December 15, 2009

Planning Meeting for the 2010 NGO Global Women’s Forum for Beijing + 15

December 15, 2009

Cluster Chair Reports:

Victoria: Venue, Registration

• It has been confirmed that we cannot eat in the auditorium. Registration is up to 413 so far. For the UN exhibit, Anne Zeal is in charge and the theme deals with Beijing Platform for Action from 1995 to where we are today. The duration of the exhibition can be 3 weeks rather than 5.
• We already have a prospective donor but we’re still waiting for approval of the proposal.

Vivian—we have voted against lowering young people’s fees any further.

Also, we have seventy registrations for the CSW 54 Parallel Events, but the deadline is December 31 if you’re interested in registering. The event details and registration is on the NGO CSW website and we only charge after everything has been confirmed.

Adama—In terms of the budget, is it possible to have it available to everyone in the executive committee for the purposes of transparency?

Mavic: Program Committee

• As far as the program committee is concern, we are not accepting any more suggestions for speakers. We had a lot of inputs in all the different areas and what we need to do now is to narrow down our choices and also decide on the MC and moderators. We’ll also decide on whether or not to have a reception, and find a point person to work with Madeline and Soon Young on the cultural events.

Jenna: Outreach

• Three hundred letters have been sent out to universities, grad students, women’s studies departments, and we immediately got back 10 registrations.
• We are also working on a project to send camcorders (iflips) for video testimonials for women who are not going to be able to be at the Forum. We are setting up a website for blogging, webcasts, videos, etc. Various forms of social media will be used for outreach.
• We are receiving shadow reports
• For the honorary board, we sent out invitations already and received some confirmations. But we still need some suggestions if you have some people in mind.

Eleanor: CSW 54 Team of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

• We expect that the bureau of the Commission will hold an informal meeting this week, but until then, we don’t know. We’ll share the information as it comes along. We also have three thousand people registered from at least 336 organizations.

Concerns/Questions raised about the Program:

• Is it possible to make the program for Sunday February 28, shorter? We can end the program at around 3:30pm instead of what is proposed now….
• From previous forums, we’ve always had big or major speakers at the end of the program so that people can stay around until the end.
• Because of the given space, the coffee break should be taken out of the program. People can just take a break when they want to rather than having it all at once in the little space available.
• For the Lynn Notttage reading, which is still to be confirmed, the reading should perhaps be moved much farther down the program, closer to the end.
• For the Call to Action, could it be something splashy, or exciting, as a way of keeping people motivated and stick around till the end of the Forum?
• Moreover, do we need to have a Call to Action on Sunday? –It needs to be on the last day and the Call to Action has been and is supposed to be serious event to show governments and organizations the seriousness of what still remains to the done.
• We need some volunteers for a drafting committee for the Call to Action.
• Some of the pieces of the program should be put up on the registration website, so that people will know what is going to happen. Perhaps titles of the panels, invited speakers, and cultural events to help motivate more people to register.
• Will the $75 apply to the caucuses?
• Is there a process for the caucuses already underway? –the caucuses will be at East 52nd Street but we still need to figure how about arrangements and whether to consider other spaces around.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

The agenda is to first agree on the times on the program and review it further to decide on speakers and moderators.

• We need a volunteer to be the timekeeper.

• There’s an agreement to take out the coffee breaks from the program.
• Starting at 8:30am for the DAY 1—February 27, should stay the same. The second day should start around 9:00am instead of 8:30am.
• Because of concerns with overcrowding, we should reconsider the reporting from breakout sessions. Maybe the facilitators can compile a synthesis that can be briefly presented, instead of having each group reporting, we can only have one person give the report…
• For the breakout sessions on DAY 1—February 27, we should merge some of the breakouts to make 4 groups instead of the 7 that is currently on the program.
• We should have a Q&A session and instead of having people come to microphone, we can pass around note cards for people to write their questions on.
• We need to decide on whether or not to have the reception and where the venue for it will be if we do.

Deciding on the Speakers

• For the speakers, Asia Pacific has expressed a concern that regarding the recent developments about the US governments decision about Afghanistan, it wouldn’t be a good idea to give a platform to Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton as our keynote speakers.
• Sima Samar is available and has partial funding.
• Reservations have been expressed about Vandana Shiva so we might not be able to have her as a keynote speaker considering the message that we want to convey.
• There is more support for Wangari Mathai as our keynote speaker.
• Do we want a man as our keynote speaker?—should it even be an issue?

For MCs and Moderators:

v       DAY 1: Mavic Cabrera Balleza

v       DAY 2: Jacki Shapiro

v       Panel 1: Jan Peterson

v       Panel 2: Afaf Mahfouz

Shortlist for Keynote speakers:

v       Wangari Mathai (Kenya)

v       Nicholas Kristof (USA)

v       Shereen Abadi (Iran)

v       Thoraya Obaid (Saudi Arabia) as backup keynote

Shortlist for Panel 1: (7-10 minutes for each speaker)

v       Charlotte Bunch (USA)

v       Patricia Licuanan (Philippines)

v       Gertrude Mongella (Tanzania)

v       Jacqueline Pitanguy (Brazil)

December 15, 2009

Planning Meeting for the 2010 NGO Global Women’s Forum for Beijing + 15

December 15, 2009

Cluster Chair Reports:

Victoria: Venue, Registration

• It has been confirmed that we cannot eat in the auditorium. Registration is up to 413 so far. For the UN exhibit, Anne Zeal is in charge and the theme deals with Beijing Platform for Action from 1995 to where we are today. The duration of the exhibition can be 3 weeks rather than 5.
• We already have a prospective donor but we’re still waiting for approval of the proposal.

Vivian—we have voted against lowering young people’s fees any further.

Also, we have seventy registrations for the CSW 54 Parallel Events, but the deadline is December 31 if you’re interested in registering. The event details and registration is on the NGO CSW website and we only charge after everything has been confirmed.

Adama—In terms of the budget, is it possible to have it available to everyone in the executive committee for the purposes of transparency?

Mavic: Program Committee

• As far as the program committee is concern, we are not accepting any more suggestions for speakers. We had a lot of inputs in all the different areas and what we need to do now is to narrow down our choices and also decide on the MC and moderators. We’ll also decide on whether or not to have a reception, and find a point person to work with Madeline and Soon Young on the cultural events.

Jenna: Outreach

• Three hundred letters have been sent out to universities, grad students, women’s studies departments, and we immediately got back 10 registrations.
• We are also working on a project to send camcorders (iflips) for video testimonials for women who are not going to be able to be at the Forum. We are setting up a website for blogging, webcasts, videos, etc. Various forms of social media will be used for outreach.
• We are receiving shadow reports
• For the honorary board, we sent out invitations already and received some confirmations. But we still need some suggestions if you have some people in mind.

Eleanor: CSW 54 Team of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

• We expect that the bureau of the Commission will hold an informal meeting this week, but until then, we don’t know. We’ll share the information as it comes along. We also have three thousand people registered from at least 336 organizations.

Concerns/Questions raised about the Program:

• Is it possible to make the program for Sunday February 28, shorter? We can end the program at around 3:30pm instead of what is proposed now….
• From previous forums, we’ve always had big or major speakers at the end of the program so that people can stay around until the end.
• Because of the given space, the coffee break should be taken out of the program. People can just take a break when they want to rather than having it all at once in the little space available.
• For the Lynn Notttage reading, which is still to be confirmed, the reading should perhaps be moved much farther down the program, closer to the end.
• For the Call to Action, could it be something splashy, or exciting, as a way of keeping people motivated and stick around till the end of the Forum?
• Moreover, do we need to have a Call to Action on Sunday? –It needs to be on the last day and the Call to Action has been and is supposed to be serious event to show governments and organizations the seriousness of what still remains to the done.
• We need some volunteers for a drafting committee for the Call to Action.
• Some of the pieces of the program should be put up on the registration website, so that people will know what is going to happen. Perhaps titles of the panels, invited speakers, and cultural events to help motivate more people to register.
• Will the $75 apply to the caucuses?
• Is there a process for the caucuses already underway? –the caucuses will be at East 52nd Street but we still need to figure how about arrangements and whether to consider other spaces around.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

The agenda is to first agree on the times on the program and review it further to decide on speakers and moderators.

• We need a volunteer to be the timekeeper.

• There’s an agreement to take out the coffee breaks from the program.
• Starting at 8:30am for the DAY 1—February 27, should stay the same. The second day should start around 9:00am instead of 8:30am.
• Because of concerns with overcrowding, we should reconsider the reporting from breakout sessions. Maybe the facilitators can compile a synthesis that can be briefly presented, instead of having each group reporting, we can only have one person give the report…
• For the breakout sessions on DAY 1—February 27, we should merge some of the breakouts to make 4 groups instead of the 7 that is currently on the program.
• We should have a Q&A session and instead of having people come to microphone, we can pass around note cards for people to write their questions on.
• We need to decide on whether or not to have the reception and where the venue for it will be if we do.

Deciding on the Speakers

• For the speakers, Asia Pacific has expressed a concern that regarding the recent developments about the US governments decision about Afghanistan, it wouldn’t be a good idea to give a platform to Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton as our keynote speakers.
• Sima Samar is available and has partial funding.
• Reservations have been expressed about Vandana Shiva so we might not be able to have her as a keynote speaker considering the message that we want to convey.
• There is more support for Wangari Mathai as our keynote speaker.
• Do we want a man as our keynote speaker?—should it even be an issue?

For MCs and Moderators:

v       DAY 1: Mavic Cabrera Balleza

v       DAY 2: Jacki Shapiro

v       Panel 1: Jan Peterson

v       Panel 2: Afaf Mahfouz

Shortlist for Keynote speakers:

v       Wangari Mathai (Kenya)

v       Nicholas Kristof (USA)

v       Shereen Abadi (Iran)

v       Thoraya Obaid (Saudi Arabia) as backup keynote

Shortlist for Panel 1: (7-10 minutes for each speaker)

v       Charlotte Bunch (USA)

v       Patricia Licuanan (Philippines)

v       Gertrude Mongella (Tanzania)

v       Jacqueline Pitanguy (Brazil)

December 1, 2009

Planning Meeting for NGO Global Women’s Forum for Beijing + 15

December 1, 2009

Vivian:

• As of this morning, there are 370 people registered for the Forum, mostly people from other countries. The parallel event registration is up on the website and the deadline is December 31. Please let the NGO CSW know if you have any questions.

• Some people want to start sending in shadow reports and the NGO CSW is going to make some space on our website where the reports can be submitted. The shadow reports are responding to the overall Beijing Platform for Action and it can be used to raise questions—the DAW website has a list of the countries’ implementations if you’re interested to see.

• There is going to be a live webcast of the forum and there is already a commitment for funding this webcast.

• For the exhibit, the art curator has sent us photos most of which are centered on women and war. The rent for the space of the exhibit is $6000 and we are going to ask UNFPA to help with the funding. The Social Watch publication will have to wait for now and no one has responding to our fundraising requests so far.

• (Question) Is there a possibility of finding some space in the neighborhood of the Salvation Army where some of the breakout sessions can take place like The New School, YMCA? –Victoria and Shannon will find out about this.

• (Question) During the registration process, will people be automatically assigned breakout groups or will there be a questionnaire to help categorize who goes where?

Cluster Chair Reports:

Victoria—Venue, Registration

• Nothing new other than the fact that we’re still trying to figure out ways to utilize the backdrop space in the auditorium.

Sub for Rosa—Breakouts, Roundtable

• For DAY 1, we have two sets of panels one called Advancing Women’s Rights 1975-2010 and the other, State of the World’s Women.
  • First breakout session after Panel 1 are violence against women (Lisa Davis organizer), climate change (Anita Wenden), women’s health, and (patriarchy?). We’re still looking for somebody to organize the breakout on women’s health. So please contact Rosa if you’re interested.
  • Mavic is working on the 5 regional priorities in action—we have decided to prioritize the regions focusing on Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. FEMNET is organizing for Africa and Mavic is organizing for Asia.
• For DAY2, the breakout session on panel 4 will cover women’s leadership, GEAR, MDGs, Institutional mechanisms.

Jackie—Program

• The program committee has been discussing the contents of the Panels and a number of people have raised the issue of how the MDGs feed into the Beijing Platform.
• We have some suggested speakers

Eva—Handbook

• We are trying to determine how to set/place the ads on the website.
• The deadline for that is January 15
• For now, we are recasting and reviewing the cover, color. The price of the printing is going to be the same as last year and we only have to determine how many we are going to print this year.

Cultural Entertainment—we have various ideas on the type of entertainments we’d like, it’s just a matter of where to insert them into the program and how many of them to do. There’s a grant of $1000 for funding the cultural pieces and we are reaching out to prospective cultural entertainers.

Beth—Outreach, Grassroots

• For the young people’s training, we are recruiting young people through universities and social network sites. Adjoa is going to be organizing the girls participating task force. Jenna et al. are working on a letter to send out to women’s studies and international relations programs.
• For the grassroots, a couple of the groups may not be able to attend so the live webcast will be great for them to participate.
• We are also considering sending Iflip digital camcorders to the grassroots people unable to participate so they can record and upload their activities, their work, photos, etc.

Program Committee

• Our objective is to match the suggested speakers to the panels and topics and shift through list to see who can be our potential keynote speakers
• Keynote Speakers: Vandana Shiva, Nickolas Kristoff, Thoraya Obaid(head of the UN FPA)
• Some of people on the list will be in New York at the time of the Forum, so we need to keep that in mind in terms of funding.
• Shannon will consult with Yama and Mavic to outline a detailed grid on who is speaking on what and their expertise.
• Is it possible to have people assigned to each topic and take on the responsibility to contact the suggested speakers?
• When can we start sending out the invitations?
• We need to get in touch with Eleanor about the scholarships for funding potential speakers
• What are the criteria for the speakers?
  • Regional diversity
  • Grassroots experience
  • Focus on women’s issues
  • Knowledgeable/informed about the MDGs
  • Experts in their field
  • Funding for themselves if possible
  • Available for the 2 days of the Forum
• For Panel 4, can we just leave out the subtopics and just leave it at “Fulfilling the Promise of Gender Equality, Peace and Development and the MDGs”?
• What can be accomplished at the end of the week?
• Can we find out someone to draft a template invitation letter for the speakers? –Kate and Anita will be responsible for this

Suggested Speakers

Name	Subject/Panel
Vandana  Shiva	KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Nicholas Kristoff	KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Thoraya Obaid(head of the UN FPA)	KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Lorena Aguilar	Panel 2, climate change
Irene Dunkelman	Panel 2, Gender and climate change
Eric Sawyer (sawyer@UNAIDS.org)	Panel 2, Women’s health, HIV/AIDS, Violence against women
Salil Shetty	Panel 4: US M Campaign; for MDGs
Fatima Ahmed	Gender & Climate Change
Ruchira Gupta	Panel 2: Violence Against Women
Shula Koenig	Panel 2: Violence Against Women
Gayatri Chokrovorty Spivak	Panel 2: Patriarchy
Peggy Antrobus	Panel 1: Advancing Women’s Rights
Charlotte Bunch	Panel 1: Violence against women
Annika Rahman	Panel 2: Women’s health
June Zeitlin	Panel 2: Climate Change, Gender Architecture
Patricia Licuanan	Panel 1: Advancing Women’s Rights
Gertrude Mongella	Panel 1: Advancing Women’s Rights
Nafis Sadik	Panel 2: Women’s Health, HIV/AIDS
Rosalind Harris	Panel 1: State of the World’s Women
Esther Mwaura-Muiri	Panel 2: Women’s Health
Julie Tanner (ICCR)	Panel 2: Violence against women
Jan Petersen	Panel 4: the future of grassroots
Sanam Anderlini	Panel 4: Women and Armed Conflict
Karen Grown	Panel 4: World Economic Crisis
Robert Engelman	Panel 2: Climate Change
Pam Rajput
Bakhita  Amin—Not sure about who she is	Panel 2:
Rhonda Copeland	Panel 2:

November 17, 2009

Planning Meeting for Beijing + 15 NGO Global Women’s Forum

November 17, 2009

Vivian: Vivian opened the meeting thanking Baha’i for the use of their conference rooms.

We currently have 320 online registrations for the Forum.  The registration fee increased on November 15 from $130 to $150.

We have had little luck with large foundation support – we are therefore working off of a very conservative budget, but hope to add more to the program as funds become available.

UNFPA and Exec. Dir. Thoraya Obaid has agreed to co-sponsor the Forum.  Obaid accepted our invitation to sit on our Honorary Board, as well as to speak at the Forum.  UNFPA reserved the UN Lobby art exhibit space for us.  They have not committed any financial sponsorship.

Parallel Events:  The online registration should be live on our website by Monday, the 23^rd.  We will receive all proposals and time requests and create a schedule – the event organizers will then confirm.  There will be a $75 fee to reserve the space.  The deadline to register will be early to late January 2010.

Cluster Chair Reports:

 

Eleanor: CSW 54 Team of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

• We currently have more than 1,000 pre-registrations in.
• The CSW will be located in the new auxiliary building, which will limit space and seating.  We usually receive more pre-registrations than attendees, so there will be no limit on how many can register for CSW, only a limit on how many can sit in the conference rooms.

• The schedule of work for the CSW will be solidified in December and the decision on the creating of an outcome document will be made in January.
• Invitation letters have gone out already but if anybody hasn’t received one yet, please contact csw54@un.org.

 

Rosa: Study Group, Social Watch, Roundtable

– The Break-Out Sessions will be organized to correlate to the Forum Panel discussions.

– The function the Break-Out Sessions will be to deepen the discussion on the themes presented at the main panels and further explore the theme areas, bring up-to-date information.

– Currently, there are four main panel discussions. The themes of the panels cover some areas of the 12 Critical Areas of Concern, not all, therefore only some areas will be covered in break-out groups, while other discussion spaces will be planned for the others during the CSW.

– Interest was expressed by regional partners (reported by Mavic Cabrera) to have space and time for discussion on the 12 Areas. I made a proposal to reserve space and time at the Church Center during the CSW for follow-up to the discussions begun at the Forum and for Areas not specifically covered.  There was consensus in the Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday (Nov.17) to do this.  Nevertheless, it will need to be followed-up with the Planning/Executive Committee.

– The Panels, Break-Out Sessions and session organizers are listed below.  Break-Out sessions will correspond to the thematic focus of the panels.  Furthermore, outputs of the Break-Out sessions would feed into the Call to Action. Some interested individuals/organizations have signed up to cover these thematic areas:

 

Day 1 – Panels:

1) Advancing Women’s Rights 1975-2010: What the World Conferences on Women Accomplished;

2) State of the World Women’s.

Main themes of the two panels – only 3 of these issues will have Break-Out Sessions on Day 1:  Violence against Women (VAW), Climate Change (CC) and Women, Impact of the World’s Economic Crisis, the Girl-Child, Women and Armed Conflict, Migration, Women’s Health.

 

Break-Out Sessions – Day 1 Afternoon:

1- Violence Against Women (VAW)

2- Climate Change (CC)

3- Women’s Health

Day 2 – AM Panel:  Voices from Around the World: Global Priorities and Issues of the Regions

Breakout Sessions on Recommendations from the 5 Regions (currently have space limitations)

Day 2 – Afternoon Panel - Fulfilling the Promise: Empowering Gender Equality, Peace and Development

Breakout sessions 3:

1- Women’s leadership/GEAR

2- Armed conflict; peace and security

3- Development/Int’l. Agreed Development Goals/Economic crisis impact on women

[ Task groups are currently being formed to further plan the breakouts.  If interested, please contact Rosa at rosaencasa@aol.com

 

Roundtables: Eva and Susan are working on a template for a letter ready to go out as well as looking at a list for possible speakers.

 

Social Watch: will have the gender equity index but because of funding issues, it’s unclear as to whether there’ll be anything done for analyzing the questionnaires or providing the analytical essays initially proposed.

 

Victoria Edmonds: Venue, Reception, Registration

• We toured the Salvation Army to assess the areas for breakouts and it seems there are at least 3-4 spaces that can be used for this.
• The two rooms downstairs hold 260 and 270 people respectively and we’re exploring the ideas of alternating lunch with the breakouts. There’ll be tables and chairs in the lunchroom but not everybody will be able to have a seat.  It was suggested that lunch groups correlate with chosen breakout groups to begin the discussion around lunch and as a way to organically divide into lunch shifts.
• We’ve been in contact with Anne Zeal(?) who’s working on pictures for the 12 critical areas of concern for the UN exhibit. For the proposal of the exhibit, we’ll have everything done by Friday and submit the complete packet to the executive committee for approval and then submit it to the UN.
• (Poll for breakout) Do we still want to have the breakouts for this Forum or something different considering the limited space? –NGOs are coming from all over the world and we need to give them an opportunity to participate.

 

Jackie Shapiro and Mavic Cabrera Balleza: Program Committee

 

• At this stage, we’re identifying speakers for the panels as well as exploring funding issues. We’re hoping to get the invitations out soon and keeping in mind that we need to invite people from different regions.
• The program as it stands now is being organized around the call for action.
• Mavic: Inviting people from the different areas could address the funding issues.
• For GEAR, Women’s Peace and Security is interested in taking leadership in leading the discussion on thematic areas.

 

*Vivian:

We’re trying to form a subcommittee on cultural events to organize some cultural groups for some readings, artwork, music, dance, etc. to incorporate into the program. We’ll send out the brochures for fundraising purposes that describes the Forum and an ask for donations.

Please register men and boys to bring along with you to the event. It’s important to have their participation….

 

*Eva:
In regards to the handbook, we have 4 concerns right now: 1) Price of advertizing 2) color—what should be on the cover 3) Timeline 4) What will be included in the handbook in terms of dos and don’ts.

 

 

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Agenda: Review the draft program and make sure it’s in line with the CSW platform; to revise the program and suggest speakers for the panels.

 

• An update on the program is that it needs to be aligned with the CSW agenda which is outlined in the DAW Aide Memoire and it should be coherent with the MDGs and CEDAW.
• Is there any way of bringing the panelists together once its decided who is going to be on them?
• What MDGs should each of the speakers focus on? Should each speaker have a broad range of knowledge on the MDGs? –All the MDGs correspond to gender issues that’ll be covered.
• We cannot reinvent the whole program but we need to find a space where to address the MDGs as it relates to CSW’s agenda.

 

What are expectations for each Panel?

Panel 1: talk about where we’re coming from (Fourth World Conference) and where we’re going. This panel should be about an hour long and it should address history of the advocacy starting with Mexico City.

 

Panel 2: Will address the current landscape of where Beijing Platform for Action is at right now. This is where the crosscutting issues will be addressed with the 12 critical areas of concern.

 

Panel 3: There’ll be five speakers who’ll give a report on each of the regional meetings and priorities.

 

Panel 4: this will synthesize the crosscutting issues and look at where we’re at and what remains to be done.

 

Concerns, Suggestions, Ideas:

• There seems to be an overlap between panels 2 and 4, how do we make sure that they are all specific enough?

o      Panels 2 and 3 descriptive and panel 4 is concerned with solutions and visions.

• We can also add a fourth speaker on panel 4 to speak about the MDGs.
• Can we incorporate “the Girl Child” somewhere in the program?
• We should make sure that we’re choosing dynamic speakers and consider the issue of balancing the speakers regionally.
• Vivian: We’re on a timeline and as of now, we need a preliminary program by December 1.

 

 

November 3, 2009

Planning Meeting 2010 NGO Global Women’s Forum for Beijing + 15

November 3, 2009

Vivian: Some of the subcommittees need more participation and fundraising, and no one is working on media so if anyone is interested, let us know.

Reports from cluster chairs:

Victoria: Attendance, Venue

• There’s been progress in finding an exhibit area and we’ve been offered a small area where the exhibit can be displayed. We’re encouraged to go ahead with the project because the theme is good. We’re estimating that at least 1200 people will attend and so far, 220 people have registered.

Rosa: PR, Social Watch, Roundtable

• We’ve decided that publicity and PR will go under Adama’s cluster from now on.
• Eva: Social Watch: has come up with a gender equity index and the idea was to get them to cooperate with us to work on a gender equity index for the publication and help us analyze questionnaires. The essays will be written by prominent and knowledgeable people and our main responsibility now is to raise the necessary funds and contact the people that’ll write the essay. The whole point of the publication is to reference for the things that has been done and what still remains to be done. We also want the project to be finished by January before the Forum takes place.

a.     The problem now as discussed in the last meeting is the cost. Social Watch has raised its share ($56,000), and it’s our turn now to raise $50,000. Social Watch has already brought out a timeline as to what they can and cannot do as well as nominated two editors to work on the project.

b.     How and who will the publication be distributed to? –Internet, organizations, hard copy, CD formats

• Roundtable: the title for the roundtable is being worked on and we are also looking for a moderator. Two to three speakers have been suggested that we are contacting. We want somebody from Latin America, possibly a man to be one of the speakers and we’re looking for a youth voice, a young woman possibly from Africa or the Middle East.
• Study Group: We want to make links with the 9 rising issues with the 12 critical areas of concern.

a.     The challenge we’re facing now is how we’re going to incorporate breakouts to the work that’s already been done. Also, issues of space have come up and it’s not clear whether we’ll have enough room for all the 12 critical areas of concern for the breakouts.

b.     What is the work that we’ll need to do with the study group to feed into the programs of the meeting? –We want to settle the program today and move on from there.

c.     The program committee has decided that covering all the 12 critical areas of concern individually will be exhausting and time consuming. As a result, it’s been suggested that the breakouts be conducted in clusters—by combining two or three areas for each breakout.
Jackie: Programming
We’ve added a panel on advancing women’s rights and decided on what the topics of the Panels will be. Right now, we’re working on finding people for the panels and all suggestions for names will be welcome. All of the program’s different aspects feed into the call for action, especially the breakout sessions.

 

Adama: Outreach, Fundraising, Publicity

 

• For the honorary board, we’re working on letters to be sent out soon.
• We had a meeting with a publicity agency on the 11/02 and they are a social justice PR firm may do publicity for us. Through them, we’re trying to reach visible donors who can be beneficial to what we want to happen.
• As for outreach, Jenna at the NGO CSW office has put a survey online and it has a total of 247 responses many of which were from the US. Please help in any way you can in registering men to increase their participation. We are hoping to lower the cost of registration for young people and still debating whether we want to give them an opportunity for group registrations as well.
• Adama is also going to Banjul to attend the Beijing + 15 Eight African Regional Conference on Women from the 16^th through 20^th November where she’ll be doing some advocacy.

 

Eleanor: CSW 54 Team of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

• There’s still no information/report on space yet but November should be the month when we decide specifically where the event will be. As of now, 136 organizations have registered participants for CSW and email csw54@un.org if you have any questions.
• In regards to the entry of girls into the conference, girls under the age of 16 cannot get ground passes unless chaperoned by an adult with a ground pass.
• We are calling for nominations for funding for selected members of ECOSOC accredited NGOs to participate in the Fifty-fourth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, 1-12 March, 2010.  The application and invitations are available now and we’re looking for a first timer who is familiar with the concerned issues and a letter of recommendation about the nominee as to why she’s the best person to attend.  We’re not asking for too many specifics but it would be good to for the candidate to be familiar with the issues concerning the Beijing Platform for Action. We might be able to fund 10 people this time, but we do not fund women from developed countries. The deadline for the application is November 18^th and each nominee should have a separate form along with a CV.
• For the written statements, we have 3 dates and the date that’ll give you the most amount of time is the 23^rd November where two or more organizations write one statement. November 18^th is the deadline for the individual statements and November 13^th for the NGOs on the Roster or joint statements co-signed by one or more NGOs on the Roster. Visit here for more information: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/NGO.html#written
• Keep in mind that the Secretary General can approach an organization about the contents of a statement if anything discriminatory is discovered in a statement.

 

 

 

PROGRAM COMMITTEE: suggestions, ideas, questions

• 1^st: The main challenge right now is how to organize the breakout sessions in the available space.
• 2^nd: In order to get to the big auditorium, people have to go outside and it’s not clear how to accommodate the expected number of people considering the weather in February. 3^rd: The seats are immobile in all the rooms.
• As suggested in the previous meetings, we should seriously consider alternating the breakout sessions with lunch. But another idea is to have the boxed lunches delivered to the breakout groups at their locations so as to keep hundreds of people from scrambling at once to get to the lunch room. However, the question now is whether people will be allowed to eat anywhere else other than the lunch room (which holds 160 people). The NGO CSW is in the process of working with an event planner to carry out the logistics of this.
• The goal today is to identify 3 people who can participate in the panels, and we need to consider how much of the panel is NGO and how much the UN.
• On Panel 2 for the first day, we need to decide who the speakers are going to be as well as identify 2-3 panelists for day two. The task at hand is to come up with the candidates and then send the invitations out.
• Can the panel on the state of the world’s women take on the global priorities?
• For the panel of state of the world’s women, we are considering issues such as patriarchy, climate change, violence against women, and women’s health.
• We still need to agree on the issues that each panel will cover. As of now though, we’ll add a 4^th panelist on climate change under the state of the world’s women.
• Suggested panelists: Sanam Anderlini, Robert Bissio, Nicholas Kristoff, Ambassador from Swaziland

Tentative Program as of 11/01/09

Day One

8:30—9:30 – Registration

9:30—9:45 –Welcome

9:45—10:30 – Keynote Speech

10:30—11:30 –Panel 1: Advancing Women’s Rights 1975-2010: What the World Conferences on Women Accomplished –suggested speakers: Peggy Antrobus, Charlotte Bunch, Patricia Licuanan, Gertrube Mongella, Jan Petersen, Nafis Sadik, Esther Mwaura-Muiru

11:30—12:00 – Coffee break

12:00—1:30 – Panel 2 on the State of the World’s Women

2:00—4:00 – Lunch and Staggered Breakout Sessions on Recommendation from Panel including VAW, Climate Change and Women, Impact of the World’s Economic Crisis, the Girl-Child, Women and Armed Conflict, Migration, Women’s Health

4:00—5:00 – Reporting back on Breakouts

5:00 – Networking, coffee time

(Orientation for new attendees)

 

Day two

9:00—10:30 Voices from Around the World: Global Priorities and Issues of the Regions

Breakout Sessions on Recommendations from 5 Regions

Coffee break

Reporting back from Breakouts

Lunch

Panel 3 on Fulfilling the Promise: Empowering Gender Equality, Peace and Development

Breakout Sessions on Recommendations are: MDGs, CEDAW and other institutional mechanisms, GEAR, building women’s leadership

Coffee Break

Reporting back on Recommendations

Call to Action

 

 

 

20 OCT 2009

Planning Meeting for the 2010 NGO Global Women’s Forum for Beijing + 15 October 20, 2009

Cluster chairs give their reports:
1. Victoria—Attendance: there are two Salvation Army officers who’ll show us around—tour the area and see how the space can be used. They’ll be the two main contact people that we’ll work with during the two days.
a. The rooms are handicap accessible
We cannot find a UN agency that will request a place for the UN Lobby art exhibit. This time, we’re using mostly photographs for the exhibit, which will depict BPfA’s development through the years. There’s need for only one agency and if anyone knows someone or has contacts with a UN agency to sponsor the event, or want to be a part of it, contact Victoria.

2. Shannon read the email from the Outreach Chair—is in the process of developing strategies for outreach. Looking for ways to incorporate young people as NGO interns, outreach through social networking sites like facebook, email, etc. We’ll send out short surveys to assess what is needed to move forward as well as building contacts with regional committees.

3. Public Relations, Media, Roundtable: Social Watch is going to come up with a publication of about a 100 pages translated into French and Spanish that will highlight three areas: 1) Gender watch index of all the progress made since the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. 2) Questionnaires will also be provided to assess the issues. 3) A number of essays (3-6) written by experts on topics that have not been included before like climate change, the financial crisis, etc. We’re trying to get world-renowned writers to write these essays.
a. The budget for the creation of the publication right now is $56,000—which is the main issue right now because we want to reduce it as much as we can.
b. We’re looking into setting up a website for it and find alternative ways to make it accessible and efficient at a reasonable cost.

4. UN-Women Watch: In terms of NGO participation in the UN Commission on the Status of Women, we’re encountering a number of challenges that include office relocations all over the city and we’re no longer allowed to store publications in the main building. We have the invitations to go and the website running for pre-registration and registration. You need a username and password in order to register.
a. No decision has been made yet in terms of limitations for organizations, but we’ll need to issue some kind of tickets for entry into the conference room. Also, details on how much room/space will be allocated are not yet clear. If you’re based in New York and have UN passes, there’s no problem, but those that are coming from other countries should follow appropriate steps that’ll enable them to attend the event.

All the information that is needed on the deadlines about the written individual and joint statements is available on the website: the deadline for individual statements is November 13th, and November 23rd for the joint statements.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/NGO.html

TOUR
There are 3 main rooms available for the breakout sessions; the auditorium and two other rooms one of which the lunch boxes will be in.
➢ Caterer: The lunch boxes comprise of cookies, chips, sandwiches, and a pasta salad and water. There’ll be refreshments in the morning and the afternoon.
➢ The question of whether or not people will be able to eat in the breakout rooms is still open.
➢ Even though the rooms are handicap accessible, the people that’ll need it will have to come in through the 13th Street entrance and then take the elevator.
➢ Van(?) Mason will be in charge of the media and technical details like audio, video, lighting, etc. The auditorium holds 1700 people: it has 2 screens for presentations and such. There is video and two TV screens on stage as well. There is wireless network in the building for web-casting.
o Media equipment like portable screens and DVD players are also available for the breakout rooms—these should be requested ahead of time. About 100 functioning translating equipment are also available.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Handout:

2010 Forum Program

Day 1
• Panel One—Doctor’s Report on the State of the World’s Women and Girls
• Breakout Sessions—Recommendations on Violence against Women, Impact of World Economic Crisis, Climate Change and Women, the Girl Child

Day 2
• Panel Two—Voices from Around the World
• Breakout Sessions—Recommendations from Regions

• Panel Three-Achieving Gender Equality, Peace and Development
• Breakout Sessions—Recommendations-MDGs, CEDAW and other reporting mechanisms, building women’s leadership, GEAR

Points, Suggestions and Questions
1) The Executive Committee of the NGO-CSW has suggested that cultural event(s) should be added to the program. But there needs to be some negotiations as to how we can move forward with the programming.
a. The author of the Pulitzer Prize book, Ruined, Lynn Nottage, has offered to do a reading.
2) It would be useful to have something in the beginning of the program that will put BPfA + 15 into context in order to inform people of what it was about (it should be something “exciting” with people from different regions who were in Beijing in 1995). If possible, we can move the 11-12pm session on the first day to the afternoon to accommodate this.

3) We might have to rotate the breakout sessions and lunch because it would be difficult to have everyone take lunch at the same time with the given space.

4) Also, we’re going to have to make choices as to what issues are crosscutting when putting the breakout groups together. It is possible to have 12 breakouts alternating but the logistical committee will have to have a say in how it is organized.
a. Each of the breakout groups is supposed to come up with recommendations for a call to action.

5) During the breakouts, can we give an assignment to each group to come up with two important critical issues that they found in their discussions that can then be a part of the call to action report?
a. There’ll be a draft for the call to action ready before the Forum takes place, but it will be open ended so that more ideas and issues can be added to it.

6) How can we incorporate the emerging issues like climate change and the financial crisis into the program?

7) Can small subgroups meet two weeks from now to discuss and come up with dynamic titles for each panel?
a. We can do emails and see what everyone has to say about the titles, then synthesize these and put it forward in the next meeting.

Do we have any hints as to what the regions are going to talk about?
a. Mavic is in contact with the regional and sub-regional coordinators

9) Some issues that need to be added to the agenda are women and armed conflict, migration, women and health, food security. We need to think about the broadest titles/topics possible for the breakouts.

10) Panel two is going to bring forward priority issues from the different regions.

6 OCT 2009

Global Forum Planning Meeting

Baha’i International Community

6 October 2009

Chair: Vivian Pender
Agenda:
Overview/Sub-Committee Updates
Break into small groups

Four Cluster (sub-committee) Chairs
Victoria Edmonds – Attendance
-
Rosa Lizardi – PR/Media
-
Mavic Cabrera-Balleza – Program
-
Adama Diop – Outreach
-

VP: each Cluster has/needs a chair, reporter and an email list

Over 60 registered participants for Forum – early registration fee ends Oct. 15

VICTORIA – ATTENDANCE
Absent – presented through email:

Will be able to register for CSW late OCT/NOV online on the DAW website: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/NGO.html#invitation
Next meeting will take place at the venue for the Forum and include a tour of the facility:
The Salvation Army
Greater New York Headquarters
120 West 14th Street (between 6th and 7th Ave)
New York, NY 10011
The Main Auditorium and Breakout rooms will be PowerPoint and AV equipped – Personnel will be available at the meeting on OCT 20 for any questions regarding the facility.
The reception will be held on March 2nd – no updates at this time – if interested in helping with this event, please contact Victoria
UN Lobby exhibit – has contacted a curator of a previous exhibit on women in the UN lobby, will focus this time on the implementation of Beijing+15 – the details regarding the space provided, the time frame it will be displayed are still unknown – again, if interested in helping with the exhibit, please let Victoria know

ROSA – PR/MEDIA
Beginning to organize…
PR – internally is being discussed at this point
Social Watch – Natalie Cordona is the SW staff person/liaison, monitoring the report
Study Groups – will inform breakout sessions, one page fact sheet about each of the 12 areas of interest as well as the 9 groups of women
Round Table – in progress – Eva Richter and Susan O’Malley

[Question: Specify that 12 areas of interest are integrated rather than divided, should meet together with breakout cluster]

MAVIC – PROGRAM
Basic structure in place
Reviewing suggestions for speakers – focus on celebration of accomplishments of women working under Platform / accounting for where we are and what achievements got us here
Platform is comprehensive and does not stand alone, linked to MDGs, Res. 1325, will be reflected in the program – here to celebrate new women’s entity (GEAR) – this was demanded in Beijing and finally is coming to fruition
Plenary
Regional Reports
Emerging Issues – 12 critical areas, what’s new – young, technology, aging – new issues
There will be a teleconference via SKYPE on OCT 14 of regional coordinators as well as some sub-committee coordinators – to get input on how to shape program
[Question: Plenary Speakers – how do we get new voices to speak?]
[Question: Methodology in identifying critical issues?]
Evaluation/surveys – distributed questionnaires to specific regions, their UN representatives – in certain areas, also distributed a shadow assessment (ex. E. Africa) to NGOs – collating responses – methodologies vary by regions
Survey of WOMENACT listserv to be sent out by office in next few days

ADAMA – OUTREACH
Grassroots – Shannon Hayes – outreach letter sent out to listserv – attempt to include more grassroots women in Forum, women on the ground working
For women who cannot travel to the conference, it will give them a chance to voice concerns, opinions remotely
Focus on youth and men participants this year
Looking to fundraising and Honorary Board to liaise
Honorary Committee – VIP to lend name to board, help with fundraising, publicity, networks – description is broad – invite to out from office
Propose a candidate for Honorary Board – include contact info
Steps: 1 – decide if appropriate for message 2 – contact candidate to see if interested 3 – send out letter from office formally inviting to board
Offer board member opportunity to donate to Forum – include in all fundraising events, but not required to donate
Choosing to use “young people” over “youth” – more respectful
Will pull young people from NGOs, contacts of attendees, volunteers, university classes

BREAK INTO SMALL GROUPS

Roundtable, Program, Study group/breakout sessions, and Grassroots met

*Clarification:
Study Groups: to learn about 12 areas, not necessarily in program, resource for all to better informed – Create fact sheets, inform breakout sessions
Breakout Sessions: feed off program, flow of entire program, could include information gathered in study groups

Did not reconvene – will report out during the first half of the next meeting

NEXT MEETING:

OCT 20 – 12-2 pm

The Salvation Army
Greater New York Headquarters
120 West 14th Street (between 6th and 7th Ave)
New York, NY 10011

16 JULY 2009

2010 FORUM PLANNING MEETING 16 JULY 2009

Purpose
The purpose of the forum is to celebrate Beijing and link directly into the work of the 54th Commission on the Status of Women.

Program
The draft program below is based on input from NYC brainstorming meetings beginning in December 2008, 4 caucuses held during the 53rd Commission on the Status of Women in March 2009, and meetings/communications of the Coordinating Committee (composed of the leadership of the NGO CSWs in Geneva, New York and Vienna). Due to the uncertainty in the current climate of economic crisis, the NGO CSW/NY plans to incorporate its Consultation Day for CSW 54 into the 2-day program. The program is still in development. NOTE CHANGE IN DATES.

Proposed program draft overview:
27 February 2010
9:00am Opening Ceremony: A Call to Action
10:00am First Plenary- Heads of State from each region
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Panel: Successes and Challenges, NGO Regional Reports
ECE, NGO Forum for Beijing + 15 (Europe and North America)
ECLAC, NGO Forum for Beijing + 15 (Latin America and the Caribbean)
ESCAP, NGO Forum for Beijing + 15Asia and the Pacific
ECA, NGO Forum, Africa
ESCWA, NGO Forum, Western Asia
3:30pm Open Discussion, Q & A
5:00pm Adjourn
6:30-9:30pm Reception

28 February 2010
9:00am Panel: Prevention and Proactive Measures
UNFPA
CEDAW Experts: Older Women
MDG Goals: UNDP
Men’s Organizations
Youth: NGO Committee on UNICEF

11:00am Keynote Speaker:
Women NGOs
Nobel laureate

Noon Lunch

1:00pm Breakout Sessions on BPfA: Poverty, Health, Education, Violence, Armed Conflict, Economy; Beijing + 5: Older Women, Rural Women

2:30pm Breakout Sessions on BPfA: Decision making, Human Rights, Media, Environment, Institutional mechanisms, The Girl Child; Beiing + 5: Migrant Women, Disabled Women, Female Household heads

4:00pm Closing Ceremony: Future Work

5:30pm Adjourn

Venue
The Forum will take place in New York City, however the venue for the Forum has not yet been set and will depend on the number of participants. Possible venues include New York University and the Javits Convention Center. Anyone with connections to potential venues, please contact the NGO CSW/NY office.

Reports/Reviews
In the past, reports in preparation for the review were gathered and incorporated into a single document. The Coordinating Committee is inquiring to see whether the organization that did that work in the past would do it again. It is hoped that such a report would be available by January 2010. It is expected that some regional reports will be sent to the Coordinating Committee. The goal is to compare NGO reports with government reports.

Regions are taking the lead in disseminating a questionnaire to governments and some NGOs, however the details of this process are unknown.

Outreach
Social Media and other technology such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs may be used to connect with younger generations.

Other Events Planned
Some type of event will be planned for the actual Beijing Anniversary in September 2010.

Regional Activities

The Forum is shaped by contributions from the regions but the regional meetings have their own priority issues and processes. The next issue of the IWTC’s Women’s Global Net will have information about organizing in the regions.

Asia Pacific
The Asia-Pacific Region will hold an NGO Forum on Beijing +15 from October 22-24, 2009 in Quezon City, Philippines. The theme for the Forum will be “Weaving Wisdom, Confronting Crises, Forging the Future.” Workshops planned on Women and Armed Conflict will be linked to a 1325 + 10 event in October 2010.
More information about this NGO Forum can be found online here: http://apngo2009.mc.edu.ph/

A High Level governmental meeting will take place in Bangkok following the NGO Forum.

Africa
Africa regional networks FEMNET and Eastern African Subregional Support Network for the Advancement of Women have been organizing for Beijing +15. Eastern African Subregional Support Network for the Advancement of Women is focusing specifically on 2 areas: 1. Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights 2. Women & Armed Conflict. At this time, there is no regional intergovernmental meeting finalized for Africa.

Planning Sub-Groups Formed:

1. Media
2. Venue/Event Facilities
3. Partnerships & Financial Support
4. Honorary Board
5. Outreach- Grassroots Participation

Comments
-Focus on Equality, Development, Peace
-3 paths for the Forum: 1. Celebrate, 2. Address Beijing, 3. Decide how to move forward
-If reports are developed as part of the Beijing +15 activities, to whom will they be presented?
-There must be a space for women who don’t know about Beijing and the UN to participate in the Forum
-How is this conference different from other Beijing conferences?
-There is concern that the event will be too NY or US focused.
-This is not a conference, it is a review of the Beijing Conference.
-It is important to incorporate the UN Gender Equality Architecture reform process into the Forum.
-There is concern that there not be a corporate presence at the Forum- reach out to more groups of women instead.
-1325 and 1820 should be wrapped into the Forum
-Peace should be included in the Forum
-Include Violence Against Women and need for Women in Decision-Making Positions
-Incorporate the outcome regarding reproductive rights of the September NGO Forum in Berlin on the Cairo Conference on Population and Development
-The Center for Women’s Global Leadership will have a Beijing Review Symposium in NYC on March 6.
-Maternal mortality is an issue that should be included.
-The proposed program is heavy with input from experts- could it go from regional reports into breakdowns?
- Could the program be more collaborative if designed differently?
-Breakout sessions should be connection-oriented
-It is important that the voices of human rights advocates on the ground around the world can be heard in this process. This is important because many NGOs don’t represent community-based groups.
-Is there a way to get support for ensuring grassroots groups’ participation? This could happen through technology- through computer communications.
-Move the breakout groups to Day 1
-Develop a report that combines information on legislation, conventions and international agreements relevant to the topic of the Forum
-How can this Forum be linked to other processes and spaces for women in 2010?
-One of the Keynote speakers should be a grassroots speaker
-The Forum should end on a note of strong demands- perhaps have one woman from each region present the 10 most pressing needs from her region based on the collaboration of women’s organizations from each continent
-There is concern about participation coordination in the Africa region
-Radio is a powerful tool for outreach in some parts of Africa

11 MARCH 2009

Beijing +15 Minutes
3/11/09

+ We’re still open for more suggestions while everyone is here
- Especially ask regional caucuses to designate a few people (all the caucuses have done this) that we can call on to coordinate with us. Setting up our network has been very successful. Our blog is found at http://ngocswny.wordpress.com
You can add your comments to this blog so if you have a thought about something and tell us what you’re doing you can put it on the blog

+ Goals
1. To report on the current condition of women, vision of future and gap between words and deeds.
2. To generate renewed commitment and engagement on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action at all levels, including international, regional, national and local levels
3. To promote the critical need for action and implementation

+ Objectives
1. To increase awareness of Beijing at the international, regional, national and local levels- some people don’t know about the platform at all
2. To highlight the increasing gap between words, actions and accountability at all levels.
3.To advocate for critical need to establish monitory and implementation mechanisms addressing gaps
4. To collaborate with GEAR proposal for the Composite International Women’s Agency model.
5. To engage new allies in all aspects of campaign (men, youth, more women)
- Young people, someone suggested we focus on people who will be 15 years old next year. Engage men who aren’t part of the process.
6. To organize and mobilize existing allies and building momentum at the international, regional, national and local levels.

+ Possible Strategies
1. Share tool kits with local NGOs to mobilize campaigns
- Talking points- clear, uniform message
2. Create guidelines for the development of country-level lists of 12 key accomplishments and 12 remaining challenges
3. Strengthen Beijing through linking to other international instruments (Resolutions 1325, 1820, CEDAW, MDGs)
4. Hold worldwide rallies to celebrate Beijing +15 and country objectives
5. Consolidate country level findings into list of recurring global themes and key priorities
6. Engage new partners including men and men’s organizations, youth and women not yet participating.
7. Develop interactive tools through web, radio and others
- Use as many interactive tools as possible.
8. Plan for sustaining momentum beyond celebratory event
- Plan for after the anniversary of Beijing- it’s been exciting to see everyone here, the momentum should carry to next CSW and beyond that.

+ Who should be involved?
1. NGO CSW Working Group
- We will have an NGO CSW working group- in collaboration with NGO CSW Geneva and Vienna
2. GEAR Networks
3. NGOs at international, national, regional and local levels
4. Relevant government ministries
5. Non Committee Partners (must be context specific)
6. Religious organizations
7. Private Sector
8. Media
9. Ambassadors, celebrities
10. Schools, universities, educational facilities

+ Next Steps and Outstanding Issues
1. Choosing dates and locations
- 2 days before CSW 54- might be Friday and Saturday.
- One of the topics of CSW might be Beijing +15
- NGO meetings at CSW 54 in NY and also worldwide events
2. Develop timetable with regular progress and coordination updates, lead up events and or milestones progress
- Trying to develop a timetable for next year- we will use the Internet for this- can create listservs. We thought of monthly updates (someone mentioned every 2 weeks a teleconference). At least once a month contact.
3. Develop communication programs and tool kits, including plans for translation and accessibility to grassroots organizations with limited access to technology.
4. Develop short-term and long-term budgets, fundraising goals and strategies
5. Use GEAR infrastructure to develop NGO regional focal points to coordinate national and local implementation.
6.Link and create awareness at all other events (e.g. 16 Days of Activism, Human Rights, ECOSOC Summit, etc)
7. How do we ensure momentum from event is sustained?
8. Miscellaneous
- Budgets will be developed (short term and long term)
- As other events take place (human rights day December 10th/ECOSOC summit in July- we can link our activities to these other events)
- Ensuring momentum is very important

+Action Items
1. Regional Task Force Representatives and NGOs to review presentation and offer feedback and thoughts.
2. Begin forming the Coordinating Committee to liaison with TF Representatives
3. Honorary Board
4. Fundraising
- Form our coordinating committee here
- An honorary board- something we need to assemble- please reach out to any one well known who could serve on the board.

+Additional Next Steps
1. Monthly activity focused on one or two of the BPfA concerns. For example:
- April- Women and the Financial Crisis
- May- Women and Health
- We don’t have enough time to cover the 12 areas but you can choose one or two of them (Ex: we’re doing women and health in May)

+Beijing Platform for Action 1995
1. The Girl Child
2. Women and Poverty
3. Education and Training of Women
4. Women and health
5. Violence Against Women
6. Women and Armed Conflict
7. Women and the Economy
8. Women in Power and Decision-making
9. Institutional echanism for the Advncement of Women
10. Human Rights of Women
11. Women and the Media
12. Women and the Environment

Beijing + 5 identified specific groups of women:

1. Older women/aging
2. adolescents/young women
3. refugees/asylum seekers
4. indigenous women
5. entrepreneurs/self employed
6. migrant women
7. rural women
8. disabled women
9. female household heads

+ Comments
- Include something about gender and democracy- and define democracy
- 2 suggestions- communication by Skype and Consultation Day- is there a way we can orient the day to Beijing +15 issues
- The topic for CSW is going to be Beijing +15 and nothing else so we may not need Consultation, which would be more financially feasible.
- Have you considered an official day on which this will start so we can start and get some media coverage in our home countries- maybe an announcement from the UN to officially launch everything? (suggestions- Dec 10th- Human rights day- this would be the launch) It’s a good to have a certain launch date.
- Question concerning regional activities- should they take place before March- European Caucus wants to know what is expected in terms of the dates and planning of marches and events. – Answer: take one or two of the Beijing areas and focus on those- have a conference, workshop – publicize it, invite youth and men
- In Asia Pacific we didn’t choose any representatives to be the communicator- can we send the name later to you? Yes- and during the two days before CSW 54 we are going to have some celebration and events but how can we organize the event in the region at the same time? Maybe we need to have the regional event before Dec 10th so we can bring the results to the CSW.
- See if you can find some local organizations in your area that could support a march or a rally during the time of CSW.
- Could we use Oct 15th to do the launch so we have enough time to do events in the region. Are we going to decide on how many members of the honorary board? It should be someone who has clout, fame, celebrity and who is willing to be a spokesperson. Need women leaders from other countries. It usually helps if you know the person or have some link with them. Once the person is in agreement you can forward the name to Vivian.
- Is the planning team formed yet? If not can we ensure representation from every team. – We are coordinating with all of the regions. Actually need youth on the committee not just organizations that work with youth
- Wanted to know how we will utilize people who are willing to offer time and volunteer- how individuals get involved- through your NGO locally or directly through us. It has to be local for this to be a really global movement.
- As much as there are bigger structures- the bottom line is at the local and national level. Help the locals at the country level with expertise.
- Suggestion to make a toolkit for NGOs at the local level- that would help drive local level activities.
- Very important to emphasize the fact that there will be a lot that will be happening in UN and that budget is mostly for activities that will take place in NY. People who are taking up responsibilities to mobilize resources at the local level for things to happen at the local, country and regional level. We need to negotiate this as a mainstream activity for the work you normally do. Teleconferencing every 2 weeks is too ambitious. Monthly might work but that mechanism needs to be maintained. Realities of language will come in.
- We want to put the blog on the website in French and Spanish. If we have people who volunteer to do the other languages.
- Have the toolkit be participatory; maybe we can get feedback before the final draft is created.
- We would like to coordinate w/ Women’s violence organizations to do something in NY- maybe form a little committee in this area of concern.
- Do we have a logo? Someone brought it up maybe use original Beijing logo. Also need a slogan. Maybe a song
- Concern- March is not such a good time for other parts of the world. It can be difficult to coordinate everything at the same time. What if different regions choose a time of the year to have a special event? – We said a monthly event so that would be fine.
- World walk for peace leaving from NZ- might coordinate events with this.
- Outside this room, Beijing isn’t well known. Beijing +15 might be a substitute than the key title of the event. Maybe we could have a contest among us to come up with an idea
- Fundraising idea- scarf with the logo- that would be something that could unite every region. Then everyone could have diff color of scarves with that great logo
- Carry along the idea of organizing the original Beijing regional members. We have some archival material in the CONGO office we can look through. People are starting to dig up these documents.
- Last time we were talking about including a timeline of women and progress for Mexico and Copenhagen etc.
- Want to include people of all generation
- Maybe have Beijing +15 in subtitle for fundraising purposes. Maybe a name/slogan
- “She has done it” “Women- How far?” “Yes she can” “Women, The journey so far”
- Must have a new slogan- Beijing is derogatory in Nigeria and won’t work for fundraising.
- Motivating younger women- notice that younger women are at a different point- to move forward we need to bring the generations together for collaboration- people are in really different places. Names should be appealing to younger women
- On that idea, an idea of a contest might be a good idea. We can vote on it.
- Possibility of introducing a new topic to Beijing – women and religion (under human rights)
- Since this a review of women and CEDAW “Women architects of positive change”
- In France, using the word conviction not the word religion b/c when you say religion you’re eliminating a lot of women. another suggestion: use the word conviction
- Incorporate the word “together” with whatever slogan we use. We want to bring our groups together, young and old, men and women etc_
- Incorporate women across the ages. Successes and challenges how the women’s movement has changed over time, a different face for each time period.

9 MARCH 2009

Beijing + 15, Meeting #3 – March 9th, 2009
Conference Room B
Updates from CSW53 Caucuses
Updates from Regional Caucuses

Asia-Pacific Statement:
The Asia-Pacific appreciates all the working of the CSW NGO Working Group. They would like to raise the following points:
1. They are apprehensive towards the date due to cold weather.
2. They will cooperate to participate and help organize the national, regional and local forums to feed and be consistent with international goals.
3. They wish to know what will be written in the outcome.
4. They believe that the Beijing Platform for Action and Millennium Development Goals.
5. This plan must consider emerging issues as they evolve.

The African Caucus has indicated that it will convene a coordinating group of 5 representatives to help plan and coordinate the deliverables that emerge from this event.

The European Caucus is happy to coordinate if other European Commission partners are interested.

An NGO member that visited with the Dutch Mission today has suggested that a meeting there would support:
• A Mid-Term Review to take place in September
• That Beijing + 15, CEDAW, MDG and CSW should be linked
• That discussions should be at a high level

Goals & Objectives

In addition to the goals and objectives identified in the Power Point presentations,
• Themes recommended for Beijing + 15 include:
o We have enough words
o Time for Action
o Time for governments and international community to fulfill promises and commitments
• Beijing + 15 event should support the implementation of the GEAR proposal for the composite model
• Beijing + 15 should create focus on holding domestic governments accountable for their obligations under Beijing and other aspects of international law
• Focus should not be on new wording or re-opening the agenda, which risks compromising and weakening the wording

How should these goals and objectives be accomplished?

In addition to the points in the presentation, the following points have been raised:
• Develop an Action Kit that suggests to local NGOs different ways in which they can help to mobilize this campaign
• Develop regular milestones to sustain momentum
o Several people raised that monthly milestones may be logistically and financially impractical. Perhaps monthly report to coordinating regional focal points? Possibly to promote idea-sharing across regions so that regions can learn from one another’s successes. Events every 3 months instead? Is May 2009 a realistic target for delivering a plan for the proposal for next years events? How will coordination with sub-levels take place back to international level? What will the role of DAW be in this event?
• Engage new allies, including men, youth, and women. Focus on youth born since Beijing?
• Address changes in expectations and re-examine the question of understanding for the problems
• Campaign should bring Beijing together with other international instruments (1325, 1802, CEDAW)
• In addition to use of radio and internet, cells phones should be used, particularly in developing countries to reach communities at the grassroots level
• Strategies should be adapted to local context but not necessarily on the lines of developed versus developing
• Recruit Ambassadors, high-profile figures who can help get this message out to the masses and create relevance to the unengaged
• Media is a critical component to this strategy
• Private Sector actors can also have roles
• Schools, educational facilities and academic institutions

Who should be involved?

Coordinating Committee
• NGO CSW Committee, Government ministries, NGOs at all levels, GEAR instrastructure, plus others? Regional Caucus/ Networks

Other Potential Participants/ Contributors
• Religious institutions/ traditional mechanisms; however some argue that including religious allies can compromise goals; others (particularly African representatives) argue that the women will listen to messages from the religious leaders
• Private actors
o Some have expressed concerns over the role they would play in this event? Would they participate on the coordinating Committee? Or would they, as Vivian clarified, work to participate in implementing strategies established by the Coordinating Committee that derive from the established goals and objectives?
• Suggestion that regional autonomy for development of regional/ local plans may be best approach
• Trade unions and labor unions may prove a useful ally in driving this strategy forward
• The plan must be established for April 2009
• Perhaps actors that are to be included should not be decided broad-based functional groupings, but rather by their commitment to the goals and objectives that this event is promoting

Other Thoughts/ Suggestions
• Consider alternative name to Beijing + 15; very uninspiring and meaningless to many
• Promote and recognize women from the first world conference at all + 5 events
• Re-engage journey so far, where we have to go from here
• Maybe prepare some form of timeline of major milestones, ideas of what has been accomplished to date to create some sort of ‘march-on’ order
• Should advance GEAR composite model selection; strong agreement on this
• Use Facebook and other technologies

Budget Considerations
• Budget needed for short team costs (e.g. 1-year campaign) and for longer-term visioning; such a budget needs to be developed and presented
• Budget should keep in mind being cost-effective and efficient especially givent the turbulent times
o Can support come from governments?
o How do we mobilize events elsewhere?
o Too costly to do events both before CSW and at CSW
o Important to keep connected to CSW
• Budget and fundraising objectives must be clearly defined and credible

Outstanding Issues & Questions
• Where will next year’s CSW take place is significant: New York, Geneva, Montreal, Africa (someone suggested Abuja, Nigeria)?
• What was budget for Beijing + 5? Vivian indicated that she would find out