Sri Lanka Project (GROW II) Advisory Committee
April 18, 2006 (Tuesday) 1.30 p.m. - 3.30 p.m.
Seminar Room, Learning Center
Present: Phyllis Cunningham, Jaya Gajanayake, Laurel Jeris, Kay Forest, Deb Pierce, and Nalika
Diyadawa
Minutes of the Meeting:
 Deb Pierce moved for the approval of minutes and Kay Forest seconded the motion.
 Suggestions from AC for Sri Lanka Seminar Planning
Jaya informed the committee that the Core Advisory Group in Sri Lanka is preparing for
the Sri Lanka seminar to be held on June 16 and that they wish to have some guidance
from the NIU advisory committee for agenda items.
Laurel: Indicated the importance of encouraging grassroots women from the Model
Villages to speak at the seminar. She mentioned that “Best practices of the project” could
be a highlight. Also to consider the importance of taking actions on the action plans that
the grassroots women had come up with during the last seminar. In responding to a
question she mentioned that field officers and NGO’s in the Model Villages keep
collecting records of data.
Kay: Indicated the importance of using the event to summarize the GROW II project
impact and strategies to move forward. She inquired about the new developments under
the new president. She suggested the idea of having grassroots women to share their
success stories at the seminar, even if the gains are short term. Also suggested to invite a
Sri Lankan who had attended the Beijing Conference to talk about its benchmarks.
Phyllis: If the English speakers will be a minority in the proposed seminar, she
suggested that the seminar should be conducted in the local language/s. She further
suggested addressing the practical problems of women’s political participation such as
getting the space in the arena of party politics, antagonism faced etc. Referring to an idea
from Hillary Clinton, she suggested inviting a charismatic Sri Lankan women speaker
who can speak about women’s political leadership, how they have made to the top in the
political field. She further added that mentioning about the leadership of the President of
Chile, Liberia would be inspirational. She suggested having the grassroots women to
speak about the issues and constraints they faced in their political campaigns would be
good. She emphasized the need to move away from the western ideology and link with
local thinking and practices.
Jaya: Indicated that the major aim of the proposed seminar is to take the GROW
Declaration forward and urge the political leaders to make 33% of women’s political
representation a reality after 75 years of universal franchise. She further mentioned that
GROW Project has provided a platform for NGO’s and other interested parties to act and
raise a unified voice. She pointed out that the current situation with regard to the case for
affirmative action clause is somewhat complex - GROW Declaration urging for 33%
women representation where as the election manifesto of the new president campaigned
for 25% women representation. She further added that CAG members have had
discussions with three Cabinet Ministries on the affirmative action for women’s political
representation, and when the Tsunami disaster occurred this effort had slowed down.
Providing financial support to the grassroots women who are interested in contesting
local government elections is a need but fund raising is a challenge. Introducing a
revolving fund to strengthen women’s political participation is a good solution. In
speaking about the medium of the seminar, an option could be to hold the seminar in
English in order to accommodate the Tamil minority and have a few agenda items in
Sinhala and Tamil. She indicated that inviting women from Kurunegala who contested
recent local government elections to address the seminar would be a good idea.
Both, Kay and Phyllis indicated the importance of having 33% women’s political
representation as the goal and at the same time to have a realistic target even if it is below
the goal. They further mentioned that it would signal that the efforts taken so far have
not failed, the journey has begun and the goal will be reached.
 Reflections on GROW NIU seminar
Jaya commended the overall success of the seminar and thanked everybody for making it
possible. She conveyed her special thanks to Laurel for making arrangements to have
Barsema Alumni Center as the venue without any cost to the project, Phyllis for directing
the panel discussion and Deb for all the help. More importantly, she thanked the GAs at
ITO, Nalika, Ida and Rey Ty, for their hard work that went a long way in having a
successful seminar. She further mentioned the importance of more student participation.
Laurel shared the positive feedback she received from the students and many others who
attended the seminar. She further indicated that the attendance was very satisfactory,
given the other important campus event that are taking place on campus during the time.
Phyllis conveyed her gratitude to ITO staff for a remarkable job.
 Proposal on India
Jaya briefed the committee on a new proposal on India in the field of youth development
that she developed in collaboration with Murali and submitted to the State Department.
 It was unanimously agreed to schedule the next Advisory Committee meeting via e-mail.
 The meeting adjourned at 3.30 p.m.