by Marilee Karl

The following remarks are excerpted from a presentation made by Marilee Karl, a founding member of Isis International, at the Seminar on Women held in Oslo, Norway in November 1985. The seminar was organized by the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD).

Isis International is part of the growing action-oriented women's movement that has blossomed over the past decade. As a women's information and communication service, we have been involved in networking with women's groups around the world, putting women and groups in contact with each other and helping women to exchange ideas and experiences. As we now build on the momentum of Nairobi, we would like to reflect a moment on what we have learned from our experiences and on the importance of networking activities.

Over the past decade, there has been a great upsurgence of women coming together and organizing themselves in nearly every part of the world. Women are joining together in groups and networks on the local, national, regional and international levels to work for greater justice and participation in society, in very concrete and practical ways, on issues ranging from improved community health, to legal discrimination, sex tourism, multinational corporations, water and fuel supply, and the double burden of work inside and outside the home.

This wave of organization follows a growing consciousness that women today, in both the so-called developed and developing countries, are still enormously discriminated against and oppressed, even in development policies and programs that are supposedly designed to improve the situation of all people. Because adequate channels for taking action and bringing about changes needed for empowerment and development arc often not to be found, women are creating new groups, organizations and networks.

In 1977, a group of women from both developing and developed countries meeting at the Asian and Pacific Center for Women and Development made the following statement:

"The organization and mobilization of groups in society is a highly political and sensitive issue, yet it is only through strong organizations that oppressed groups can hope to improve their situation. The traditional women's organizations, which have had a purely welfare approach to women's problems have, by and large, failed to improve the situation of the majority of women. These organizations need to be revitalized or replaced by more dynamic women's organizations.

"To lay stress on the need to mobilize women is not to view women's problems separately. Rather it is a commitment to the determination of the direction and kind of development to be undertaken by a community or nation."

The Emergence of Networks

Eight years later, women's groups have flourished on many different levels in diverse parts of the world. One new and exciting development in the women's movement, and among other kinds of non-governmental organizations as well, is"the emergence of networks. The many new networks that have sprung up during the past decade have been formed to meet needs arising from the flourishing of so many women's groups and organizations at the local and national levels.

The root causes of women's subordination cannot be fought only at the local level. Women have found that they must challenge oppressive structures and situations at different levels simultaneously in order to bring about effective change. Networking is a way to confront the global causes of oppression and to work on a global as well as local level.

Another reason networks have been created is to fulfill the need for groups to break their isolation and to share ideas, information and experiences in ways of working, organizing and taking action. Networking is a way of learning from each other.

Finally, networks are needed so that women can join together to take concerted action. They give strength to women's efforts. Networks link up women around the globe in support and solidarity and enable them to achieve more than any single group of organization can achieve on its own.

How Networks Operate

Some of these networks are tightly knit and highly structured while quite a large number are loose and informal. Many have rejected rigid and heavy bureaucratic structures in favor of informal, non-hierarchical and open structures and ways of operating. This gives networks a flexibility and possibility to respond and take action quickly when necessary.

Networks are usually oriented to very practical activities or services, such as providing information or organizing action around a particular issues; for instance working conditions or violence against women. Groups and organizations use networks and participate in and/ or initiate activities through them when they feel the need either for themselves or in solidarity with the needs of other women.

In short, networks are usually built of groups cooperating together for specific purposes and activities. They are more likely to operate with a coordinating point, which may also serve as a resource center for the network rather than build a heavy bureaucratic structure.

Many networks have been formed around a given issue or cluster of issues such as health, the media, multinational corporations, or work: or for a particular purpose such as promoting information and communication. Others bring together individuals and organizations in a geographical region. Some combine both: regional networks on a particular issue, for instance.

Women's networks have sometimes acted as catalysts for the formation of new ones: international networks have stimulated others on the regional and national levels while local and national networks have given rise to regional and global ones. We also have networking among networks: those working along similar lines are joining forces. Different kinds of networks are forming relationships with each other. Women's networks are working together with other NGO networks involved in the peace movement, development education, and the consumer movement, for instance.

Experience shows that the most effective networks have grown out to concrete needs and are linked to and at the service of local activist women's groups.

Who Are These Networks and Where Are They Found

At Isis International, we are in contact with dozens of networks found in all parts of the globe. A look at just a few of these can give an idea of their great potential as a resource for promoting the empowerment and development of women.

In Latin America, the Women's Alternative Communication Unit has built up a network of media women, providing an alternative news service for women and strengthening women's alternative media.

Health is a primary concern of women all over the world. Faced with inadequate and inappropriate health services or the complete lack of them, women are creating alternative community health care services as well as challenging the health care system on the global level. In doing this, women feel a particularly pressing need to share their information, knowledge and experiences and learn from each other and so they are creating networks such as the Latin American and Caribbean Women and Health Network which is coordinated by Isis International from our Santiago resource center.

We are working closely with other women's health networks such as the Women's Global Network on Reproductive Rights, which links up some 400 groups in 74 countries for the purpose of sharing information, taking international action and organizing solidarity around women's access to safe means of fertility control and against coercive or unsafe population control policies.

The Women and Global Corporations Network is a network of individuals and organizations concerned about the impact of multinationals on the human and economic rights of women. The Nationwide Women's Program of the American Friends Service Committee acts as a clearinghouse of information and contact point for the network which focuses on exchanging information and coordinating action campaigns in six major global industries where women are concentrated as workers or targets of consumer culture: electronics, agribusiness, textiles and garments, tourism, media and pharmaceuticals.

On a regional level, the Committee for Asian Women (CAW), based in I long Kong, is a network of Asian women that supports the organization of women industrial workers in Asia. CAW organizes consultations for women workers and organizers to share their experiences: supports local efforts to provide training for women workers: publishes educational materials for organizer and supports local efforts of audiovisual production. It also mobilizes international support and the local actions of women workers. 

Another regional network is the Pacific and Asian Women's Forum (PAWF) formed by women who met at the Asian and Pacific Center for Women and Development in 1977. A forum for groups to share information about women's action and research, PAWF also acts as a pressure group on issues related to women and their participation in development. The network supports and works with the local organizing efforts of women's groups in the region. Similarly, the Asian Women's Research and Action Network (AWRAN) brings together As'an women researchers to exchange materials and contacts and to promote research directed at action.

Yet another Asia-based network is the Third World Women's Movement Against the Exploitation of Women. This grew out of synchronized protest actions by Asian groups against organized sex tours in 1981. From concerted action on the issue of sex-tourism, this network has developed to encompass many Third World women's issues.

In the Caribbean, the women's movements is developing rapidly. A recently launched network, the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action joins women from Jamaica. Barbados, St. Vincent. Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Martinique. Curacao. Surinam, and Guyana.

In Africa, the Association of African Women for Research and Development has linked up women researchers on a regional basis for a number of years. In several countries, women are working to develop strong NGO national networks. In Nigeria, women have come together to form Women in Nigeria and join their efforts in research and action on issues ranging from media to health.

In Zimbabwe. NGOs actively involved in programs for women's development formed the Zimbabwe NGO Coordinating Committee in preparation for the Nairobi Forum. As a start, they produced a booklet giving information on the activities of some 31 organizations working on behalf of and for women on the local and national level. In follow up to Nairobi, the NGO Coordinating Committee will continue to develop networking among organizations in Zimbabwe and with women's organizations in other parts of Africa as well.

A network linking up women in Africa, the Middle East and Asia is the recently formed Women Under Muslim Law Network. An international network to exchange information and mobilize action to improve women's situation in the Islamic world, this was created by women who had joined to take action in support of women challenging discriminatory laws in Algeria and India. Their experience convinced them of the need to create an organized form of communication and action network.

There are main. many more networks working for the empowerment and development of women. These are just a few examples to help give an idea of wealth of activities and resources women are generating.

Our Experience as Isis International: The Beginnings 

Our own networking experience as Isis International dates back to 1974. At that time, a group of women from both developing and developed countries who were working with women at local and international levels felt the urgent need to share experiences and information among the many new women's groups that were springing up all over the world.

We felt, and still feel, that information and communication are basic elements for empowerment and development for women to become aware of their situations and do something to change it. We found that the mass media do not provide adequate information, communication channels or opportunities for women to speak out or build links among each other. Nor were there other channels fulfilling this need. We decided to create our own channel. We called it ISIS, after the Egyptian goddess of knowledge and creation.

ISIS International Women's Information and Communication Service began to operate from Rome. Italy and Geneva, Switzerland We had only our own enthusiasm to build on in the beginning, along with the moral support of women in many parts of the world. All work was voluntarily done in whatever free time we had:

The response from women's groups all over the world was overwhelming, however. and this confirmed the need for communication and information channels. Women's groups began to send us information about what they were doing and whatever materials they were producing: newsletters, posters, papers, letters describing their activities and how they were organizing. With this. the\t in requests for information about other groups: who the\, where they existed, what they were doing, how they could get in touch with each other: requests for background materials, audiovisual resources; for information, for instance, on how to set up a women's health clinic: for support and solidarity in a strike or action campaign.

If so many women and groups could hear about this network and take part in it,  more or less just by the grapevine, how many more would want to share then ideas and experiences with other women, if only the resources were available to do so?

Gradually we built up a resource center and referral service and began a bulletin as a means for women's groups around the world to get in touch with each other and share experiences and resource materials. We began to generate funds and were finally able to begin working regularly with a small international staff of women. In 1979, Latin American women became more deeply involved in the work in response to the needs of the burgeoning women's movement in Latin America. Another activity we developed was an Exchange Program in which women from one country could go and work for a few months with a women's group involved in similar activities in another country.

By 1983,  our work and activities had expanded greatly and we decided that, as we approached ten years of existence, ii was time to take stock of our activities and ways of working. One result was the decision to transform ISIS into two independent organizations; Isis-WICCE (Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange) in Geneva, Switzerland that would focus on running the exchange program and Isis International, a Women's Information and Communication Service, involved in networking activities and based in Rome, Italy.

Innovating and Reaching Out

We, at Isis International, took this time of reorganization to evaluate our work. We talked with many of the Third World women's groups working with us. The situation is quite different today than it was in 1974: so many new groups and networks have sprung up all over the world and are building strong organizations. Are communication and information channels still a priority?

The response was an overwhelming yes: today more than ever women need to communicate with each other, learn from women's groups in other parts of the world and build links of support and solidarity for strengthening each other's work.

We decided to decentralize Isis International's work. One of the first things we did was to open a resource center in Latin America to promote communication and the flow of information regionally, among women's groups in Latin America, and with those in other parts of the world, especially Asia and Africa.

Communications and Networking Activities

In 1984, we began a new way of producing the Isis International Women's Journal in which each issue is prepared and produced by a Third World women's group or network in coordination with Isis International. These women's groups and networks in developing countries are responsible not only for the contents but for the graphics, design and layout as well.

So far, our Journals have been produced by Peruvian women's groups; the Pacific and Asian Women's Forum and Kali for Women, India; the Brazilian Health and Sexuality Collective; the Committee for Asian Women in Hong Kong. The Journal and supplement. Women in Action which gives current news and information, each appear twice a year in English and in Spanish. We have plans to increase the appearance of Women in Action to four or six times a year and to change the Journals into a Book Series.

All of our work in communications is meant to promote the work of an activist women's movement, and certain Isis International programs directly support activist networks. The Latin American and Caribbean Women and Health Network is coordinated from our center in Santiago, Chile. This network was created in May 1984 at the First Regional Women and Health Meeting: today, more than 350 groups working mostly with poor women at the local level have joined'. Isis International services to the network include a bimonthly bulletin and a computerized database on health groups and resources.

Women and development has long been one of our major areas of interest. We worked on and distributed the book Women in Development: A Resource Guide for Organization and Action produced in 1983 by ISIS. This guide not only gives extensive action-oriented resources, but also sets forth a systematic feminist critique of those traditional approaches to development that perpetuate the invisibility of women's work and foster the continued exploitation of women and their communities. Another recent effort is a resource kit. Building on Women's Experiences a collection of materials on women's concrete development activities from all over the world.

Over the years, as we came to see the increasingly important role played by audiovisual in the process of women's self development, the idea was born of a resource guide that would share women's experiences as makers and users of audiovisual media and at the same time provide access to the fruits of their work — work that is all too often unknown outside local communities.

After several years of research and compilation, .the finished product. Powerful Images: A Women's Guide to Audiovisual Resources approaches the topic from a multiplicity of perspectives combining articles surveying the political role of audiovisuals in the growth of a worldwide women's movement, accounts of the experiences of Third World women's groups in making and using audiovisuals, practical suggestions on equipment, production techniques, and working with audiences, and a catalogue of more than 600 audiovisuals, nearly all of them produced by women, on a broad range of topics.

In addition to our own publishing, our two resource centers, in Rome and Santiago, continue to build extensive files of women's documents and publications from all over the world, covering such issues as health, development, work, racism, violence against women, tourism and prostitution, militarism and peace, new technology, and many other concerns. Our aim is to mobilize information and make it as widely available as possible to grassroots women's groups.

We see the Isis International work of communication and networking as part of and a contribution to the global women's movement and to the many leveled and diverse strategies that women are using and must use to further their process of development. The strengthening of communications and information channels and of networking activities which help women to build up strong organizations, cooperation and support should have a place in any strategics for moving forward from Nairobi.