our email address remains the same but as the website undergoes a transformation over the next few months, you will be notified as this also changes. As I prepare to leave Bangkok, I am busy completing activities at the secretariat and preparing the space for the new regional coordinator to take over when they are appointed. It has been a very exciting time for APA recently as the funding base becomes more stable and new projects get underway. Consultants are currently being engaged for a number of activities to review and develop APA's communications and effectiveness as an organisation since the establishment of the permanent secretariat. The website will be transferred from its current host in New Zealand and will gain a whole new look to make it more accessible and user friendly for members and others interested in SRH and development issues in the Asia Pacific region.

I have also recently been in Indonesia and Vietnam with PPAT APA member Duanne Punpiputt to strengthen our partnerships with HIV affected communities as part of APA's ADB funded project to expand NGO Initiatives for HIV prevention. Once again we were able to build on the relationships formed at the two civil society /parliamentarian Dialogues held in 2006 and 2007, and facilitate these two communities to come together for increased mutual support and advocacy for legal and policy changes in both countries. Our report on these visits will be available on the new website in the coming weeks.

Finally I wish to thank you all for your support and increased communication with the secretariat over the last two years and I wish the new coordinator every success.

Member Updates

Join PAI's 2008 Study Tour to Mexico

PAI’s Study Tour to Mexico offers an exclusive opportunity to learn about the importance of family planning, reproductive health services, and the enhancement of women’s status for the improvement of individual well-being and the overall development of a country. With a combination of rural and urban health clinics, advocacy organizations, a fascinating political landscape and a variety of indigenous groups—as well as breathtaking scenery and Mayan and Aztec ruins—Mexico provides the perfect opportunity for exploring a rich cultural heritage while learning about some of the most pressing issues facing women, families and youth today.

To become a part of the Study Tour, contact PAI’s Special Initiatives Coordinator, Christine Bixiones, at cbixiones@popact.org, or (202) 557-3425 Read about PAI's advance trip to Mexico on our blog!

Regional News

Ethnic Minority Health Improving in Viet Nam

A maternal child health project supported by NZAID has successfully increased the use of reproductive health services in Viet Nam’s Binh Dinh province.The province's Department of Health estimates thatacross the whole province 95 percent ofbirths are assisted by trained medical workers and almost 99 percent of pregnant women receive at least three health checks prior to delivery.

NZAID's focus in Binh Dinh is on improving thehealth of ethnic minorities and remote communities, and their access to reproductive health services. In the three years since the project started, health checks in these ethnic communities have jumped from 64 to 84 percent, so there’s still room for improvement.

Wellington-based NZAID Development Programme Officer, Sokha Mey recently visited VinhSon,one of the most remote communes in the province and discussed with commune health workers the challenge of reaching out toethnic minority villagers.Perhaps because ofits remoteness (the district hospital is one and a half hour’s drive fromthe commune health centre) the number of clients using Vinh Son's health centreis higher than most.An increased number of women are giving birth at the communehealth centre, or at home assisted by a midwife, andthere were no cases of maternal mortality in 2007. Infant immunisation rates are high and child malnutrition is reducing.

A nurse at the health centre, Dinh Thi Nguyen, said that there had been significant changes in the past thirty years that she's been working there. "The most important change is thatI can improvemy skills in examination, treatment and delivery to improve my work", she said.

The Maternal Child Health project in Binh Dinh province is in its finalyear of implementation and a final evaluation will be held in October and November.

For more information contact john.egan@nzaid.govt.nz

Caught Between Two Hells

Burmese Women’s Union ( BWU) has launched an in-depth report entitled "Caught between two hells", documenting female migrant workers' experiences in which BWU researchers conducted 149 interviews with women and girl migrants working in Thailand and China between November 2006 and March 2007.

To view the report, follow this link here

International News

International Women's Day 2008 - Investing in Women & Girls

Global Employment Trends for Women 2008:

More women enter the workforce, but more than half of all working women are in vulnerable jobs

More women are working than ever before, but they are also more likely than men to get low-productivity, low-paid and vulnerable jobs, with no social protection, basic rights nor voice at work according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO) issued for International Women’s Day.

Global Employment Trends for Women - March 2008

Message by Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Office on the occasion of International Women’s Day

International Women's Day – 7 March 2008

BIO FUELS - THE FAKE CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTION

Each day, 820 million people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat1. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico to Morocco. And the World Food Program warned last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the world's worst-off.

How are the wealthiest countries responding? They're burning food.

Specifically, they're using more and more biofuels--alcohol made from plant products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being cleared to grow them, most biofuels today are causing more global warming emissions than they prevent5, even as they push the price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for millions of people. Not all biofuels are bad--but without tough global standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming. Click here to use our simple tool to send a message to your head of state before this weekend's global summit on climate change in Chiba, Japan, and help build a global call for biofuels regulation:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60401887

Sometimes the trade-off is stark: filling the tank of an SUV with ethanol requires enough corn to feed a person for a year. But not all biofuels are bad; making ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane is vastly more efficient than US-grown corn, for example, and green technology for making fuel from waste is improving rapidly.

The problem is that the EU and the US have set targets for increasing the use of biofuels without sorting the good from the bad. As a result, rainforests are being cleared in Indonesia to grow palm oil for European biodiesel refineries, and global grain reserves are running dangerously low. Meanwhile, rich-country politicians can look "green" without asking their citizens to conserve energy, and agribusiness giants are cashing in. And if nothing changes, the situation will only get worse.

What's needed are strong global standards that encourage better biofuels and shut down the trade in bad ones. Such standards are under development by a number of coalitions8, but they will only become mandatory if there's a big enough public outcry. It's time to move: this Friday through Saturday, the twenty countries with the biggest economies, responsible for more than 75% of the world's carbon emissions9, will meet in Chiba, Japan to begin the G8's climate change discussions. Before the summit, let's raise a global cry for change on biofuels:

For more information or to get involved in the important work of the Avaaz network, follow this link http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60401887

UN NEWS

ASIA PACIFIC CAUCUS STATEMENT AT THE 52ND SESSION OF CSW

UN COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN 2008

I speak on behalf of the women of the Asia Pacific region; a region comprising 60 percent of the world's women and representing the greatest diversity of women.  State commitments to financing for gender equality, at the international, regional and national level, have not gone far enough. The gap between commitments and full implementation on the ground remains. Practical implementation has been challenged by non-effective financing of programmes aimed at advancing the status of women. Millions of women in Asia and the Pacific lack sustainable livelihoods, full health care, and live in fear of violence and abuse. Lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, physical and psychological services, and effective education of women and girls further impedes on the well being of women in our region. Global warming and climate change have had a disproportionate impact on women. Trafficking of women and girls is a
growing and severe problem and HIV/AIDS is increasing at a rapid rate across the region.

Policy initiatives often disproportionately affect women. The achievement of full gender equality requires more effective widespread implementation and monitoring of gender-responsive budgeting with gender impact statements included in national budgets. Gender mainstreaming does not replace the need for targeted, women-specific policies and programmes, positive legislation, corresponding budget allocations, and operational programmes for women at the national, regional and international level. Access to funds for effective programmes for women is a problem for women's NGOs region wide.

A critical and key issue for Asia Pacific women is the impact of conflict and post conflict trauma. In conflict situations, women, girls, men, and boys participate in and experience conflict, peace processes and post-conflict recovery differently. All post-conflict reconstruction programmes should support initial gender impact assessments, gender budget analyses, and advocacy to improve spending patterns so that donor funding benefits women and men equally. National Action Plans for Security Council Resolution 1325 must be developed. Peace-building must be a participatory process that does not reconstruct what has failed, but develops a new paradigm based on gender equality and the protection of women's social, economic, and political rights.

We, the women of the Asia Pacific Region call for measurable gender benchmarks across the diversity of women's experiences; gender disaggregated statistical data collection, and analysis increased research into measuring gender outcomes; and funding for concrete commitments to targeted gender architecture at the national, regional and international levels. We call for national and regional action plans on gender equality which incorporate benchmarking. We call for an increase in specialized funding by States for programmes for women.

We call for the recognition of women's contribution to the presently invisible informal sectors of the economy and the tearing down of structural barriers to women's participation in decision making. We call for concrete commitments to the UN Violence Against Women Campaign and want to see funding and resources committed at the national level to address the endemic violence in the region.

We ask States to recognise the fundamentals of the principles of justice and unity, and the centrality of gender equality in poverty reduction and social justice in development aid. Only then will ongoing barriers for women begin to be overcome, obstacles which universally hinder women's development and full attainment of their human rights.

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Presented at CSW by Carole Shaw, who is from the Center for Refugee Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. She is on the Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific Women Watch and a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Resources and Opportunities

THE FUTURE OF ASIAN FEMINISMS - CONFRONTING FUNDAMENTALISMS, CONFLICT AND NEOLIBERALISM

SECOND CONFERENCE KARTINI NETWORK

BALI INDONESIA 2-5 November 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS

Kartini Network Co-ordinator Nursyahbani Katjasungkana

Conference theme and rationale

Following the successful First Kartini Conference in Dalian, China, in 2004 this second Kartini conference will discuss the future of Asian feminisms assessing past experiences and charting new paths. One of the major foci will be successes or failures of legal campaigns in specific contexts. Most Asian countries are affected by various forms of economic restructuring. These processes are often played out on women’s bodies as a battleground. Cuts in social spending affecting budgets on health and education due to processes of liberalization and structural adjustment have important consequences for women – both in relation to demands on their time, and in relation to their health and educational levels. Massive waves of migration in the region expose millions of women migrant workers to specific dangers, ranging from sexual abuse to exploitation. In many countries the economic and social pressures, coupled with resentment against what is perceived as the aggression of the US give rise to various forms of fundamentalisms. Thus the region is characterized by an unprecedented growth of fundamentalisms, increasing economic insecurities, due to neo-liberal globalization and SAPs, as well as external and internal conflicts, wars and other forms of aggression. These crises are gendered and affect women in multiple ways. As a result most Asian countries are recording an increase in sexual violence against women in the public and in the private sphere, which is exacerbated by dominant gender regimes based on specific forms of heteronormativity.

Participants will be invited to present papers or poster presentation to the following five panels:

1. Women’s and Gender Studies in Asia: Historical Perspective and Future Challenges

2. Fundamentalisms and Feminisms

3. Conflicts And Violence

4. Sexuality

5. Poverty, Vulnerability and Livelihoods

The Kartini Network

Kartini, the Asian – European Network for Women’s and Gender Studies, was founded in 2000. Kartini aims to promote women’s/gender studies in Asia, bringing together academics and activists working in this field. It has a feminist perspective focussing on the intersectionality of gender with other axes of difference (caste, class, ethnicity and race) and promoting gender justice and economic justice. It fosters cooperation between academics and activists i.e. between women’s/gender studies, women’s movements and development organisations within the Asian region and with a few selected strategic partners in non-Asian countries. The Kartini network focuses on five themes: women’s studies, fundamentalisms, sexuality, livelihood and conflict resolution. It sees these themes as interlinked. Kartini aims to strengthen south-south cooperation, including at the sub-regional level, building on the available regional expertise, both within academia, research institutes and gender-based NGO’s.

Structure of the conference

The structure of the conference will be thus that participants will be enabled to attend work of other panels than those in which they present themselves, so as to maximize the forum for inter-Asian dialogue. Comparative papers will be encouraged and the panels themselves will be set up in such a way that the potential for comparative work is fully utilized.

Beside formal paper and poster presentations roundtable discussions will be held; films will be shown and other forms of presentations will be encouraged. Activists will be specifically invited to discuss their advocacy plans. Themes will prepare themselves beforehand through their own constituencies and in agenda-setting preparatory meetings. Other networks will be invited to share their meetings with the conference, such as the Sangat network. Themes will also hold events prior to or after the conference, for their own activities.

Applications can be directed at kartiniasia@gmail.com / kartiniasia@yahoo.comEmail : www.kartini-asia.org

The application should contain a title, a short proposal of no more than 200 words and a short cv of the applicant(s) of no more than 200 words.Fellowships are available for a limited number of Asian researchers and activists based in Asia, on a competitive basis.Deadline for submission: 1 July 2008, Notification of acceptance: 15 August 2008

Global Fund Launched Round 8: Call for Proposals

The latest call for proposals from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria provides a unique opportunity for civil society organizations to be more involved in country coordinating mechanisms (CCMs) and grant implementation. New measures include dual-track financing, community systems strengthening, and improving CCM composition and funding. The application form and support documentation is available at http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/apply/call8/

Intrauterine Devices (IUDs) Manual

Pathfinder International is pleased to announce the publication of Intrauterine Devices (IUDs), Second Edition, a manual designed to train physicians, nurses, and midwives in contraceptive counseling, the advantages and disadvantages of the IUD, eligibility criteria for its use, and insertion and removal of the IUD. It actively involves participants in the learning process through simulation skills practice, discussions, and clinical practice, using objective knowledge, attitude, and skills checklists. The content includes a trainer’s guide and participants’ handouts.

The document can be downloaded at http://www.pathfind.org/Pubs_Training_Curriculum. Hard copies are available by contacting tech-comm@pathfind.org.

Dates for the Diary

JUNE 2008

HARVARD UNIVERSITY JOHN F. KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

LEADERS IN DEVELOPMENT: MANAGING POLITICAL & ECONOMIC CHANGE

JUNE 9 - 20, 2008

During times of great change, leadership is critically important. This is particularly true today in developing and newly industrialized countries where the pace of political and economic change is accelerating rapidly. Today's leaders face an increasingly complex tapestry of economic, political, and social challenges.

Leaders in Development is designed for leaders in public affairs whose responsibilities place them at the center of these issues. During the program, participants will:

• Sharpen problem solving, analytic, and strategic action skills to help them plan, introduce, and sustain major policy and institutional reform.
• Consider new ways to strengthen representative politics and open markets, and manage the challenges of globalization.
• Share experiences with their counterparts in other countries in a collective search for effective responses to change.

Participants return to their countries with enhanced understanding of the tasks of leadership in promoting reform, greater knowledge of changes taking place internationally, and a renewed commitment to working with others to develop their societies.

For more information, follow this link here

JULY 2008

G8 Summit 2008, 7-9 July 2008, Tokyo, Japan

The G8 Summit 2008, which will include global health as a focus theme, will take place in Tokyo, Japan. An outline of the summit, including preliminary and fixed dates of minister meetings, as well as additional information, can be found at the official website.

Preparatory Ministers Meetings:

April 5-6 2008, Tokyo: Development Ministers Meeting
May 28-30 2008, Yokohama: TICAD IV – Tokyo International Conference on African Development
June 13-14 2008, Osaka: Finance Ministers Meeting
June 26-27 2008, Kyoto: Foreign Ministers Meeting

AUGUST 2008

International AIDS Conference – Mexico 2008

The AIDS 2008 theme, Universal Action Now, underscores the continued urgency of the pandemic and reminds us of the responsibility we have to take individual and collective action. For scientists, researchers, people living with HIV and other civil society leaders and professionals working in the field of HIV/AIDS, AIDS 2008 is an ideal opportunity to meet new colleagues and learn from the experiences of others engaged at the local, national and international levels. Join us in México City and help bring us closer to the goals of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. For more information about this conference visit the IAC Website.

SEPTEMBER 2008

Global Course: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Poverty Reduction, Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform (Sep 15-27 2008), Bangkok, Thailand

The course explores key elements in designing efficient, equitable and financially sustainable population policies and reproductive health programs in the context of health sector reform and Millennium Development Goals. After attending the course, participants learn to recognize how the changing international and national policy environments affect their work in population and reproductive health and to identify the linkages among health, gender and poverty.

This two-week course is designed for staff from governments, donor agencies, international organizations, the World Bank, and NGOs working in the health sector. In addition, it targets staff from training and research institutions, as well as academics and researchers working in the areas of health, public administration and social sector reform.

The course is a face-to-face learning event and will be held at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. The sessions will consist of presentations, readings, case studies and group work. Participants must have a good working knowledge of English to participate.

Information about how to apply and fees can be found through the website which you can access by following this link here.

NOVEMBER 2008

The AWID International Forum on Women's Rights and Development, November 14 - 17, 2008, South Africa.

You can expect to be enlightened, provoked and inspired by an exceptional group of thoughtful, forward-looking and fiercely committed women and men. You can expect to move beyond simply talking to getting involved in global action plans and campaigns that will emerge out of the Forum, but will last well beyond it. You can expect to work hard and gain an abundance of new skills, new knowledge, new colleagues, and new ideas for the long road ahead. You can expect to be welcomed, nurtured, fortified and challenged by a group of like-minded activists, academics and practitioners. And finally, you can expect to have more fun than you thought was possible at a conference!

For more information, visit the AWID Website.