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Spotlight
on Millenium Development Goals and the Millenium + 5 summit
11
July 2005
On Friday 08 July, National CSO-Government consultations
were staged in Suva commemorating the
start of national CSO-Government consultations in the lead
up to the Commonwealth People's Forum which will be staged
parallel to the CHOGM - Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting in Valletta, Malta. Hosted at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, and co-chaired by the Royal Commonwealth Society
and the Pacific representative of the Commonwealth Foundation
(CSAC), Jese Sikivou, the day long consultation was an opportunity
for the CSO representatives and government counterparts
present to "collectively determine means by which Commonwealth
Civil Societies can better coordinate their respective efforts
to achieve global initiatives such as the MDGs, WSIS, SIDS,
etc by compelling the commonwealth family of organisations
to provide the necessary space, means, support and
platform."
The
global commitments which were discussed from a Fiji perspective
and enabled sharing of information from a policy and programmatic
perspective on - how Fiji, as well as other Pacific Island
governments are progressing, with the assistance of UNDP
towards attaining the MDGS; Discussion on the specific needs
of small island developing states (SIDS) including looking
at ways in which sustainable development could be addressed
from a social and economic perspective and not just limiting
it to environmental issues only and to consider how the
Fiji Government is progressing towards the implementation
of a government policy in the wake of the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS) and how, new trade regimes
are impacting on the collective call by civil society groups
to ensure economic justice for all.
The
Fiji consultation has begun the discussion towards identifying
national issues of concern around these four thematic issues
that will be discussed during the upcoming CHOGM meeting,
as well as recommend strategies that will be able to address
the issues of concern as well as commence formulation of
a national CSO statement on the four issues of concern for
submission to the CSO forum in Malta, later this year.
The consultation agreed that there was a greater need for
more approrpriate communication forms to assist all stakeholders,
including the mainstream and community media to better inform
communities of
policy commitments and developments around the national
agenda, at community level, as a way of then also drawing
communities into decision making on critical development
issues.
from
femLINKpacific

Gender
and ICT issues at Women's World Congress, Ewha University,
Seoul, Korea, June 19-24
Gender
and ICT advocates from all world regions joined some 2,000
other women activists at the Women's Worlds Congress 2005,
-the 9TH International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women-,
held at Ewha University in Seoul, Korea, June 19-24. more>>
Onsite
reports from 49th CSW:
Governments
urged to commit to BPFA to achieve MDGs
Feminists
call for change in the culture of patriarchy
Struggles
of the global women's movement reviewed
Week
2: Resolutions supported by Asia Pacific NGOs
Two-part
celebration of International Women's Day
Statement
of the Linkage Caucus
49th
CSW passes ten resolutions but fails to conclude meeting
The
Little Purple Book NEW!
The
Little Purple Book entitled Voices 2005 & Beyond: Asia-Pacific
Womens Lobbying Document for Beijing + 10 highlights
pressing factors that have arisen in the last decade, such
as globalisation, growing migrant labour, conflict and militarisation,
and technology-mediated trafficking of women.
download
now
Asia-Pacific
NGO Forum quoted at the New York MDG Meeting
“The attainment of the MDGs (Millennium Development
Goals) depends on women’s empowerment and gender equality
as spelled out in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA)
and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discmrination
Against Women (CEDAW).”
Read
more...
Big
Purple Book is Out!
This purple book contains the proceedings of the Asia-Pacific
NGO Forum on Beijing +10
held in 2004 at the Mahidol University, Salaya, Nakornpathom,
Thailand. The contents
represent the inputs, sharing, dialogues and debates among
the more than 700 persons present.
Download
PDF File
Tribute
to Amelia Rokotuivuna
FIJIAN FEMINIST WHO FOUGHT FOR PEACE, JUSTICE AND EQUALITY
IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
From Vanessa Griffen
Amelia
was a force in our lives, we would not be where we are today
without meeting someone like her in our early days as students
and being drawn into work on issues that, for us, could
have always remained academic, without her leadership and
noisy argumentative debate. It helped that she was fun,
dynamic, sponsored dinners and half meals, in exchange for
our writing and involvement in her committees. Our personal
and professional development too, would have been very different,
if we had not had the good fortune to meet this person,
here in Suva, in the Young Womens Christian Association
(of all places), and to forever have our perspectives, book
learning and understanding challenged by her. She provided
us with practical experience, an organization to float in
and out of, and her office was an extraordinary place enabling
us to feel centred in our activism whether it be
on Fiji, or womens rights, colonialism or nuclear
testing. <Click
to continue
From
Anne Walker
On
June 2, 2005, a woman of extraordinary energy, passion and
ability who dedicated her life to
promoting peace, democracy and social justice, died in Suva,
Fiji, at the age of 63. <Click
to continue
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