Asian-Pacific Workshop on “Gender and Aid Effectiveness”

Approximately 70 participants from 11 countries, some NGOs, United Nations organizations and sponsors attended this workshop Official Development Aid (ODA) is being increased, and gender equality is now considered a focal issue for reaching the Millennium Goals (MGs). However, a lot of research shows that o­nly 0.6% of grants have gender equality as a main goal. The workshop’s aims were to: make a political commitment to the region; encourage international development aid programs, in the new context, to be more adaptable toward gender equality and women’s human rights; create a forum for information-sharing; and develop strategies o­n the participation and contribution of the region to the Ministerial Forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which will take place in September 2008 in Ghana.

At the workshop, participants from different countries shared their experiences as well as opportunities and challenges in promoting gender equality in accordance with the Paris Declaration o­n Aid Effectiveness. A regional declaration has been ratified, which emphasizes the necessity to achieve national priorities for gender equality and women’s human rights through the application of gender sensitivity and supervising the implementation of the Paris declaration. This will be a contribution of the region to the forum in Ghana in 2008.

On this trip, Mme. Ha Thi Khiet also had a meeting with Prof. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, and visited the Embassy of Vietnam in Indonesia.