Fifteen years into the Beijing Platform for Action we find ourselves without any coherent global policy framework or systematic monitoring and evaluation. Instead of celebrating the numerous accomplishments and progress in strengthening women’s voices round the globe and looking forward to renewed global commitment, we find ourselves struggling to begin to answer this seemingly simple question: where are we now?

THE SYMPOSIUM
The symposium genderjustice on the 23rd of February is aimed at answering this question. The sharing of experiences on monitoring and evaluation will be an important aspect of this year’s CSW in New York taking place in the beginning of March. However, let us start close to home! As gender activists, development practitioners and women’s and human rights defenders we have a body of knowledge on implementing genderjustice. The symposium will be aimed at identifying and sharing of good practices that we can adopt from one another to accelerate progress. We will discuss how to demonstrate our results and collaborate towards increasing our impact.

GENDER BASICS
A diverse audience is expected to visit genderjustice.nu. For newcomers to gender we will zoom in on some real life dilemmas on implementing gender in development. During the first session participants will have ample opportunities to raise questions like: How to get started with gender mainstreaming and how to translate this into practice? What has gender got to do with the core business of my organization? How to introduce and discuss gender issues with my partners and colleagues? Come and pick the brain of gender die-hards like Sylvia Borren.

MEASURING IMPACT
Development organizations increasingly have to measure their impact in concrete and quantifiable terms often under huge time pressure. This takes place within traditional logical frameworks en results-based management systems. However, there is a lot of discussion on the ‘fit’ of these approaches with the long-term investments required for true gender transformation. Several experts will look at the successes and failures of these systems bringing with them their own experiences, amongst which the MDG3 fund! Also there will be a workshop on alternative ways of reporting, using audio visual narratives.

GLOBAL CONNECTIONS IN PEACE AND CONFLICT
2010 marks an important year for women, peace and security. It is the tenth anniversary of resolution 1325. However, as with many other resolutions monitoring its results has been more challenging than successful. A new international coalition on 1325 has taken up this plight and is looking into the role civil society can actively play in bringing 1325 closer to the ground. Mavic Cabrera of the International Coordinator of the Global Network of Women Peace builders will present her work in close cooperation with members of the working group 1325.

AFTERWARDS?
In the plenary panel at the end of the symposium we will look beyond Beijing+15. But it does not stop there. Genderjustice.nu is a starting point for long term trajectories. It will therefore be a ‘working symposium’: rather than sitting back and listening to a series of lectures, you will be participating in interactive workshops, consultations and panel discussions, with plenty of opportunities for networking. At the end of the day we aim to have concrete action plans, common goals and commitment towards future collaboration.

Registration CLOSED! at www.genderjustice.nu

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