| Governments
and Civil Society in Partnership NGOs have collaborated with
governments to establish institutional mechanisms for women’s rights. There are new
ministries for women in Colombia, Costa Rica and Mali. China, Fiji, Iran, Mali and Nigeria
have launched women’s action plans stemming from both the Cairo and Beijing
conferences. Government and NGOs in Zimbabwe have begun national consultations on a new
gender policy.27
In Ghana, NGOs and civil-society organizations are taking participatory roles in policy
development. The highest government body responsible for coordinating population issues in
Ghana, the National Population Council, has NGO representation. NGOs have also been
involved in developing Ghana’s Reproductive Health Policy and Service Standards
document. In Botswana and Tanzania, women’s activists have worked with government
bodies to bring about stiffer penalties for rape, especially for rapists who are found to
be HIV-positive.28
In the Philippines, the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women in
collaboration with eight civil society organizations and NGO networks organized the
Cairo-Copenhagen-Beijing Interface Conference to continue to conduct forums to advance
government programmes regarding the Programme of Action objectives. In Morocco, the
National Population Commission, established in 1998, carries out coordinated advocacy with
NGOs.29
In Mexico, a network of women’s NGOs
has worked to build a partnership with government institutions.
In Mexico, the National Forum of Women and Population Policy, a network of 70 Mexican
women’s NGOs and academic institutions, has worked to improve relations with the
government through its partnership efforts. The concept of partnership formalized in the
ICPD Programme of Action posed a challenge to the Mexican feminist movement, which was not
accustomed to negotiating with government officials. In addition, deep mistrust existed on
both sides. Since then, there has been a clear movement towards partnerships in which NGOs
share responsibility with government institutions for implementing the Cairo accords.30
In South-east Asia, the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women and the
Asian and Pacific Development Centre conducted an eight-country study in 1996 of the
environment for implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. In China, Fiji, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam they found that the environment for
NGOs remains problematic with government agencies particularly sensitive about policy
advocacy-oriented NGOs. Few NGOs undertook advocacy activities. The capacity of
women’s NGOs to play an effective policy advocacy role was not strong.31
The Government of Peru has introduced new procedures to ensure that sterilizations are
carried out only with full consent. A Tripartite Commission for follow-up of the
implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action was established in August 1997, in response
to allegations by women’s NGOs and others that the Ministry of Health was providing
voluntary surgical sterilization with insufficient counselling. NGOs, universities,
international cooperation agencies and government institutions are represented; leadership
rotates among these groups.
After reviewing the programme, the Commission concluded that the criticism was greatly
exaggerated, but that there were problems with the quality of services. Since March 1998,
the Ministry has strengthened counselling procedures, introduced mandatory waiting times
before performing sterilizations, and standardized the accreditation of service providers
and facilities. In April 1999, Costa Rica created its own Tripartite Commission following
the Peruvian model; similar efforts are under way in Chile and elsewhere in the region.
The Canadian International Development Agency and other donors support capacity
strengthening of civil-society organizations to promote gender equality.32 A study of 10 member States of the
Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD/DAC) found that some have not engaged with local women’s
organizations in any significant way, whereas others have supported such organizations to
work on sensitive issues such as female genital mutilation, abortion and violence against
women.33
UNFPA is currently supporting the development of an Arab Support Centre for NGOs to
promote networking, cooperation and coordination among them, and contribute to NGO
capacity building.34 International
assistance, through projects such as the Policy Project of the Futures Group International
(funded by the United States Agency for International Development) and the Access Project
of the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA, supported by UNFPA, the
World Bank, UNICEF, USAID and nearly 30 foundations) have helped NGOs improve their
advocacy and service efforts.35
The Policy Project is working with 13 networks in eight countries to strengthen
women’s capacity to engage in policy dialogue and to expand the capability of the
networks for advocacy, training and research. In Jordan, for example, in addition to
providing advocacy training to a number of women’s organizations, the project helped
carry out a national workshop to set priorities for research on women’s issues. The
first study focused on women’s participation in the 1997 general election as
candidates and voters.
In South Africa, the NGO Women’s Health Project worked with three provincial
governments to transform reproductive health services. In addition to improving quality of
care, the project sought to increase understanding of the impact of social inequality,
especially gender inequality, on health and health services.
Governments are sometimes inflexible in their programme design and implementation;
partnership with an NGO can make flexibility and innovation possible. Room exists for NGOs
to help shape the agendas of governments. However, success depends on setting up
partnerships that are mutually supportive, managing existing partnerships effectively, and
getting government officials at all levels to support the ideas and the process.36
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