UNITED NATIONS EXPERT GROUP MEETING TO EXAMINE SITUATION OF RURAL WOMEN, GLOBALIZATION

UNITED NATIONS EXPERT GROUP MEETING TO EXAMINE SITUATION

OF RURAL WOMEN, GLOBALIZATION

New York, 29 May (Department of Economic and Social Affairs) -- The Division for the Advancement of Women in collaboration with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), will convene an expert group meeting on the "Situation of rural women within the context of globalization" in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from

4 to 8 June.  The meeting, which is being hosted by Mongolia’s Government, will address the social and economic challenges and opportunities faced by women in rural areas. 

Globalization poses both major challenges and unprecedented opportunities for rural women, and identifying policies that maximize the benefits while curtailing the negative effects remains a major challenge.  The meeting will examine the impact on rural women of major global trends, such as the growth in rural non-farm economic activities, the liberalization of trade and markets for agricultural products, the commercialization of agriculture, and the rapid diffusion of products, technologies, information, consumption patterns and a more flexible labour market.  The meeting will propose a policy agenda to maximize the beneficial effects for women within the context of ongoing rural, social and economic changes.

The meeting will aim to produce policy recommendations to promote a more even distribution of opportunities and benefits associated with globalization.  The recommendations of the meeting will be directed to governments, the United Nations system, intergovernmental and regional bodies and civil society.  They will aim to refine and expand an agenda for “actions to be taken” at both international and national levels outlined in the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), as well as the further actions identified in the outcome document adopted by the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly (Beijing + 5).

The findings of the meeting will be incorporated into the Secretary-General’s Report on the "Improvement of the situation of women in rural areas" which will be submitted to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session in 2001.  The recommendations of this expert group meeting will also be made available to the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-sixth session in March 2002.  The report will also be provided to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which is mandated to monitor the implementation of the Convention, including article 14 on rural women.

Experts at the meeting will include:  Paloma Bonfil (Mexico); Sandra Botha; (South Africa); Khorloo Enkhjargal, Mongolia; Uta Hoffmann-Altmann (Germany); Adelheid Iken, (Germany);  Jeanne Illo, (Philippines); Soha Abdel Kader, (Egypt); Nazneen Kanji, (United Kingdom); Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel (United States); Anamaria Maldonado (Ecuador); Grace Malindi (Malawi); Xin Meng (Australia);

S.R. Osmani (United Kingdom); and Lin Zhibin (China).  Marianne H. Marchand, (Netherlands), who has prepared a background paper for the meeting, will also participate.  In addition, observers from United Nations entities, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, academia and interested governments will attend.

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