CARICOM rated favourably in World's Women Report 2000
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states were among countries which received favourable ratings in the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Progress of the World's Women 2000 Report. A release from the CARICOM Secretariat last week said that CARICOM countries were among 188 UN member states which took part in the UN General Assembly Special Session, `Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century' which opened at the UN Headquarters in New York on Monday. The World's Women 2000 report examined women's status in the context of globalisation from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Indra Chandarpal, presented Guyana's report on Tuesday. The region's favourable ratings were noted in three categories -- the participation of women in politics, the education of the girl child and women, and the undertaking of gender budget initiatives. Progress in these areas was made since the 1980s. While many nations had made advances in similar areas as CARICOM member states, the release said, in the area of women's participation in parliament only eight of the world's countries had gone beyond the 50% level agreed on by world governments at a series of world conferences in the 1990s. In the case of CARICOM it was noted by a delegate that the picture in the region for women was favourable but there was still much to be done. The priority areas for women continue to be the persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women; inequality in health care and related services; all forms of violence against women and inequality between men and women in the sharing of power - including parliament and decision-making. In relation to power-sharing, UNIFEM Executive Director Dr Noeleen Heyzer said, "we need to learn from countries where women have achieved 30% of seats in parliament and participation in key decision-making, particularly in the realm of government, expenditures and the formulation of economic policy." The Progress of the World's Women 2000 Report is supported by detailed accounts of efforts already being made to ensure women's fair participation in economic policy-making at the national, regional and global levels.
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