Weds 19 May - Day Two of Conference

An early start today. Alexis went swimming while I caught up on my notes and then went to breakfast. The first session started at 8am and featured reports by countries who had responded to Ravesi’s request for projects that were being carried out re MDG3.

Each was an interesting report on the activities that had been carried out by these 6 countries – Australia (working with local and federal government to raise awareness of gender issues), Japan (engaging families in rural agricultural projects with support of local community leaders), Hawaii (ran a golf day to set up schools in Cambodia), Fiji (housing and relief trust – teaching women new skills so that they could enhance their earning power), Thailand (visiting women in prisons, upskilling and preparing them for their release from jail and reintegration into society) and USA (Urging women to incorporate IT into their career pathways – IT statistics show that men still dominate and earn more as a result)

Following this session, we broke up into study groups where we examined the successes and lessons learned of each of these projects. I was in the group that looked at Japan’s rural project. (Alexis attended another session). In my group we found that the project was initiated from a study of national statistics that identified an aging population and a decline in the status of agriculture. The project encouraged families to support each other to grow and sell produce. It also helped to raise the status of women and their contribution to the support of their families. After our group discussions, I reported back to our study group and explained how this model was already in place in the Cook Islands. Women were predominant sellers at the weekly market, and production of agricultural produce and setting up stalls to sell their goods each week, were a family affair.

The morning session concluded with an interesting and informative address by the Indonesian Government’s Deputy Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection about how their Ministry is working on gender issues across all the MDGs rather than just focusing on MDGs 3, 4 and 5. The Ministry of WECP later sponsored the conference dinner.

During the afternoon the conference recommenced with the formal opening. Alexis as our head of mission accompanied the Cook Islands flag into the ceremony. She later gave a brief report (6 minutes) about what the Cook Islands had achieved since the last conference in Auckland.

Jolene’s Peace Ambassador report was read to the conference by Kathy Adler, the US Peace Ambassador. Cook Islands was mentioned in Vio’s President report with regards to the letter that the Cook Islands (Alexis) had drafted asking Tonga and the USA to sign CEDAW. Vio had some difficulty with the protocol of auctioning this request from a member country, and has left the followup on the letter for the incoming Council. Vio also mentioned the Peace Statements that had been reviewed by a special Peace Committee. This group included Jolene and Paddy, but it was presented to and rejected by the Executive at the mid-term conference in Honolulu. Vio urged the incoming Council to again review and formalize PPSEAWA’s Peace Statements.

The reports took up all of the afternoon session, and we only had a half an hour to get ourselves ready for the conference dinner which was held poolside at the Inna Grand Hotel. Following the dinner, several groups performed cultural song and dance demonstrations. By the time NZ and the Cook Islands had plucked up enough courage to join into the entertainment programme, the management decided to close up for the evening. Alexis and I went back to our room, sold some pearls to eager USA delegates, and then decided to walk down the driveway and check our emails. We got there too late (10pm). The shop was closing up. We were granted 5 minutes – which was useless for me because my Oyster webmail is still not working – I contacted TCI about it before I left NZ, but have had no response… well, I wouldn’t know if I’d had a response because I can’t get in to read my emails to find out!

We then returned to the bar at the hotel (for soft drinks only) and ended up being part of the entertainment as Alexis and I were given the microphone and performed a treat. It didn’t take us long to get to sleep after such a busy day, I can assure you.