Minutes of Brainstorming Meeting for Beijing + 15
December 1, 2008
Church Center
Organizations represented at the Meeting:
NGO Committee on HIV/AIDS
NGO Committee on Family
NGO American Psychological Association
Bahai International
NGO Committee on UNICEF
Global Alliance for Women?s Health
NGO Anglican Consultative Council
CONGO (Conference of NGOs)
Lutheran World Federation
American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences
ZONTA
International Psychoanalytical Association
US National Committee for UNIFEM
Women?s Learning Partnership
International Federation of Business and Professional Women
NGO Committee on Migration
NGO Committee on Sports
Soroptimist International
NGO Committee on Mental Health
There will be an event to commemorate the anniversary of Beijing + 15. It will be an NGO event, but governments and the UN may participate. It may be before the CSW 54. The mission of Beijing + 15 is to review the history of World Women Conferences, especially on its 15th anniversary, the 4th in Beijing, to draw from them their recommendations and complement their efforts and achievements.
There is a new Blog on www.ngocsw.org on Beijing + 15.
Where: The following places were suggested: Beijing, Mumbai (to support the recent victims of terrorism), Bahn (European Union), Vienna (the CSW was there, it is a central location), Macau (the government is interested, can host large numbers of people and may contribute services) and New York.
It was noted that the conference in Beijing was a UN conference and was preceded by an NGO Forum, held outside of Beijing.
We may need a very large venue such as a Conference Center, or a Sports Stadium.
The opening should be well-orchestrated, with music and dance.
There are other conferences planned for 2010. We will try not to conflict with any other large conference.
Atlantic Philanthropy has 6 billion dollars to give away in the next 10 years. They have to give away the interest also. They are in NY and Atlanta, but they do not accept applications. It is by invitation only. We will look at their Website. We will alert them to our project, they may send a staff member, and then we may be invited to submit a grant.
The winter Olympics in 2010 are in Vancouver.
Everyone was asked to think about their contacts, private or public.
There are Archives of materials used for the previous Beijing conferences in the CONGO office that will be retrieved and reviewed for names, lists of donors, etc.
Regarding the UN, we will partner with them but remain autonomous. ASG Rachel Mayanja asked the NGO CSW, NY what we would like to do, so we will incorporate our response to her. They can be our guests, they can work with us, we can identify friendly governments but we will remain autonomous.
Women Ambassadors spoke up at the November Luncheon to ask that we look to them for help. They are very hard-working and dynamic women. We will anticipate the support of their missions.
Regarding the relationship with a 5th WWC, we will not call our conference that.
In Seoul, the international NGO community invited the government and the UN.
We need to call it: International NGO Conference to Celebrate 15 years after Beijing.
It is NOT just a US based NGO conference.
What about Beijing + 5 and Beijing + 10? What went well, what can we complement? We will not reinvent. We will attempt to answer these questions by reviewing the Archives.
The challenges and issues are on the Regional and National level. It was proposed that a Task Force be appointed by the Ad Hoc Committee to represent the 5 regions of the world and would reach grass-roots level.
We will discuss with Jeffrey Huffines and Shamina de Gonzaga what difficulties they had working with Paris, Geneva and Rome on the July, 2008 DPI/NGO conference.
There is a CONGO Fund that has $20,000 for seed money, for example, to bring some of the regional representatives to NY. The money is available, Levi Bautista, President of CONGO has been notified, and the CONGO Board has the obligation to say yes, but will not meet until February for formal approval.
By raising $3.3 Billion we want to raise awareness of the number of women and girls on earth and recognize them. It is a message that we value women and girls. It will help our publicity. We can compare the figure with how much is spent each day on wars. We can ask each country to donate a percentage to support their population of women and girls. The money will be used for advocacy. A separate organization will probably be set up to handle the donations to the fund and distribution of the money. We may choose an organization to dispense it for us, an honorable organization.
Potential donors: Gates, Soros, Avon, Eileen Fischer, Fendi
Australia and Tanzania have been recently recognized as pro-women. These countries should be highlighted.
There will not be an outcome document but there will be an outcome. An outcome document depends on a negotiated agreement.
The Honorary Board of Directors: In addition to those previously mentioned,
the Chairs of the previous Women?s Conferences should be on the Board. It should be an international group, not just Americans. Men can be included: Jan Eliasson, Stephen Lewis, Nicholas Kristoff. Mary Robinson, The Mandelas, The Anans.
Sign-ups for Sub-committees were offered. Legal mechanisms and tools, Net-working, Board of Directors, Fundraising
Other connections, like to the MDGs, CEDAW, the summer DPI conference in Mexico City on Disarmament and International Peace. Women?s groups are stakeholders and should have a piece of the conference to shape a component of the conference. How women affect disarmament and international peace.
Our focus will be implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.
The proposal will be presented at the next CONGO Committee Chairs meeting.
Next Brainstorming meeting: January 19th at 1:00 pm at the Church Center
Addendum: On December 7th, U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney agreed to be on the Honorary Board.
