| February 1998 - N. 0 executive director Natalia Encolpio associate editor Loretta Lorenzini How
InfoWoman is born Active Information
and Intelligent Information How InfoWoman is born InfoWoman is born out of the experience of a journalist who has been working for years on the editorial staff of a national daily. I will leave aside his official curriculum but I would like to emphasize how this work, for those who experience it from "within" an editorial staff is an open window "on the outside". At this time what is noticed is that women are certainly changing, moving and growing, but they have a real need to give voice to their situation. Often however this voice breaks up into a thousand trickles, becoming weak and not guaranteeing sufficient visibility. InfoWoman wants to be this: a support for transmitting information in female terms. So that it can thus be used and enjoyed by an increasingly greater number of women. The Now is by now a reality: projects and ideas have been realized over the years and have worked within the dimension of New Opportunities for Women. Factors of change and innovation under way are certainly altering reality or are contributing to doing so. The process has begun, the change may be slow but it is certainly relentless. It is in this context that InfoWoman arrives. A targeted project, specifically regarding the information sector. And this assumes even more interest by virtue of the Now that have already been set up and are in progress which have already created new users, new exchanges, a new female world that is the fundamental actor in this dialogue. Hence the idea to create an information "network" that would unite these different voices, that consents them to dialogue and to exchange information. Also involving the mass media, television and radio broadcasters to extend this dialogue all over the country. Why just this? Why a project aimed only at the information? Because today with the new technologies the added value is constituted precisely by the creation of the network on which to then make the data flow. To use a metaphor, it is like building tracks on which passenger trains, good wagons, commuter trains and locomotives can travel. And the tracks can continue on, join other tracks to reach distant countries. Active
Information and Intelligent Information Active information (supply of an information service, on-line data banks updated daily...) but also "intelligent" and "targeted" information: this is the case of the Desks to be set up to in the country (InFormaDonna is the italian network created by Il Cenacolo with the Now project) which are able to provide not only answers but a Global Counseling. The Iso Ontic Global Counseling is the way to offer a wide information and a specific counceling for women. The aim is to empower women and to make them able to chose the best solution for themselves. In this case the added value of the idea is that of creating a point in which to make information on women pass to institutions/associations/businesses and for each request to put into operation the consultant able to supply the specific answer. This experience gains even more value in a society where changes are continuous and relentless, where women are moving perhaps even faster than others and where the world of work is experiencing a profound phase of transformation. With serious risks for employment and also new possibilities for growth.InfoWoman can act as a sort of permanent observatory "in progress" on these themes. The Italian partners of InFormaDonna are: Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia, Confcommercio-Terziario Donna, Regione Umbria, Provincia di Perugia, Provincia di Terni, Citt� in Internet, Agrisalumbria, Umbria Tv, Tele Galileo, Tele Terni, TeleradioGubbio. The International Project The international partner of the European
project are The European Network InfoWoman has created a european network
(open to other contacts) for information with links to this other Now projects: Objectives Creation of an information network aimed at stimulating
female employment and equal opportunities Activities Openning a european network of information on women Products Information bullettin WARM WELCOME TO CSW PARTICIPANTS More than 150 representatives from the NGO community and UN system agencies celebrated the beginning of the CSW at a reception organised by UNDP, UNIFEM and the International Women's Tribune Centre. This informal function provided an opportunity to share information, network and celebrate initiatives and activities to promote gender equality and the advancement of women, and profiled the new interagency Latin American campaign on violence against women. AFRICAN PEACE-BUILDING NGOs AT THE CSW. UNIFEM, in collaboration with UNDP and International Alert, invited 22 members of the Federation of African Women's Peace Network (FERFAP) to the CSW. Drawn from 15 countries, these women participated actively in panels, workshops and NGO consultations on peace and conflict resolution, one of the four themes of this year's CSW. UNIFEM organised several activities for these participants, including a detailed briefing of the UN system, a FERFAP General Assembly meeting, panels on peace-building and on Algerian women's voices, and a meeting with donors. These diverse opportunities enabled FERFAP members to network, gather and share information, familiarise themselves with the organisation of the UN, and lobby official delegates. Further information: Joanne Sandler [email protected] GENDER, MACROECONOMICS AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Key issues within the research agendas of gender and macroeconomics were the focus of a UNDP panel at the CSW. Nilufer �agatay (Economic Advisor, UNDP/SEPED), Korkut Erturt (University of Utah) and Radhika Balakrishnan (International Association for Feminist Economics) offered thought-provoking critiques of dominant macroeconomic frameworks and discussed how feminist economics broadens conventional macroeconomic thinking. The panel highlighted recent trends in the global economy and the role and problems of women within the economic structures of both developed and developing countries, and emphasised the focus of an "engendered" definition of economic rights on entitlements -- the right to receive assistance to fulfill basic needs -- instead of the traditional focus on property. ENDING THE SILENCE ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. Organised by UNDP (RBLAC, RBA, RBAP) and UNIFEM, this panel focused on violence against women and experiences that have transformed dialogue and action on women’s human rights. Widney Brown (Human Rights Watch), Susana Chiarotti (CLADEM, Argentina) and Shanti Dairam (IWRAW Asia-Pacific, Malaysia) addressed institutional issues related to the reporting, documenting, and redressing of sexual/domestic violence. Patience Pashe, of Women for Peace, described ADAPT, an innovative South African NGO that trains men in gender sensitivity and advocacy, and other South African programmes on domestic violence that work with traditional customs. Ebrima Sall (CODESRIA, Senegal) discussed the development of an effective African research agenda and networks on violence against women. Panel Chair: Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. BUILDING CAPACITY TO MAINSTREAM GENDER A CSW session helped facilitate an interesting dialogue on different approaches to mainstreaming gender. GIDP's Sarah Murison described the ongoing cycle of UNDP's regional workshops to build gender mainstreaming capacity within Country Offices and programmes, and made available a "Gender Mainstreaming Information Pack" containing key documents. The formal discussion by Aruna Rao, an organisational change specialist, emphasised the need for such initiatives to include not only socioeconomic analysis but also that of individual and organisational values. Changes in organisational values and mind-set to effect institutional change within the UN system particularly as they relate to moving away from hierarchical institutional structures were also addressed in a presentation to UNDP staff (11 March) by educational consultant Dr.Margaret Fulton. More information and copies of the Information Pack [email protected] Italy Spain England UN WOMEN IN POLITIC |