Women’s bureau

heads for 2000

Debbie Singh

Spc, Noumea

The Pacific Women's Resource Bureau (PWRB) recently held its Triennial Conference of Pacific Women at the headquarters of the South Pacific Commission in Noumea, New Caledonia. Representatives, mainly women, of the SPC’s 22 island member countries and territories attended the conference which focused on the theme: Pacific women in action shaping the future towards the year 2000. The conference was an important one in the bureau's calendar of meetings as it mapped the PWRB’s work plan towards the year 2000.

It was also critical in light of regional government commit ments made at the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in September, 1995. And nearly two years after Beijing, the conference enabled regional government representatives to gather and take stock of commitments made and activities implemented following promises made before the global community in China.

For women from the Pacific Island region, the Pacific Platform for Action (PPA) is the blueprint for the advancement of women and the guideline which maps the work of the bureau.

Many activities have taken place in the Pacific since Beijing to implement concerns raised in the PPA, and the Noumea confer ence reviewed progress by countries to implement issues outlined in the PPA in view of emerging challenges since the document’s endorsement at the sixth Triennial Women’s Conference in 1994.

It also reviewed and endorsed the PWRB work programme to the year 2000 and the bureau’s role as regional lead agency for the advancement of women. It also heard reports from various SPC programmes on efforts to mainstream women into all sectors.

The PPA's 13 critical areas of concern were reclustered into five core issues at a meeting organised by the bureau in December, 1996. The five core issues are; physical quality of life; empower ment in social, legal, economic and political areas; enhancement and protection of women's and indigenous people's rights; contri bution of women to the realisation of just and peaceful societies in the Pacific; and institutional arrangements and mechanisms.

The PWRB workplan for the next three years will focus on education and training, economic empowerment and information empowerment. The bureau will focus on providing its services via an integrated approach with all programme arms of the SPC

beginning with gender sensitisation of existing projects and ser vices. The outgoing head of the PWRB and Women’s Development Adviser. Bernadette Pereira Xhuluc, told the confer ence the successful implementation of a holistic development plan for the advancement of women across all sectors of SPC could itself serve as a role model for member governments.

"There appears to be no example of country efforts in the region to systematically pull the social components embedded in different development sectors together and incorporate them in a holistic development plan. Had there been, efforts to eradicate poverty and to improve other social conditions in the region might have been more successful,” she said. The PWRB will retain its traditional role as a regional coordinating body, particularly in the organisation of skills-exchange programmes and small-scale financial support to women’s groups for strengthening activities of NGOs in the region. In light of the increasing number of inter national agencies establishing themselves in the region, the PWRB also perceives a need to coordinate inter-agency consulta tions and meetings on a regional level, with a view to maximising benefits for Pacific women and minimising duplication of ser vices. An important emerging role of the PWRB is to keep abreast of global news on the status of women through the internet and to disseminate this information to member countries. The bureau is now connected to the worldwide web and copies of its quarterly publication Women's News can now be found on the internet. In addition, and following recommendations of the conference, the bureau has revived its monthly bulletin UPDATE, which will add to its efforts to keep Pacific women informed of regional and international news impacting on them. The bureau is also in the final stages of producing the second edition of the Pacific Women’s Directory. This will also eventually be placed on the internet to enable ongoing updates and provide accessible, up-to date information for government and non-govemment organisa tion focal points.

At the end of the five-day conference, delegates endorsed a set of recommendations centred on empowerment of women socially, legally and economically. In addition, it called on the bureau to take the lead role in moblising the research and dissemination of technology to support women’s income-generation activities such as value-added technologies which give priority to environmental stability. It also called on the recently convened meeting of eco nomic ministers of Forum island countries to consider implica tions of economic reforms on Pacific women and their families and report back to Forum countries at their next meeting and through Forum leaders. The PWRB was also called on to begin a process of devising a set of standards for the treatment of gender in the media and devising indicators for monitoring adherence to these standards. It was suggested this be done in conjunction with other media organisations, including the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA). Among other recommendations, was the need for the PWRB to disseminate information on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to assist countries which have yet to ratify the convention and assist countries in the preparation of the first implementation report required in the first two years of ratifica tion. The conference also called for representatives of indigenous peoples of Aotearoa and Australia, and a representative of migrant Pacific women from these countries to be invited as observers to the triennial meetings of Pacific women. ■