Empowerment and Equality. Poverty and backlash

Alarming signs of increasing female poverty and a severe backslash to social development are being noted everywhere today. Unequal access to resources and their control, as well as certain negative trends in the global and local economies, are seriously hampering the process of progressive gender equalization in nearly every part of the world. At the same time, the policy and legal international framework for achieving women's empowerment and gender equality have never been so strong.

More than ever, therefore, it is imperative to be vigilant and to introduce initiatives and concrete programmes to fulfill the commitments taken by the international community in the active promotion of human rights, women's advancement and gender equality. More than ever also, a concerted effort is needed, involving all the potential players, and following the main trends and action determined in international conferences, constantly updated and confirmed in consultations with responsible authorities and forums.

Training, the sharing of information and experience, sensitization, and the exchange of models and best practices are some of the tools offered by the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin (Italy), as a response to these concerns.

The new mandate of the Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality Programme (WEGE) at the Turin Centre attempts to incorporate two approaches to the problem. The women's empowerment aspect suggests specific interventions for supporting and strengthening women's capacities in all sectors of the mandate of the ILO, with the aim of resolving existing problems of discrimination. The gender equality aspect introduces a new gender dimension into training for policymakers and planning and programming personnel - both male and female. It also widens the scope of information, dissemination and sensitization activities, offering to women and men alike an awareness of existing international instruments dealing with the subject.

The main aims of the WEGE programme are equality and equal opportunity for both women and men at work - and in a broader perspective, in society in general. Specific objectives are set forth and apply to each training activity. They include:

The WEGE programme

Objectives:

Enjoyment by women of their economic and social rights
Full participation in economic activities at national and local levels
Participation without discrimination in vocational training and education
Elimination of violence against women (from sexual harassment at the workplace to violence in armed conflicts)
Bringing gender perspective to the forefront in all policies and programmes at the international, national and local levels

Priorities:

Human rights of women (including special groups, such as disabled women, and covering institutional capacity-building; e.g., strengthening of national machineries)
Policies and strategies for women entrepreneurship (high-level interventions)
Capacity-building in gender equality, poverty eradication and employment promotion

Activities:

National country programmes implemented for the most part at the field level, with major involvement of national counterparts (traditional tripartite partners plus women's NGOs and civil organizations)
Turin-based sub-regional, regional or inter-regional training activities with a specific target and an accurate selection of participants, so that their participation may have a direct impact in the articulation of policies and strategies at the national level

Target groups for the activities of the Centre are women and men alike, and include representatives of governments, members of parliaments, employers' and workers' organizations, members of specialized NGOs, universities, associations, bodies (both at the policy and operational levels, including trainers), media specialists, etc. All regions are targeted, primarily with a national or sub-regional focus.

A set of "core curricula", related to the priority areas defined previously is regularly proposed as part of the annual Centre's training offer. In addition to these, other well-tested courses may be easily implemented on an ad hoc basis.

WEGE training courses and seminars presented by the Centre, dealing with gender issues, include:

Descriptions of these courses and seminars, as well as a list of multimedia modular training packages developed by the Centre dealing with these and related issues, may be obtained from the Turin Centre itself.

Gender! A Partnership of Equals
Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Empowerment and Equality
Poverty and backlash

Gender! A Partnership of Equals Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Empowerment and Equality Poverty and backlash

Gender! A Partnership of Equals
Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Empowerment and Equality
Poverty and backlash