McKinnon Pushes For More Women's Involvement

Women affairs ministers in the Commonwealth for the first time held their biennial meeting in the Pacific when they met for three days at Fiji's Sheraton Resort in June.

But judging from the high representation of women civil society groups and non-governmental organisations, one would be forgiven for thinking the NGOs had taken over.

A week before the ministers' meeting, numerous NGOs were holding their own meetings in Fiji's capital Suva or in exclusive resorts at its coastal town of Nadi.

These included women civil society groups in the Pacific who met for two days at Nadi's Tanoa International Hotel before joining their colleagues from the rest of the Commonwealth brought together by the London-based Commonwealth Foundation for a further two days of consultation at the Sheraton Royal.

Main item on the agenda was their response to the draft Commonwealth plan of action on gender development for 2005 to 2015. The plan was to be endorsed later and adopted by the ministers.

Also meeting before the ministers' were the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges' Association, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the Commonwealth Business Women's Network.

Not only did these forums discuss their contributions to the proposed plan of action, they also focussed on how the views of civil society could be made to bear on the discussions of the ministers.

A fear amongst civil society, the Pacific particularly, was that the chair of the ministers meeting and host, Fiji's women minister, Adi Asenaca Caucau, would deny them a voice in the main forum.

But those fears were misplaced as Caucau on the eve of the meeting not only gave speaking rights to civil society delegates, but also welcomed countries that included NGO reps in their delegations.

In her case, Titilia Naitini, president of the Fiji National Council of Women, was amongst those in the official Fiji delegation. Fiji's easterly neighbour Tonga invited a leading NGO women advocate Salamo Fulivai to be part of her delegation.

Fulivai is the executive director of the Suva-based Pacific Foundation for the Advancement of Women (PACFAW), a regional gender advocacy agency. Samoa did the same too.

Caucau said she welcomed the heavy presence of civil society groups in the ministerial meeting, although she did call for caution.

So what is there in the Commonwealth plan of action for the eleven islands of the Pacific (Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) that are members of the alliance?

Quite a handful actually. There is, for instance, the goal that women representation in decision-making in the political, public and private sectors should be at least 30 percent.

An integrated zero tolerance approach to gender-based violence should also be adopted as well as allocating an "adequate budget" for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support at all levels of government.

The plan itself reflects the Commonwealth's principles and values on gender mainstreaming, but in so doing, it acknowledges that much good won't be achieved without the help and support of men and boys.

"The (plan) recognises that men and boys are essential partners in achieving gender equality," the Commonwealth plan of action said.

"There are emerging gaps affecting men and it is critical that the Commonwealth engages actively with institutions and partners that work with men on gender equality issues." Specifically, the plan calls for the involvement of "men and boys in HIV/AIDS programmes and strategies at all levels of society including education in eliminating gender stereotypes." In his address at the opening of the ministers' meeting, Don McKinnon, secretary-general of the Commonwealth said the plan of action is part of the alliance's attempt to involve half of the world's population provide the other half of the solution to the world's problems.

"Women are the strongest link in the virtuous circle of growth and

development: educating women leads to better health for the entire family, and better health means greater opportunities in the workforce and increased economic growth.

"If you don't allow half the world to play their part in solving these problems, you're only going to get half the solutions," McKinnon said.