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SOUTH ASIAN WOMENS CONFERENCE 2008 Breaking the Barriers to Empowerment! WHY WOMEN AGAIN?
"We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever." Susan B. Anthony, Declaration of Rights for Women, July 1876 Even after 132 years of this declaration, the Rights of Women in the US and all over the world are not guaranteed to our women and our daughters. Even in light of heightened international awareness of gender issues, it is a disturbing reality that no country has yet managed to eliminate the gender gap. Those that have succeeded best in narrowing the gap are the Nordic countries, with Sweden standing out as the most advanced in the world. These are followed by New Zealand (6), Canada (7), United Kingdom (8), Germany (9) and Australia (10), countries that have made considerable progress in recent decades in removing obstacles to the full participation of women in their respective societies. France (13) ranked ahead of the United States (17) among a study conducted in 58 nations. Out of which the two South Asia countries ranked in the lowest ranks: India (53) and Pakistan (56). In this world, of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty around the globe, 70 percent of which are women. For these women, poverty doesnt just mean scarcity and want. It means rights denied, opportunities curtailed and voices silenced. Consider the following: Women work two-thirds of the worlds working hours, according to the United Nations Millennium Campaign to halve world poverty by the year 2015. The overwhelming majority of the labor that sustains life growing food, cooking, raising children, caring for the elderly, maintaining a house, hauling water is done by women, and universally this work is accorded low status and no pay. The ceaseless cycle of labor rarely shows up in economic analyses of a societys production and value. Women earn only 10 percent of the worlds income. Where women work for money, they may be limited to a set of jobs deemed suitable for women invariably low-pay, low-status positions. Women own less than 1 percent of the worlds property. Where laws or customs prevent women from owning land or other productive assets, from getting loans or credit, or from having the right to inheritance or to own their home, they have no assets

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DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE to leverage for economic stability and cannot invest in their own or their childrens futures. Women make up two-thirds of the estimated 876 million adults worldwide who cannot read or write; and girls make up 60 percent of the 77 million children not attending primary school. Women, mostly in rural areas, represent more than two-thirds of the worlds illiterate adults. Education is among the most important drivers of human development: women who are educated have fewer children than those who are denied schooling (some studies correlate each additional year of education with a 10 percent drop in fertility). They delay their first pregnancies, have healthier children (each additional year of schooling a woman has is associated with a 5 to 10 percent decline in child deaths, according to the United Nations Population Fund) and are far more likely to send their own children to school. Yet where women do not have the discretionary income to invest in their own or their childrens education, where girls education is considered frivolous, and where girls are relied on to contribute labor to the household, they miss this unparalleled opportunity to develop their minds and spirits. Their countries suffer too: the World Bank estimates that nations in South Asia and Africa lose .5 to 1 percent growth in per-capita income per year compared to similar countries where children have greater access to quality, basic education. In many societies around the world, women never belong wholly to themselves; they are the property of others throughout their lives. Their physical well-being health, security and bodily integrity is often beyond their own control. Where women have no control over money, they cannot choose to get health care for themselves or their children. Where having a large number of children confers status on both men and women indeed, where childbearing may be the only marker of value available to women frequent pregnancy and labor can be deadly. World Health Organization data indicates that in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, for example, a womans lifetime chance of dying in childbirth is one in seven; in the United States it is one in 3,418, and in Norway and Switzerland, one in 7,300. In any given year, 15 percent of all pregnant women will face a life-threatening complication, and more than 500,000 99 percent of them in the developing world will die. Forced marriage and bride-burning are still prevalent in the Asian sub-continent. A pregnant woman in Africa is 180 times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than in Western Europe. Around the globe, home and community are not safe havens for a billion girls and women: At least one in three females on earth has been physically or sexually abused, often repeatedly and often by a relative or acquaintance. By the World Banks estimate, violence rivals cancer as a cause of morbidity and mortality for women of childbearing age. Even within marriage, women may not be able to negotiate when and what type of sex to have, nor to protest their husbands multiple sex partners. Poverty and exclusion push some girls and women to engage in sex work, almost always the desperate, last choice of people without other choices. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of State indicates that up to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders annually: 80 percent of these are women

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DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE and girls, and the majority is forced into the sex trade. And in the midst of conflict and natural disaster in countries around the world, womens risk of violence skyrockets. Systematic rape as a weapon of war has left millions of girls and women traumatized, forcibly impregnated, and/or HIV positive. These factors combined explain why today more women than men around the world are HIV positive. In subSaharan Africa, more than twice as many young women as young men are living with HIV, according to the International Labor Organization. In the United States, 90% of AIDS cases under 20 years of age are girls. In many parts of the world rape is not considered a crime, goes unpunished and continues to be used as a tool of war. Even in highly developed countries, violence against women of all kinds is routine, and often condoned. Female sexual slavery and forced prostitution are still terrible facts of life for poor, often very young, women. Genetic testing for defects of the unborn is used in some parts of the world to determine the sex of the fetus, so that females can be aborted, while in some countries, female infants are buried alive. In many developed countries, where basic gender equality appears to have been achieved, the battlefront has shifted to removing the more intangible discrimination against working women. Women still hold only 15.6% of elected parliamentary seats globally. Women all over the world now vote in near equal proportion to men, but nowhere do they serve in equal numbers in political office.

Increasing evidence has shown, countries that do not capitalize on the full potential of one half of their societies are misallocating their human resources and undermining their competitive potential. The past three decades have witnessed a steadily increasing awareness of the need to empower women through measures to increase social, economic and political equity, and broader access to fundamental human rights, improvements in nutrition, basic health and education. Along with awareness of the subordinate status of women has come the concept of gender as an overarching socio-cultural variable, seen in relation to other factors, such as race, class, age and ethnicity. It is clear that the world has a long way to go to achieve equality and that this work will require concentrated efforts on many fronts. The work of the United Nations and many other agencies in advancing gender equality has converged in three closely interconnected areas: strengthening womens economic capacity, with a focus on new technologies and the new trade agenda; promoting womens leadership and political participation; eliminating violence against women and supporting the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Despite worldwide evidence of the low levels of female participation in social, educational, economic and political spheres, there is still a tendency to see it as a real problem only in a limited number of countries. Yet, as noted above, the reality is that no country in the world, no matter how advanced, has achieved true gender equality, as measured by comparable decision making power, equal opportunity for education and advancement, and equal participation and status in all walks of

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DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE human endeavor. Gender disparities exist, even in countries without glaring male-domination, and measuring these disparities is a necessary step towards implementing corrective policies. Achieving gender equality, however, is a grindingly slow process, since it challenges one of the most deeply entrenched of all human attitudes. Despite the intense efforts of many agencies and organizations, and numerous inspiring successes, the picture is still disheartening, as it takes far more than changes in law or stated policy to change practices in the home, community and in the decision-making environment.

WHY SOUTH ASIA?


We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty. Mother Teresa The recently issued report on Human Development in South Asia 1999 reveals terrible impoverishment and inequality in the South Asian region. Sponsored by the United Nations Development Program, the report's theme is "The Crisis of Governance" in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives. According to the compilers of the report, the political crisis in these countries mirrors the inability of their governments to address the growing poverty and resulting social problems. South Asia, with 23 percent of the world's population, is the planet's poorest region. About 540 million people, or 45 percent of the region's population, are living below poverty line, with daily incomes of less than one dollar. This proportion is higher than in Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific region, including China. The UN poverty index, quoted in the report, shows that the poverty rate has reached 53 percent in India, 53 percent in Nepal, 29 percent in Bangladesh, 12 percent in Pakistan and 4 percent in Sri Lanka. These figures may be an underestimate. Report continues to say: "Income disparities in South Asia are one of the largest in the world. All the countries in the region have a dramatic concentration of wealth and power among their richest members." The highest income-earning layer of 20 percent owns 40 percent of the total income in the region while the lowest 20 percent bracket owns only 10 percent. Pointing out that economic development in the region has never benefited the poor, the report states: "Even though GDP per capita has been rising annually at around 2.5 percent, between 19601965, the average income of the richest 10 percent is still six times the average of the poorest 10 percent." The biggest gap is in Nepal. There the richest 10 percent earn 10 times the poorest 10 percent. The ratio is seven in Pakistan, six in India and Sri Lanka and five in Bangladesh. The South Asia region also has disastrous living conditions. Among the 200 million poorest people in the region, the average life expectancy is less than 40 years. This is a direct consequence of worsening health conditions. For the region as a whole, the average life expectancy is 62 years. These figures are in stark contrast to those in advanced countries. In the US and the UK it is 77 years while Japan's average is 88 years. Renaissance Consultants Ltd. Page 4 of 10

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In South Asia, 879 million people are deprived of proper sanitary facilities, a total of 278 million people have no access to safe drinking water. In addition, 276 million people, or 22 percent of the entire population, have no access to basic health facilities that is 50 percent of people in Bangladesh, 45 percent in Pakistan, 15 percent in India, and 7 percent in Sri Lanka. After reviewing these catastrophic social conditions, the report comments: "In the face of such powerful evidence, South Asia is still channeling insufficient resources towards the social sectors. Whenever there has been a fiscal adjustment, the axe has fallen on health and education expenditures. Real per capita expenditures on education have followed a downward trend since the early 1990s." All the countries, except tiny Bhutan and Maldives, spend less that 2 percent of gross national product (GNP) on public health. As a result of inadequate facilities and poor social conditions, the childbirth death rate is shocking480 per 100,000 live births in the region as a whole. Part of this toll can be attributed to the poor health of mothers. About 85 percent of pregnant women aged between 15 to 49 are suffering from anemia. Many of the children who survive birth do not live beyond infancy. Some 79 million children in the region are suffering acute malnutrition. Shortages of doctors and nurses contribute to the poor health conditions. Throughout South Asia there are only 44.34 doctors per 100,000 people. Across the region there is one nurse for every 4,078 people and one doctor for every 3,684. By contrast, there is one policeman for every 939. Thus there are four times as many policemen as nurses or doctors. The report shows that low literacy rates contribute to the social backwardness. Among the region's adults, 395 million are illiterate, and women suffer the most. Of the illiterate, 243 million are women, or 64 percent of the total number of women. For the entire region, the illiteracy rate among is 38 percent. Fifty million children in the region are not enrolled in primary education. Throughout the region, 41 percent of children drop out of school before grade 5. The teacherstudent ratio is 1 to 60, with the worst figures in India and Bangladesh64 and 71 respectively. The report condemns the governments of the region for disregarding the need to develop education and label their policy as an obstacle to the creation of a proper social environment for a civilized life. Only 3.2 percent of GNP is spent on education. The report points out that declining education levels and adverse living conditions push people into desperation and frustration, igniting a growing trend of child abuse, prostitution and anti-social activities. The conditions facing girls in the South Asian region is appalling. Human Development in South Asia, quoting the UNICEF report of 1995, estimates the child labor force in the region as 134 million. A very high proportion of children aged 10 to 14 works for a livelihood. According to the report, Child prostitution is widely known to exist in South Asia but is rarely... discussed. Widespread poverty and inadequate social safety nets have left many children with no choice but to sell their bodies simply to survive from one day to the next."

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DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE The rapidly growing child sex trade is fueled by the fear that adult prostitutes may transmit the AIDS virus. The report estimates that around 100,000 children are involved in prostitution. But according to the facts given in the report itself, the number must be higher. Child prostitution is an organized business run by affluent cliques. Severe poverty, dowry and other social problems facing teenage girls and a high school drop out rate have combined to condemn many girls to prostitution. The report records that 30,000 Sri Lankan children are being used as sex workers for foreign tourists. It describes the plight of the children caught in the civil war in northern Sri Lanka. When breadwinners are slaughtered, orphans are compelled to sell their bodies to corrupt businessmen who exploit their desire to escape from the war zone. The children are regularly gang-raped, harassed and forced to perform dangerous sexual acts. They are also exposed to AIDS and sexually-transmitted diseases. Cultural backwardness and severe poverty also contribute to brutal violence against women. Domestic violence is also increasing. "The gravest form of violence is that committed against women. Often a hidden scourge, it is also on the rise in South Asia. It cuts across boundaries of countries, class, age, and ethnicity. However, data regarding this is extremely hard to find, as women seldom come forward with information, especially when the perpetrators of violence are from within the family." Almost all girls in poor families face the problem of dowry. According to deep-seated custom in most of the countries in the region, especially in India and Pakistan, a woman must give a dowry of money, jewelry, household goods or land to the bridegroom and his parents at her marriage. If the bride fails to bring the agreed dowry, she can face cruel treatment at the hand of the bridegroom and his family. Women have committed suicide. In some cases, the family kills the bride by dousing her with petrol and setting her ablaze. Several forces have seriously eroded the gains made by women's movements over the past three decades in this region. From where we stand, the most significant of them are increased poverty resulting from accelerated global economic integration (globalization), the increase in conflicts and greater militarization, and the rise of various fundamentalist movements which, in combination with the other factors, are re-creating and re-asserting traditional feudal and patriarchal social relations, and new norms of masculinity and femininity. These are not parallel but interconnected forces that are eroding women's social position and material condition, particularly in the Third World, reinforcing or mutating traditional patriarchal controls, creating new forms of structural and systemic violence against women, and rolling back the gains made by women's movements over the past decades. None of these are new challenges, but they have taken on new dimensions and complexities, and greater urgency in the current geopolitical scenario. It is time, therefore, for women's movements to reconsider their role and participation in the transformation of struggles against poverty, militarization, and the growth of fundamentalism.

WHY ANOTHER CONFERENCE?


Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." Renaissance Consultants Ltd. Page 6 of 10

DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE ~Clare Boothe Luce Women's movements cannot succeed in the current scenario unless they take leadership of, and transform, the basic character of movements around economic globalization, sustainable development, conflict and peace, and fundamentalism. Specifically, we will have to create a global movement for economic justice, peace and human rights, led by grassroots women, mobilizing marginalized people at all levels around this agenda. This will expand the hitherto constricted political space of poor women, and enable the release of their agency to transform the very agendas that have impacted every dimension of their lives. This means that women's movements at the global, national and local levels will have to: Initiate processes of critical introspection and analysis of past strategies and current position and leadership. Build and lead mass-based movements against poverty and for equity and sustainability; against militarization and for peace; against all forms of fundamentalism and for pluralism, tolerance, inclusion, and realization of the full body of human rights for all people. In order to do this, we must support the mobilization of grassroots women (meaning poor, rural, urban, indigenous and other oppressed women) in large numbers and redeploy basic consciousness-raising and awareness - building methods. Such massbased women's movements can better fight the forces of economic injustice, militarization, social oppression, and regional, religious, ethnic, caste, sexual and other forms of chauvinism.

The goal of this conference is to bring about sharing of knowledge and exchange of best practices for the advancement, development and empowerment of women. The conference will widely disseminate these information so as to encourage active participation of all stakeholders for achieving the goals of empowering women and breaking the barriers to such equality.

Breaking the Barriers to Empowerment!


Specifically, the objectives of this conference in to share knowledge and best practices regard the following (but are not limited to) topics: 1. Creating an environment in South Asia through positive economic and social policies for full development of women to enable them to realize their full potential 2. The de-jure and de-facto enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom by women on equal basis with men in all spheres political, economic, social, cultural and civil in the region.

The main theme of the South Asian Womens Conference 2008 is:

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DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE 3. Ensuring equal access to participation and decision making of South Asian women in social, political and economic life of the nation. 4. Ensuring equal access to South Asian women to health care, quality education at all levels, career and vocational guidance, employment, equal remuneration, occupational health and safety, social security and public office etc. 5. Advocating for strengthening legal systems aimed at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in South Asian countries. 6. Working together for changing societal attitudes and community practices by active participation and involvement of both men and women in South Asia. 7. Mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development process of the region by making the Government and donors aware of the particular needs of women in South Asia. 8. Elimination of discrimination and all forms of violence against women and the girl child in South Asia; and 9. Building and strengthening South Asia regional partnerships with civil society, particularly womens organizations. 10. Finally the meeting and getting together of women as sisters with a common past, common culture and common goals of empowerment for our daughters! References: (Not Complete ..) a. Women Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap, World Economic Forum, Augusto Lopez-Claros & Saadia Zahidi b. According to the Women Empowerment report of CARE c. Human Development report shows worsening poverty in South Asia, By Priyadarshana Maddawatta, 29 November 1999, World Socialist Web Site

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." - Arundhati Roy South Asian Womens Conference 2008
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Dhaka, Bangladesh Program Plan


April 24-26, 2008 Date & Time 06:00 pm 08:00 pm 09:00 am 10:00 am 10:00 am 12:00 pm 12:30 pm 01:30 pm 01:30 pm 03:00 pm 03:00 pm 03:30 pm 03:30 pm 05:00 pm 05:00 pm 06:00 pm 06:00 pm 08:00 pm 08:00 pm 09:00 am 10:30 am 10:30 am 11:00 am 11:00 am 12:30 pm 12:30 pm 02:00 pm 02:00 pm 03:30 pm 03:30 pm 04:30 pm 04:30 pm 06:00 pm 06:00 pm 08:00 pm 08:00 pm 09:00 am 10:30 am 10:30 am 11:00 am 11:00 am 12:30 pm 12:30 pm 01:30 pm Program Description April 23, 2008 Registration Pre-Conference Induction Social Evening Cocktails April 24, 2008 Registration & Arrival of Guests Inauguration Lunch Break Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 1 Tea Break Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 2 Networking Time Bangladeshi Cultural Show Dinner April 25, 2008 Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 3 Tea Break Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 4 Prayer & Lunch Break Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 5 Tea Break Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 6 South Asian Cultural Show Dinner April 26, 2008 Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 7 Tea Break Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 8 Lunch Break Participants Conference Participants and Organizers Patrons & Paper Presenters Participants & Guests Participants & Guests Participants & Guests Participants Participants Participants Participants & Guests Participants & Guests Participants Participants Participants Participants Participants & Guests Participants & Guests Participants Participants

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DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE 01:30 pm 03:00 pm 03:00 pm 03:30 pm 03:30 pm 05:00 pm 06:00 pm 08:00 pm 08:00 pm 09:00 am 05:00 pm Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 9 Tea Break Working Session / Presentations Sub-Theme 10 Closing Ceremony Dinner April 27, 2008 Dhaka Historical Tour Participants Participants Participants & Guests Participants & Guests Foreign Participants

Expected Number of Participants: South Asian Country Participants (Expected) Bangladeshi Participants (Expected) Invited Guests & Patron Representatives Organizers and Volunteers 30-50 persons 300-350 persons 1000-1500 persons 30-50 persons

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