(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Climate Change will be among the important issues to be discussed when regional directors of Women’s/Gender Bureaus commence their Fifth Meeting in Guyana, on 6-7 October 2009.
Meeting at the CARICOM Secretariat on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Gender Affairs coordinators and directors will be seeking to ensure that gender perspectives are considered in follow-up actions to the impending landmark United Nations Conference on Climate Change set for 7-18 December in Copenhagen Denmark. In addition, they will devise strategies to ensure that gender perspectives are incorporated in the preparations for the five year review of the Mauritius Strategy for Implementation in September 2010. The strategy provides for further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
In keeping with the spirit of Functional Cooperation, cross-cutting issues relating to gender equality and the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA); HIV and AIDS and Gender-Based Violence (GBV), crime and security, as well as gender and substance abuse will dominate the two-day deliberations.
With regard to GBV, the Meeting will consider strategies and action plans to sensitise the Region on reducing the scourge of violence in the Region and will also discuss an update on the gender based violence project funded under the CARICOM/Spain Cooperation Agreement that seeks to develop a more coordinated and integrated approach to reducing GBV in the CARICOM region. The CARICOM Social and Development Crime Prevention Action Plan (2009-2013) will also be reviewed at the meeting, with a view to offering recommendations for enhancing the plan as well as incorporating gender issues in that strategy.
The two-day Meeting will also discuss existing reports on the various strategies within the Region for sensitizing policy and programme developers from international agencies on the structural factors relating to the HIV pandemic. This will involve exploring the correlation between GBV and HIV.
In critically examining the issue of substance abuse, the gender coordinators and directors will receive and discuss a report on the different treatment programmes available for women in the Region who have been using illicit substances. Although women are increasingly accessing those services, it is felt that their needs are still not being met within the existing or other supportive programmes. In this regard, the Meeting will seek to recommend strategies to close this gap.
With respect to trade issues, an overview of the gender component within the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Trade and Competitiveness Project in the CARICOM Region will be presented and the Meeting will also receive an update from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) on the outcomes of the recently concluded meeting on Gender equality and the EPA. The challenge relating to boy’s participation \ in the education system will also be the subject of much discussion, and the Meeting will also receive an update on initiatives within the CARICOM Secretariat’s statistics unit that can provide information on gender issues to guide policy makers.
Other emerging issues that will be discussed in detail include social inclusion of the Differently Abled within the region; the developments in the Information Society; and the status of preparations for the 10Th Triennial Award for Women in 2011.
The Fifth Meeting of the Directors/Coordinators of Women’s/ Gender Bureaux is organised by the CARICOM Secretariat with support from UNIFEM.
