2009 Metropolis Women International Network Forum
Date
Time
Program
09:00～17:00 Registration
21 Oct.
(Wed.)
14:00～17:00 【Special Session】 Asian Network Roundtable
18:00～21:30 Welcome Ceremony
09:00～10:00 Opening
10:00～11:30 Keynote Speeches: Visions and Challenges for a Women Friendly City
11:30~12:00 Official Photography
12:30～13:30 Lunch
22 Oct.
(Thur).
13:30～16:00
Session A
Mainstreaming
Gender in City
Policies and
Administration
W orkshop A1
Gender Governance in City Adm inistration
W orkshop A2
W omen’s Political Representation
W orkshop B 1
Session B
W omen’s Econom ic Empowerm ent
Empowering
W o m e n d u r i n g W orkshop B2
E c o n o m i c C r i s i s Gender-Responsive Social Safety Net
16:00~16:15 Break
16:15~17:15 Plenary A & B
Working Group Meeting: Session A & B Declaration Drafting
17:30～18:30
Special Exhibition : Women in Global Cities
18:30～20:30 Dinner
W orkshop C1
Session C
The Right to the Safe City for W omen
Building a Safe
C i t y f o r W o m e n W orkshop C2
Measures to Stop Violence against W omen
09:00～11:30
Session D
Fostering
Diversity and
Women’s
Creativity
W orkshop D1
Migration, Gender, and Diversity
W orkshop D2
W omen's Creativity and Cultural Industries
11:30～11:45 Break
23 Oct.
(Fri.)
11:45~12:45 Plenary C & D
12:45-13:45
Lunch
Working Group Meeting: Session C & D Declaration Drafting
13:45- 14:30
Special Exhibition: Women and Art
14:30～16:00 P l e n a r y: M a yo r s ’ P a n e l – ( 9 0 m i n u t e s )
16:00～16: 30 F i n a l D e c l a r a t i o n E n d o r s e m e n t ( F o r f u l l p r e s e n t a t i o n )
17:00～17:30 Closing Ceremony
17:30~18:00 Women Friendly City Declaration-Press Conference
19:00～21:00 Farewell Dinner
24 Oct.
(Sat.)
09:00～17:00 Herstory Tour
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Session Concept Paper
Session A. Mainstreaming Gender in City Polices and Administration
Since the 4th UN World Conference on Women in Beijing(1995), gender
mainstreaming has been broadly adopted as a major strategy for achieving gender
equality and improving lives of both women and men. Now it is emerging as key to
building women-friendly cities. Gender mainstreaming in cities is possible only when
policies and administration incorporate perspectives and experiences of women, and
women citizens actively participate in the gender-sensitive city governance. This
session will review the current state and issues regarding gender mainstreaming in
city policies and administration, and discuss specific enabling strategies.
The following two sub-topics will be addressed in this Section. The main topic of the
first workshop is Gender Governance in City Administration. Discussion will focus
on how cities are doing in terms of gender mainstreaming in designing womenfriendly cities. More specifically, the session will point out the adoption,
implementation, and ex-post evaluation of gender-sensitive policies. Particular focus
will be placed on success cases of gender governance through which the gender
perspective is integrated into all areas of city administration and policy making.
The topic of the second workshop is Women’s Political Representation. In the
workshop, there will be discussion on concrete measures to expand women’s
political representation and participation in the decision making process of cities.
Issues for discussion include political representation, affirmative action, gender quota,
femocrat activities, as well as advocacy and networking activities of women's
organizations.
Keyword: Women-Friendly City, Gender Mainstreaming, Gender Governance,
Women in Decision Making, Political Representation, Affirmative Action, Gender
Quota, Policy for Gender in City, Gender Budget, Gender Impact Assessment.
Session B. Empowering Women during Economic Crisis
The global financial crisis is expected to have a more detrimental impact on women
than men and could jeopardize any equality gains hitherto achieved in the workplace
and home. Rising female unemployment and the disintegration of families call for a
properly-working social safety net in big cities. In this session, we discuss the current
systems in place of women’s employment stability and deteriorating labor conditions.
We will also discuss effective strategies to implement through the social safety net
and ways to assist families that are more likely to break down under economic stress.
Therefore, this session will focus on the following two sub-topics. The main topic of
the first workshop is Women’s Economic Empowerment. This workshop will deal
with strategies for women’s employment stability and economic empowerment.
Specific challenges include women’s participation in the workforce, wage disparity
between men and women, gendered division of labor, affirmative action and career
development programs.
The second workshop deals mainly with Gender-Responsive Social Safety Net.
Here, we will discuss the role and function of the social safety net in responding
to families under financial stress and subsequently higher divorce rates. Such
situation leads to a deterioration of women's physical and mental health, and further
feminization of poverty. Discussions will take place on basic livelihood protection,
unemployment benefits, universal healthcare, support for single parent families,
minimum wages, and social service.
Keyword: Gender-Responsive Social Safety Net, Feminization of Poverty,
Unemployment Benefits, Basic Livelihood Protection, Healthcare, Minimum Wage,
Support for Single Parent Families, Social Service.
Session C. Building a Safe City for Women
This session is organized to discuss policies on the global issues of the 21st
Century: the instability caused by violence in big cities, and the insecurity and
inconvenience of the urban space. Focus will be on strategies for resolving such
problems and building a safe city for women. Therefore, this session will address
practical policy requirements for women's psychological, physical, and environmental
safety in cities.
This session will focus on the following two sub-topics. The topic of the first
workshop is The Right to the Safe City (Urban Space) for Women. Discussions on
this topic will also serve to bring the Women-Friendly City Project of Seoul to the
foreground. The Women-Friendly City Project of Seoul aims at providing women with
a safe and convenient urban space. The session will first review the best global
practices in creating a safe and convenient urban space for women, and then
introduce Seoul’s efforts to build a women-friendly city and discuss ways to create a
sustainable city from women's point of view.
The topic of the second workshop is Measures to Stop Violence against Women.
This workshop will examine strategies dealing with various forms of violence against
women in the home, communities and cities. It will discuss policies and programs to
combat various forms of violence against women, such as domestic violence, rape,
trafficking, sexual harassment, etc. In particular, it will introduce internationallyestablished standards in combating violence against women and discuss whether
and how cities are implementing these standards and what the challenges are for
building up the safe urban space without violence against women.
Keyword: Policy Combating Violence against Women, The Right to the Safe City,
The Policy for Comfortable and Convenient Environment, Women-Friendly City, Safe
City, Sustainability.
Session D. Fostering Diversity and Women’s Creativity
Cultural diversity or multiculturalism is at the crux of adapting to and coping with the
socioeconomic environment of the 21st century, in which globalization drives the free
flow of people, goods, and information between countries and cities. Our society is
reshaped by information technology and cultural industries, giving rise to a new form
of inequality. This means that global cities must focus on internal social cohesion
while strengthening cooperation and alliances with other cities. Inter-city dialogue
and cooperation based on cultural diversity are essential to offset the adverse effects
of globalization on women's quality of life, and to narrow the gap between the rich
and the poor. In this session, we will discuss city policies and strategies to enhance
diversity
and
promote
women's
creativity
through
communication,
mutual
understanding, and respect between various cultures of global cities.
This session will focus on the following two sub-topics. The main topic of the first
workshop is Migration, Gender, and Diversity. In this workshop, we will talk about
recognizing cultural diversity and relativity, international migration and coalition of
women, guaranteeing women’s human rights and social cohesion, sustainable urban
development and partnership building between cities, and future paradigm and
direction for city policies on women.
The main topic of the second workshop is Women's Creativity and Cultural
Industries. We will discuss women’s status as cultural producers and creators,
proliferation of information technology, and greater access to the global market in the
entertainment industry or creative industry, including media, publishing, film, music,
craft, and design. Then we will examine the future direction and strategy for city
policies regarding the role of women as cultural producers and their right as cultural
consumers in the age when creative capital has competitiveness.
Keyword: Migration and Gender Issues, Migration and Cultural Diversity, Migrant
Workers and Social Rights, Social Cohesion, Women’s Creativity, Cultural Industries,
Cultural Policies and Strategy in Cities and Metropolises.