Written 4:33 PM Sep 12, 1994 by icpd:ngonet in igc:icpd.general ---------- "WEDO FACT SHEET ON WOMEN CAUCUS" ---------- *** WEDO FACT SHEET ON WOMEN CAUCUS*** International Conference on Population & Development Cairo, Egypt 5-13 September, 1994 OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY Affirming the centrality of women's roles and concerns on the related issues of population, development, and the environment, WEDO is playing a major role in preparation for the UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, September 5-13, 1994. WEDO's priorities are to ensure that the ICPD process, which will culminate in the adoption of a new global population/development policy at Cairo, remains open to women's participation, addresses the rights and needs of women, and recognizes the central role of women in every issue related to population and development. These objectives can be accomplished by: effective advocacy efforts at UN and regional and national NGO meetings; generating timely flow of information; and continual dialogue among Women's Caucus participants and between the Caucus and the ICPD Secretariat. WEDO also encouraged women's active participation in the preparation and writing of the National Reports that governments submitted to the ICPD Secretariat. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT PREPCOM II During PrepCom II, held in May 1993, WEDO organized a Women's Caucus of 132 women, representing 41 countries from every region of the world. Approximately 50% of the Caucus consisted of women from 33 developing countries. The Caucus was a focal point for women advocates and strategists. Together they ensured that all delegates and the Secretariat were fully informed about women's concerns. Caucus members produced several documents, including a consensus document entitled, "Suggested Revisions to the Conceptual Framework for the Draft Recommendations of the ICPD, Offered by Women's Groups from All Regions." This was presented to delegates and the ICPD Secretariat. As a result of these efforts, the Women's Caucus had a substantial influence in the formulation of the Annotated Outline of the final document for the Conference, prepared by the ICPD Secretariat and presented to the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly on 4 November, 1993. BETWEEN PREPCOM II AND PREPCOM III WEDO sent the Annotated Outline document to all PrepCom II Women's Caucus participants for their comments. A WEDO Writing Analysis Group then formulated amendments to the document which better reflected the expressed needs and concerns of women. The revisions were presented to government delegates and the Secretariat in November 1993. The preliminary Draft Final Document of the Conference, released by the Secretariat in February 1994, incorporated many suggestions of the Caucus. Prior to PrepCom III, WEDO, calling on the Women's Caucus and other women's networks, coordinated and prepared an extensive critique of the Secretariat's Draft Final Document. The critique was made available to all delegates, NGOs and Caucus members at PrepCom III, to facilitate discourse and lobbying. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT PREPCOM III During PrepCom III, the WEDO-organized Women's Caucus convened daily, bringing together over 300 women and men from 44 countries. Caucus participants organized themselves into five Task Forces. Based on the "Women's Caucus Compilation of Proposed Revisions" the Task Forces produced a set of "Priority Amendments" for each chapter. Throughout the PrepCom, the Women's Caucus Task Forces promptly recommended amendments to each draft chapter as they emerged from the Secretariat. Caucus Task Forces produced and distributed to delegates, as many as four versions in response to each round of the official discussions. These amendments served as invaluable and effective lobbying tools for Caucus participants. As a result of these efforts, the Women's Caucus has had substantial influence in shaping the language and content of the Draft Final Document of the Conference to be finalized in Cairo. The Women's Caucus will build upon these tactics and accomplishments to ensure that women's needs and concerns are asserted throughout the ICPD process and are reflected in the final document that emerges from Cairo in September 1994. BETWEEN PREPCOM III AND CAIRO A Draft Final Document of the Conference was released by the ICPD Secretariat in May 1994. WEDO has reviewed this document and completed an "Impact Analysis" of the Women's Caucus at PrepCom III on the Draft Final Document. The Impact Analysis is a chapter by chapter account of the status of each of the amendments proposed by the Women's Caucus at PrepCom III. The analysis details if each amendment was incorporated into the Draft Final Document and whether they remain a point of contention - indicated by bracketed text - to be negotiated in Cairo. This Impact Analysis serves not only to document the many achievements of the Women's Caucus, but also to highlight the parts of the Women's Caucus agenda that require further political support. In close collaboration with the PrepCom III Task Force Chairs, Chapter Monitors and major women's health and reproductive rights networks around the world, WEDO compiled a set of "Women's Caucus Recommendations on the Bracketed Text of the Draft Final Document", the key document we will use for our advocacy work in Cairo. The Writing Analysis Group has worked very hard, during the interim period between PrepCom III and Cairo, to prepare careful amendments with rationales to all bracketed text in the document which were widely distributed to delegates at the Informal Consultations described below. In June, three consecutive Informal Consultations were convened by governments (see parentheses) at the UN in New York, to discuss issues that were not thoroughly deliberated upon at PrepCom III: Preamble and Principles (Canada) on 13 July; Goals (Indonesia & India) on 14 July; and Financial Resources (Netherlands) on 15 July. The Chair of each of the informals (Ruth Archibald, Amb. Nicolas Biegman and Amb. Nugroho Wisnumurti, respectively) reminded delegates that the consultations were meant to stimulate discussion and not act as negotiating sessions, hence they would not have the power to add or delete brackets in the document. WOMEN'S CAUCUS IN CAIRO, 4-13 SEPTEMBER, 1994 An orientation session to the Women's Caucus process is scheduled for Sunday, 4 September, 1994 from 2:00 - 3:00 pm in the NGO Forum Room 3. This session will initiate newcomers into the Women's Caucus process, and update old-timers. During the orientation, we plan to form regional groups (Africa, Asia, Caribbean and Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America) in order to: - Allow for greater interaction between experienced Women's Caucus members and newcomers; - Nominate three Women's Caucus chairs from each of the six regions for the six daily Caucus meetings: Arab Region, Africa, Asia & Pacific, Europe & North America, Latin American & Caribbean; - Nominate two Women's Caucus Lobby Coordinators within each region and two government voting blocs that are not regionally defined: G-77, CANZ; - Nominate three Chapter Monitors per chapter in the ICPD Draft Document to monitor floor discussions and offer feedback to the lobby coordinators. - Call for volunteers for a Women's Caucus post-Cairo Task Force to collect ideas out of the rich array of NGO Forum panels and workshops in preparation for the last session of the Women's Caucus at ICPD. (see below) After meeting in regional groups, we hope to reconvene as a full Women's Caucus to announce the respective regional decisions and gear up for our first Women's Caucus meeting on Monday, 5 September at 10 am. The Women's Caucus will convene daily from 9 - 10 am in the NGO Forum Room 3. The strength and momentum of the Caucus depends on your active participation. We have a heavy agenda and collectively we can build support to remove the brackets on language which supports women's perspectives on population and development, as well as continue our struggle for sexual and reproductive rights and health which is at the core of our agenda. One of the main purposes of the daily Caucus will be to brief people on the government process. Many NGOs will focus on activities in the NGO Forum to network, strategize and build an agenda for the future, while a smaller number of accredited NGOs will have access to the governmental negotiations in the conference center. Our strategy, therefore, is to divide work and maximize power for our common advocacy work. Our sisters who are on government delegations will, no doubt, be key allies in carrying the Women's Caucus concerns onto the floor. In collaboration with IPPF, Women's Caucus representatives (lobby coordinators, chapter monitors, regional chairs etc.) will meet with NGOs on government delegations daily from 1 - 1:30 pm in the government Conference Center. At the suggestion of many PrepCom III Women's Caucus members, we have scheduled an NGO-Delegate Dialogue for Thursday, September 8 at 6:30 pm in the NGO Forum Room 3. Most leaders of government voting blocs have accepted an invitation from the Women's Caucus to engage in an open dialogue on our critical concerns and how to hold the world's governments accountable to them. This session on reproductive rights and implementing the ICPD will give us an opportunity to openly and directly engage key delegates on how they plan to implement the ICPD outcomes and decisions. WOMEN'S CAUCUS POST-CAIRO The last session of the Women's Caucus at ICPD will be Tuesday, 13 September, 1994. It will be an important session to take stock of our achievements through the ICPD process and to share strategies and plans as we continue our work through the upcoming International Conference processes on Women (Beijing, September 1995) and Social Development (Copenhagen, March 1995). Calendar of Key Dates 1994 SEPTEMBER 3-4, Cairo, Egypt Pre-Conference Intergovernmental Consultations SEPTEMBER 4, Cairo, Egypt Orientation to Women's Caucus SEPTEMBER 5-13, Cairo, Egypt International Conference on Population and Development NGO Forum MID-SEPTEMBER to MID-DECEMBER, UN Headquarters, New York 49th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Consideration of the Report of the International Conference on Population and Development. ICPD Women's Caucus Documents Available Through WEDO: PrepCom II ~ Suggested Revisions to the Conceptual Framework for the Draft Recommendations of the ICPD ~ Suggested Amendments and Substitute Language to the Annotated Outline of the Final Document for the ICPD PrepCom III ~ Draft Compilation of Proposed Revisions on the Draft ICPD Programme of Action ~ Priority Amendments to the Draft ICPD Programme of Action ~ Amendments to the Chairman's Draft of Working Groups 1 & 2 ~ Comments on the Secretariat's Draft ~ Impact Analysis of the Women's Caucus at PrepCom III Recommendations on the Draft Final Document ICPD ~ Women's Caucus Recommendations on Bracketed Text in the Draft Final Document of the Conference Other Sources of ICPD Information: The ICPD Secretariat, at 220 E. 42nd St., 22nd floor New York, NY 10017, USA; Tel: 212-297-5244 Fax: 212-297-5250 E-mail: ryanw@unfpa.org, publishes a monthly newsletter on the ICPD. Official UN Documents of the ICPD are available to users of electronic mail or free of charge through Internet: Population Information Network (POPIN) Gopher, "gopher.undp.org". For those without Internet access, the Gopher can be searched by e-mail, "gopher@undp.org". For further information, contact: POPIN Coordinator, Population Division/DESIPA UN Secretariat, 2 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017 USA; Tel: 212-963-3202 Fax: 212-963-2147 Email: popin@undp.org. APC Conference on Internet, access by gopher at : icpd.general. Earth Negotiations Bulletin issues are available through: IISD 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B OY4, CANADA; Tel: 1-204-958-7700 Fax: 1- 204-958-7710 E-mail: enb@igc.apc.org. For more information on the Women's Caucus, please contact: Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO): 845 Third Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, New York 10010 USA; Tel: 212-7597982 Fax: 212-75998647 E-mail: wedo@igc.org IN CAIRO WEDO STAFF Susan DAvis, Dianne Dillon-Ridgley, Amran Hussein and Anita Nayar can be reached at tel. 202-2906905, fax. 202-2618317. EDO): 845 Third Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, New York 10010 USA; Tel: 212-7597982 Fax: 212-75998647 E-mail: wedo@igc.org IN CAIRO WEDO STAFF Susan DAvis, Dianne Dillon-Ridgley, Amran Hussein and Anita Nayar can be reached at tel. 202-2906905, fax. 202-2618317.