Forty-five women from 24 countries of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, North America and the Pacific met together in a workshop in Rome, Italy for five days in December 1984 to share their experiences and strategies in making women central to development at all levels.
This workshop, entitled Women in Development: From Theory to Practice, was organized jointly by Isis International in Rome, Italy and the International Coalition for Development Action (ICDA) in Brussels, Belgium with the support of the Women's Coordinating Committee of the Italian Development NGOs.
We would like to thank the following donor agencies who made this workshop possible through their interest and financial support: the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA).
The Organizers
The idea for this workshop was born out of discussions between ICDA and Isis International in which we realized the need to share experiences and build links among various kinds of groups and networks concerned with women in development issues. Each of our organisations is in close contact with an international network covering a wide range of groups working on these issues at different levels.
ICDA is an umbrella organization linking more than 500 development oriented groups in 20 industrialized countries. These groups are active in development research, education, policy monitoring and lobbying. Focusing on North-South issues, they press for change in government policies in the North and in international relations. ICDA has been particularly active on issues of seeds, aid, and trade. Recently members of ICDA have pressed the organization to make women in development a central issue.
Isis International is a Women's Information and Communication Service which evolved from ISIS. In January 1984 ISIS was transformed into two new, independent organizations: Isis-WICCE (Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange) in Geneva, Switzerland and Isis International in Rome, Italy and Santiago, Chile. Working with a network of over 10,000 contacts in 150 countries, Isis International promotes communication channels, strengthens networks, and provides information for women around the world. South-South communication and women in development are central issues in our work.
Background and Objectives
Over the past decade, women all over the world have been making important contributions to building awareness and understanding of women's roles in development, and to analyzing how development policies have neglected or been detrimental to women. This work is being done on all levels: from the grassroots to policy-making organizations. It has been accompanied by conferences, books, articles, resolutions, checklists and so on.
In the early stages, especially, much of this was aimed at showing the detrimental effects of most development policies on women. Aware that criticism of existing systems cannot on its own bring change, however, women have also been creating new concepts and practices of development.
Women's groups, organizing around issues of discrimination and oppression of women, have multiplied rapidly around the world. Many of these groups place their efforts within the framework of global development, showing how the oppression of women and poverty and underdevelopment are related. From this, many new strategies for the organization of women, for women's participation in development have arisen. These often do not fall in line with the criteria and priorities of development policy-making and donor agencies.
At the same time, however, women within these agencies are organizing and networking in the attempt to make these organizations more responsive to these new concepts and practices of development. Women working within development action and education groups are also working to ensure that women and women's issues are central to any work on development and are not marginalized or relegated to secondary positions.
To make all these efforts more effective, women working in different parts of the world and on various levels need to cooperate, build links and develop common strategies. Information, communication, sharing of ideas and experiences are essential elements in building cooperation.
The workshop was a contribution to providing an opportunity for women working on women in development issues in different parts of the world and on different levels to come together for this sharing of information, ideas and experiences in order to strengthen links, cooperation and the building of common strategies.
The Participants
The participants included thirty women (fifteen from the South and fifteen from the North) invited by the workshop organizers, plus two women form ICDA and ten from Isis International in Rome, the majority from developing regions. Most of the participants from the South came from Isis International's network and most of those from the North from ICDA's network. In addition, three or four other women visited or participated in a few of the sessions.
The participants came from Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mali, Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Hong Kong, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Western Samoa, Australia, Canada, the United States, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Finland, England, Denmark and Switzerland.
All of the participants had experience in building strategies for making women central to development. Many were working at the grassroots level with rural women's organizations, income generating projects; workers cooperatives or slum-dwellers. Others were engaged in development education, lobbying, action-oriented research, policy-making in non-governmental organizations, research institutes and donor agencies.
The Process
We chose to have a small workshop rather than a large conference in order to provide an opportunity for all the participants to get to know each other well and to participate as fully as possible, as this is an essential part of building links and strategies. All the participants were connected to an organization or a network so we know that the benefits and results of the workshop will not remain confined to a small group of women but will be shared and spread to a much wider circle. The workshop organizers also suggested beforehand that the participants work together on producing a resource and action kit so that we could share our experiences, strategies and joint efforts with an even wider network of women and organizations.
Most of the work was carried out in small working groups. We sent out a list of six suggested working group themes and discussion points beforehand and asked the participants to bring background materials and especially examples of concrete action plans and strategies.
Our emphasis was on concrete action plans and strategies. All of the participants have been working on issues of women in development with a critical analysis of many of the theories and concepts of development. All of us have been involved in developing new concepts and practices of development, which includes a holistic perspective and looks at the causes of the oppression of women as well as at poverty, economic and political imbalances. The meeting did not exclude a discussion of theories of development but, assuming this critical perspective, attempted to put these into concrete actions and strategies. We also felt that with the end of the Women's Decade coming, it was a good time to take stock and pool our many different experiences and strategies.
The working group themes were:
- Women's involvement in project identification, planning, monitoring and evaluation.
- Increasing the number and status of women working in development NGOs.
- Making women in development a central concern of development education and action groups.
- Making development central to the women's movement.
- Improving communication and coordination between women involved in development work.
- Making women central to training programmes.
Groups one, two and three ran simultaneously on one day and groups four, five and six ran simultaneously on the next. They were each divided into two sessions: 1. How far have we come? 2. Building on past experiences and developing new strategies.
The first day was given over to introductions of the participants so we would all have a chance to get acquainted and have an idea of each other's background and experience. Before dividing into small working groups, we also met in a plenary session in which one or two participants gave a brief introduction to each of the working group themes. This was meant to stimulate our thinking and give everyone a chance to exchange views on all of the themes.
Plenary sessions were scheduled to report back on the working groups. After this we again broke up into small groups to work out concrete action plans, including the production of the resource and action kit and joint activities for the NGO Forum in Nairobi.
On the last day, six of the participants took part in a study day organized by the Women's Coordinating Committee of the Italian Development NGOs on the same theme as the Workshop. The rest of the participants used this time for the evaluation and to finish up some practical matters about the Kit and NGO Forum activities.
Evenings were left free for informal discussions, showing of audiovisuals, dinner together in Rome and singing with the participation of a Filipina migrant worker. Space was provided to display the rich selection of materials, publications, posters, audiovisuals, etc., brought by the participants and showing the wide range of activities in which they are involved.
The Workshop's languages were Spanish and English. Simultaneous translation in the plenaries and consecutive translation in the working groups was provided by a cooperative of interpreters in Rome.
The Workshop was held in a conference center on the outskirts of Rome, run by an international congregation of Roman Catholic sisters.
Unforeseen Difficulties
A strike by the air traffic controllers all over Italy on the first day of the Workshop, created difficulties for many of the participants, especially those coming from long distances. Several women found themselves stranded halfway between Rome and their homes, and showed great ingenuity in finding alternative ways of arriving in Rome.
The participants also committed themselves to work together in Nairobi at the NGO Forum to organize a series of events within the theme of "Development, Empowerment and Solidarity". As well as workshops and panel discussions, it is hoped to have games, audiovisual presentations and a range of cultural events. It is hoped that the NGO Forum will provide an opportunity to develop the strategies proposed in Rome and to amplify some of the very important discussions that were only touched upon at the Workshop.
Judging from the responses of the participants, our efforts to establish a cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary forum to discuss women in development issues was a great success. In the evaluation session, the participants agreed that, whatever the time limitations, the fact that we had been able to bring together women from grassroots organizations, in an international meeting of this kind was of great importance and significance. The Workshop gave all of us a unique opportunity to exchange, share and articulate our theoretical and practical experiences.