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The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
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AS WRITTEN


	BEIJING REPORT

						No. 2, 4 September 1995

The largest Ever United Nations International Conference Opened in Beijing
today with some 12,000 registered participants from 181 countries focusing on
gender equity issues.  In a message to the conference, the UN Secretary-
General, Boutros-Boutros Ghali, said, "Securing the equality of women and men,
in law and in fact, is the great project of the twentieth century,"  adding
that NGOs gained "new legitimacy ... as actors on the international scene" at
the conference. The conference aims to obtain commitment in the form of a
Platform for Action, from governments, NGOs and others to bring about gender
equality. "There can be no spectators, no sideliners, no abstainers,"
conference Secretary-General, Gertrude Mongella, said in her opening
statement.  "Millions have placed their trust in us.  We must not fail them."
 Primary areas for actions include eradication of poverty, ill-health,
illiteracy, unemployment, and violence -- all high on UNDP agenda.  Guest
speakers at the opening plenary included Prime Minister Bhutto (Pakistan),
President Finnbogadottir (Iceland), Prime Minister Zia (Bangladesh) and Vice-
President Kazibwe (Uganda).  UN organizations are sponsoring a series of
workshops and panels on conference-related issues, from 5 to 14 September.

Journalists Seminar focuses on women and poverty.  Empowering the poor is the
key to breaking the poverty cycle,"  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, UNDP Assistant
Administrator and its Regional Director for Africa, informed journalists in
Beijing at conference orientation seminar on 2 September.  Stressing the
particular hardships of women in Africa -- the poorest continent in the world
-- Ms. Johnson Sirleaf said that governments must act quickly to help better
conditions of the poor by providing sound macroeconomic policy framework to
address poverty, establishing  realistic pricing and exchange rates, enacting
equitable labour laws and to shifting money from bloated military budgets to
programmes directly empower people to raise out of poverty. She called it
critical that women have a say in policy formulation and implementation.  UNDP
Human Development Ambassador, Princess Basma of Jordan, and UNIFEM Director,
Noeleen Heyzer were also panellists in seminar.

MEANWHILE, AT THE NGO FORUM AT HUAIROU....

Human Development Report 1995 presented at NGO Forum. "Non-governmental
organizations are not part of society; they are it,"  UNDP Administrator,
James Gustave Speth, told more than 100 participants in a panel discussion,
"Towards Equality: Valuing and Measuring women's Work," at Huairou on 3
September.  "Almost everywhere, women's work remains unrewarded, unrecognized
and undervalued.  Societies cannot succeed while suppressing the talents and
aspirations of half their members," said Mr. Speth.  Governments were
challenged to commit at Conference on Women to set up satellite accounts to
measure and put value to women's work by panellist Winnie Byanyima from
Uganda.  Other panellists were Meena Acharya Meena Acharya (Nepal) and Linda
Laura Sabbadini (Italy).  Moderator: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Director, Human
Development Report Office.

Gender Training Workshop, the first UNDP event at the NGO Forum in Huairou,
reviewed experience in gender training and discussed ways to improve training
techniques and to better design material to a standing-room only audience on
31 August.  Participants identified the main objective, to incorporate a
gender perspective into policy making and programming at institutional and
grassroots levels.  For maximum impact, women and men should equally benefit
from gender training programmes which respond to local needs.  Participants
also called for more training on gender mainstreaming at all levels.

Women in Conflict Resolution.  Women from conflict zones of Algeria, Bosnia,
Georgia, Palestine and Mozambique described the struggles of women in
dangerous and hostile environment in a panel sponsored by UNDP in Huairou on 1
September.  Panellists demanded a stronger mandate for the United Nations in
preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution, involving women as actors and
beneficiaries.  Panellists said that attention must be paid to the mental
health of women and children victims of conflict.

4. Lexicon of Women and Law. UNDP, UNESCO and the Ford Foundation have
published a Chinese-English Lexicon for use by Chinese interpreters,
translators, media, and participants in the conference on women.  Comprising
170 English entries, the lexicon describes the historical and contextual use
of key conference terms such as feminism, gender, and sexuality that do not
translate easily or clearly into the Chinese language.



Editor: Hilda Paqui
Director of Public Affairs Division: Djibril Diallo