WIDE's Annual Conference 2007 ‘New aid, old trade: What
do women have to say?’ will be hosted by the Gender and Development Working
Group of the Spanish Platform of Development NGOs (CONGDE), in Madrid on
14-17 June 2007.
The aim of this year’s conference is to create a forum
for constructive analysis of women’s rights today and perspectives for
gender equality in the new global development and trade architecture.
The nature of international trade policies, regulation
of financial flows and investment, as well as the nature of international
development policies, have all changed profoundly in recent years. New
international development architecture has developed from the international
donor community’s shared commitments in the areas of trade, debt, investment
and financing for development. However, while development and trade
institutions are changing, structures of gender inequality are persisting.
Despite multiple commitments, gender mainstreaming has not been put into
practice throughout the world.
Gender experts and women’s organisations have expressed
concern that these new aid modalities may even further sideline gender
interests, shrink the spaces and resources available to gender equality
advocates and undercut efforts towards women’s empowerment.
The WIDE conference is intended to be a space for women
from the East, North and South to analyse critically European and
international aid and trade policies, in order to name the challenges, to
identify the opportunities and to agree on a common agenda to ensure that
this new aid, trade and foreign policy architecture reinforces and supports
commitments on women’s human rights and gender equality.
The conference will be highly participatory in nature.
It will be made up of four panels, where speakers from the East, South and
West will share regional and personal experiences and perspectives, each
panel followed by time for questions and debate. The conference will also
include different workshops to encourage more in-depth debate and to provide
spaces for joint strategising and advocacy planning. Open space sessions
will allow participants to propose spontaneous workshops according to their
interests. As in previous years, there will also be a space for learning, a
day-long capacity building session, prior to the conference.
Conference
venue:
Escuela
de Formación Sindical Julián Besteiro
c/Azcona, 53
28028 Madrid, Spain
Further
information:
Louisa
Antolin,
annualconference[at]wide-network.org,
+32 2
5459070 (WIDE office), Monday and Thursday.
Further information will
follow at WIDE’s website in the coming weeks
Registration:
Registration
will start in the middle of April, but people can already contact Louisa if
they want to attend: annualconference[at]wide-network.org.
Accommodation in Madrid:
There will be an officer working in Spain from the 16 of
April and onwards that can help with finding suitable accommodation
etc.