Resources for Women

Report on the 53nd meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (2009). Mary Scott, VP National Council of Women of Canada, attended the most recent meeting of this United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and reports on the purpose and conclusions of the meeting. See the report at http://www.ncwc.ca/pdf/csw53.pdf.

Training Manual on Gender and Climate Change (2009): As part of the effort to foster gender sensitive climate change policy-making, the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA) launched a Gender and Climate Change Training Manual http://www.wedo.org/

UN General Assembly Debates Restructuring UN Gender Equality Infrastructure (2009). A U.N. review panel in 2006 called for the creation of a comprehensive women's agency to oversee all U.N. efforts on behalf of women. Two years later, activists are trying to push the effort back on track. http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3517.

Women News Network (2008) A non-profit media news network dedicated to disseminating international women's news not found in the public media stream. The network includes a number of online programmes, including bimonthly in-depth featured news, a breaking news portal, an online film/video library, and an online women's radio library. The goal is to empower the voices of women internationally by educating the public, the international non-governmental organisation (NGO) community, and United Nations (UN) agencies and affiliates worldwide.
http://womennewsnetwork.net/breaking-news-portal/

Women, War, Peace and Displacement (2008). This site allows you to wiew resources about the effects of war on women, including displacement. This portal contains excellent resources on Women, Peace and Security at http://www.womenwarpeace.org/node/3

Louise Arbour's Successor Named (2008). Another staunch defender of women’s rights has been appointed to succeed Canada’s Louise Arbour as High Commissioner for Human Rights, one of the most politically sensitive and complex posts within the UN family. She is Navanethem (Navi) Pillay of South Africa, a lawyer and high court judge who founded Equality Now, which campaigns internationally on women’s rights. For the past decade she has served with two of the most important international criminal courts, first with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and most recently with the International Criminal Court in The Hague. She heads an organization that now has 1,000 staff working in 50 countries with a total annual budget of some US$150 million.

Women Organize to Prepare to Review Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2008) In anticipation of the Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that will take place in Accra, Ghana, from September 2 to 4, 2008, women's rights organizations, advocates and activists will be gathering at the Accra Women's Forum on August 30 to articulate a coherent set of recommendations and plan for women's effective engagement. The Paris Declaration seeks to increase the impact aid has in reducing inequalities, supporting growth, building capacity and accelerating the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals which aim to halve world poverty by 2015. Women's groups involved in the debates and discussions around the Paris Declaration have been promoting the perspective that neither aid nor development policies can be successful unless gender equality, environmental sustainability and human rights are recognized as crucial to the development agenda the women's forum. For more information, visit http://www.awid.org/eng/Women-s-Rights-in-the-News/By-Topic.

New Website Supports Gender Equality Architecture (GEAR) Campaign (2008). The GEAR campaign has recently published a website as a networking and communication tool for campaign members and as an information point for those seeking to find out about the campaign. The site includes basic information about the campaign and its driving principles, a calendar of relevant events and a repository of past statements and records of global and regional advocacy on the issue. To access the website, go to: http://gear.collectivex.com/main/summary.

Women Leaders Ask Where is Our Money (2008). Even though seven out of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) impact on women, both donors and governments receiving aid overlook the need to make resources available for gender empowerment.* Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, executive director of African Women's Development Fund told IPS in an interview that far too little money is made available for gender empowerment. "How you allocate your resources tells much about where your priorities are. Women are 50 percent of the world's population. They should be a priority," she argues.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42914