Expectations For The Workshop

In their introductory remarks, Marilee Karl of Isis International and Anne Clarke of ICDA outlined the aims and expectations in the minds of the organisers when planning the workshop. The participants then divided into regional groups to discuss their own expectations.

Marilee and Anne said that the central aim of ICDA and Isis International was to bring together women from both the development movement and the women's movement to share experiences of trying to place women more centrally in development policy and planning and to build on these experiences to formulate strategies for the future.

In concrete terms the organisers hoped that women at the workshop would agree to participate in the compilation of a Resource and Action Guide that would allow their experiences, ideas and strategies to be shared with a wider group.

Furthermore it was hoped that the participants would agree to follow up the Rome workshop with some joint action in relation to the end of UN Decade for Women events and in particular the NGO Forum in Nairobi.

After discussions in their regional groups the participants reported their expectations to a plenary session.

Africa

The African participants expected:

to find strategies to present to the Nairobi conference and to follow up on afterwards;
to find strategies that answer the needs of Third World women;
to discuss all themes in relation to the particular problems of each region;
to find ideas that we can each use in our own programmes;
to increase the network worldwide;
ISIS and ICDA should try and find contacts in each country to follow up on our work here;
the Resource and Action Guide should be widely distributed and free in various major languages.

Asia

The Asian participants expected:

to build international strategies for:
- direct action
- support
- information dissemination
- exchange programmes in the fields of human rights as well as social, economic and political rights;
to strengthen networking internationally and promote information exchange both North-South and South-North;
to share organising strategies;
to discuss how to use the Nairobi Conference - before, during and after;
to discuss the idea of a forum for grassroots women.

Europe

The European participants expected:

to learn Third World women's views on Western development education strategies and development aid;
to assess the Decade with views from various countries;
to see what solidarity means; how to achieve real partnership; how to bridge the 'subjects'/'objects' divide;
to discuss how Third World women can help Western women with their problems - make cooperation a two-way street;
to improve information and coordination within European women's groups;
to discuss how within 'mixed' (male and female) NGOs and development agencies, women can support each other, gain know-how and access to finances and power/status;
to discuss how to make women's contribution to development visible and central;
the workshop should be evaluated;
that a practical report emerge from the workshop;
to share experiences.

Latin America, the Caribbean and North America

The Latin American, Caribbean and North American participants expected:

dialogue between local women's groups and women from development agencies;
North-South dialogue so that Northern women may meet their own 'South';
South-South dialogue in order to exchange experiences and to overcome communication obstacles;
to discuss ways of promoting major interest for and attention to research as a fundamental phase of projects oriented towards women;
to investigate the criteria used by agencies and their counterparts when setting up women's projects;
that the seminar accomplish its objective to take action and will not just become more theory;
to discuss the importance of the presence of European agencies in Latin America and the Caribbean in neutralising the power of the United States;
to discuss ways of ensuring that the end of the UN Decade for women will not mean an end to women's projects.