Press Release No. 37/1997

Leadership Training: Consultative Symposium on Strengthening Capacity for Gender Initiatives and Sub-regional Cooperation

Addis Ababa, 24th November, 1997: Women Leaders from East Africa will gather at the Hotel Impala in Arusha Tanzania to attend a Symposium on Capacity for Gender Initiatives and Sub-regional Co-operation organised by The East African Sub - regional Development Centre (EA/SRDC).

The meeting will be officially opened by the Mayor of Arusha Municipality, with opening statements by the Director of the EA/SRDC, Mr. Peki Kana and by Tanzania's Minister of Women Affairs.

Discussions will centre around the renewed ECA's Gender Framework and draw up action plans on:

• mechanisms and measures for joint planning and implementation;
• co-ordination and monitoring of the sub-region's gender activities and;
• modalities for information dissemination and enhancing regional co-operation.
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Stress will be laid on the vital role of women in the development process in light of East African partnerships and mechanisms for the social, political and economic advancement of women in the subregion.

ECA's new gender outreach concept has moved from a focus on women as a special group to focus on the roles and relationships between women and men in development activities, how development benefits are shared and on each group's access to resources and decision-making structures. Gender analysis perspectives are now a core cross-cutting approach in all United Nations policies, programmes and projects.