Durban 2007 – Civil Society Secretariat
Invitation To The Civil Society Rural Women’s Tent Forum

“United in our Diversity towards Social Change”
Kingsmead Stadium Durban, South African, 21 – 24 April 2007

TO REGISTER CLICK HERE…

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The South African Civil Society, in partnership with the South African Government,  have great pleasure in inviting you to the Rural Women’s Voices Tent Forum  that will take place during the Fourth World Congress of Rural Women in Durban South Africa on 21 to 24 April, 2007.

The World Congress on Rural Women is an event held every four years under various pertinent themes.  It was founded in Australia in 1994 and was later hosted by the United States of America in 1998, followed by Spain in 2002. This year it is Africa’s turn.

As our country’s political and business leaders are getting ready for this massive world event, South Africa’s civil society has chosen to believe that the nature of this event requires that rural women be both politically prepared and socially empowered so as to inform their discussion and engage in rural development activities at grassroots. It is imperative that rural women from diverse segments of society participate in this congress in large numbers as the policies that will be discussed by the leadership will impact mostly on their lives.

It is in this regard that a permanent physical space at the World Congress of Rural Women, called the Rural Women’s Voices Tent, will be set up to meet rural women’s needs.
 
The Women’s Voices Tent will be an integral part of the World Congress of Rural Women’s NGO Forum, which will be held concurrently with the World Congress. The Rural Women’s Tent is of utmost importance in the context of rural women development’s agenda and for the strengthening of WCRW outcomes it will therefore raise issues affecting rural women on the global arena. Its objectives are:

• The Women’s Voices Tent will serve as a creative space where women representatives from all continents will organise cultural and spiritual events, exhibitions, and celebrations of their achievements.
• It will have an educational space where workshops will be conducted on the inter-linking topics such as poverty, HIV/Aids, sustainable rural development, peace,   food security and networking.
• Women will meet regularly to organise their own vision and strategies for the congress.
• The overall objective of the Rural Women’s Voices Tent is to have a sensitive  declaration that endorses and prioritises a direct relevance to the role of rural women in  development.
• Develop a strong network of women’s NGOs working on sustainable rural development issues from both the South and Northern hemispheres that will monitor the implementation of WCRW and the Millennium Development Goals.
• The Rural Women’s Voice Tent Forum aims to produce concrete recommendations for input into the Ministerial or government declaration.

Registration
Please find online registration form to be duly completed and returned to the steering Committee by fax or e-mail. Please find enclosed programme.

While keeping a flexible bottom approach for rural women and NGOs to express their views, Governments, labour, academia, business and well-known speakers will address the women’s tent.

Coordination
We are calling for organisations, speakers who wish to coordinate and facilitate the thematic areas at the tent.

Fellowships
Should you wish to participate at the tent and be considered for fellowships please send your written proposal for the workshop focused of the thematic areas:
1. Peace
2. Globalising rural sustainability and eradicating impoverishment
3. Access to and control of natural resources 1and 2
4. Environmental security and health
5.Governance for sustainable rural development at all levels
6. Regional and thematic networking

The proposal to be submitted should comply with the following criteria:

• Submission should be made in one of the UN working languages and two South African official languages  of the tent
• Experience within the NGO community
• Knowledge of and familiarity with at least one the five thematic areas
• Papers should focus on issues that affect the rural women’s development and should include concrete recommendations

We expect to reach women activists, government delegates and other stakeholders from around the world through events hosted in the Women’s Voices Tent. In order to ensure that the forum has a sustained impact on strengthening women’s capacity to play a leadership role in rural development decision making, evaluation following WCRW and a continued effort to develop regional and global implementation initiatives and mechanisms will be essential. We anticipate an honest assessment of what is needed to more fully integrate gender into our five linking themes, with the goal of ensuring sustainable rural development.

Each thematic facilitating organisation will be responsible for evaluating the day of activities that they coordinated – the impact of the workshops and the expected results of the new capacity of women who attended. In order to assess the impact of the Women’s Voice Tent, we look forward to receiving your written proposal and contribution to the women’s tent forum in Durban South Africa.

Yours truly
Mandisa Monakali
Project Manager

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