Tove Strand på Women's Worlds 2002

Direktør Tove Strands tale (på engelsk):

Introduction

Your Exellency the President, Your Exellencies, Distinguished guests, Dear friends of a more equal world.

A year ago, I had the rare opportunity of spending the night in a traditional Zambian village. I was invited by an organisation called "Women for change"

The organisation has four hundred women who travel the Zambian countryside questioning contemporary gender roles. They do this through a participatory approach.

Women and men are placed in separate groups to analyse their everyday life. Which roles does one fulfil within the family and in society at large? Who does what?

In the village I visited, the list of the women's tasks had been long:

• carrying wood
• fetching water
• looking after the children
• taking care of the elderly
• cooking
• doing laundry, etc

The list of regular tasks carried out by the men had been somewhat less impressive.

After debating the issue for a long time, they were left with very few activities. This way of visualising differences often results in change - as was the case in the village I visited. Tasks are redistributed - there is more equality and more freedom for women - and for men. The men I talked to said that spending more time with the children, collecting fire-wood and contributing to the water supply - as well as discussing important matters with the women - was truly rewarding.

Getting this close to the grassroots is a true learning experience for a Noraddirector. It is a privilege for me to get a glimpse into people's daily lives in societies that are so different from my own. It is easy to glorify the memories that are imprinted in one's mind. The vigour, the stories around the fireplace, the dancing, the music and the incredible hospitality. All things that impress a 'frozen' northerner. On the other hand, however:

• poverty is not glorious
• the lack of rights is not glorious
• the absence of liberty is not glorious

Therefore, any step towards gender equality is important. But for real progress to take place, even small steps need to be part of a more holistic process. The holistic fight for gender equality must, to be truly effective, be carried out by the women in each society or country itself. But women across the world can support and motivate each other, discuss and share experiences. Men should be invited to take part, as they will also benefit from a more equal society.

Norwegian experiences

Allow me to mention a few of the Norwegian experiences. One lesson learned is that it's difficult to fight alone. We have learned that there should always be more that one woman in a board or a government. We have also learned that the political arena is important - because the politicians decides the rules of the society - like laws and regulations. And they appoint members to other decision making and advisory bodies in society.

In Norway, an important step towards increasing women's influence and power in the political life was the political parties' willingness to introduce affirmative actions, requiring at least 40% representation of both genders in committees and boards. The 40% rule has now been established for the the whole public sector.

Today, a Norwegian government without at least 40% women is almost unthinkable.

The first government with such a high female representation was appointed in May 1986, with the present World Health Organisation Secretary General, Mrs. Gro Harlem Brundtland, as Prime Minister. I was a member of that government and I'm very proud to have been part of such a milestone.

Another essential arena for making Norway a more equal society is higher education. 30 years ago very few women were studying. Today more than 60% of university students are female. Yet we have very few women professors. To speed up the development some universities have earmarked professorships for women.

Another milestone to be mentioned is our first Gender Equality Law, passed 20 years ago. The law applies to most sectors of society. It clearly states that discrimination against women is strongly forbidden. The implementation of the law has been followed up by an "ombudsman" for gender equality, to whom women feeling unfairly treated can file official complaints.

The Role of Donors
Sharing experiences are not problematic. But in general it is a dilemma for a donor agency how far we should be allowed to, or allow ourselves to get involved in a country's development. It is less problematic when it comes to supporting equality however, as the major UN conferences and a number of global reports have concluded that full development cannot be achieved unless women and the resources they represent are integrated into the development process. Even the World Bank has concluded that the most important socio-economic investment is the education of girls! As a result there is a broad international consensus that gender equality contributes to and is essential to sustainable development.

Most of us here at this conference come from countries that have signed the HumanRights Conventions, including the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. All countries have, through its membership in United Nations, committed themselves to the Millenium declaration and Millenium goals.

One of the goals is to promote gender equality and empower women.

This forms a good basis for both bilateral and multilateral donors' dialogue with governments and helps support a rights- based approach to development. This means taking as a point of departure that women are individuals with their own rights and obligations. However, we must not forget that women are still in need of special attention for a good many years to come.

In many countries, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper is an attempt by the government to fulfil the Millennium goals. It is self evident that these goals cannot be reached if governments do not take women's rights, experiences, knowledge and resources seriously.

It's sad to notice that gender equality and women's rights are almost absent from the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers that have been finalised so far.

To produce maximum results, development aid needs to be well coordinated with the partner countries' own resources. In most countries, the best way of doing this - at least regarding aid to the public sector - is to channel it all through the national budgets at the receiving end. Before going into budgetary support or basket funding, there must be a dialogue between the government and the donors. In this dialogue, it is our responsibility to ask questions and argue for the importance of improving the situation for girls and women in society. But more important for the long lasting results is to focus on a broad involvement of women in the main decision making processes of a country.

The willingness of many governments to involve women is only minimal or purely symbolic. A huge challenge for us donors is finding the best ways to contribute towards making women's voices heard in development.

There is no clear-cut answer to this. Besides supporting formal gender equality and mainstreaming of gender, I believe we as donors still need to support specific projects, like women's groups, NGOs, Human Rights-organisations, higher education and research institutions and networks - and activities that can secure women income and property rights.

Education and research

About a billion people cannot read or write, and a majority of these are women. We all know that girls who receive education are to a larger extent able to control their own lives, they give birth to fewer children, they are less likely to lose their children as a result of malnutrition or poor hygiene. We also know that educated women participate more actively in politics. Good education is the key to a better life for the individual and for the development of a country. This requires teacher's training. It also requires building broad national research based knowledge that can be transformed into practical development tools.

An important role for donors is therefore to support developing countries' efforts to improve their ability to carry out research and offer higher education based on the countries' own needs, as well as improving their ability to make use of existing research. An overall high level of education in a society is also essential for a dynamic and innovative private sector.

For Norad, frame agreements with universities in our partner countries are important instruments in supporting national competence and capacity building. I am proud to say that the frame agreement we have with Makerere University has contributed significantly to the implementation of the University's own strategic plan.

One of the most remarkable results of the agreement is the construction of the new Women and gender studies department, to be formally opened tomorrow - but already in use!

It is also important to give the research community the opportunity to exchange ideas and results, to inspire and learn from each other. The donor society should therefore actively support cross-country and cross-disciplinary research and networks to reduce the gap between north and south. The Women's Worlds Congress 2002 is such an important meeting place, not only for researchers, but also for practitioners and policymakers.

Research is important in many dimensions. I wish to particularly underline the importance of quality and relevance in higher education and research. And for all societies, this means giving women and gender perspectives a more prominent role in academia. But this is not enough. Research makes little difference if the results are only published in scientific publications. Information and discussion with decision-makers are important for influencing the development process, as well as reaching out with information in society at large, through media and other channels. The research community has not always put sufficient emphasis on this responsibility towards society.

Closing remarks

Finally I wish to stress that the most difficult task in the time ahead will be to transform plans, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, development goals and laws into action that have effect outside of the seminar rooms - that really give women the right and the opportunity to participate on equal footing with men in all aspects of society.

Remember that most women have never been near a donor-financed workshop.

You - who represent these women - will have to do most of the work for and with them.

We - the donors - can provide funding, and share experiences and ideas.

We promise to actively advocate our common ideas in our dealings with the authorities and with international organisations like the World Bank, IMF and the UNsystem.

We promise to give you moral support. And we will listen - and we will, if necessary, alter the way we operate and co-operate, if we through dialogue reach better and more efficient ways to promote a rights-based development for women.

Thank you for your attention!

Good luck with the conference and with the work that lies ahead.