BPW International

September 6, 2011


Gender, Equity and Rural employment Division, FAO:

• Marcela VILLARREAL, Director
• Nora OURABAH HADDAD, Institution Building Team Leader Group
• Peter WOBST, Senior Economist

BPW Delegation Attendees:

• Huguette Akplogan Dossa – 1st Vice President, UN (2011-2014)
• Anastasia Victoria Safarian – Young BPW International Representative (2011-2014)
• Annarosa Colangelo – BPW Rome President (2008-2011), FAO Representative for BPWI
• Cristina Gorajski Visconti – FAO Representative for BPWI

Business:

• BPW International preparation for CSW56  
• Commission on the Status of Women 56 (27 February – 9 March, 2012)

Priority theme: The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges.

• BPW International, Executive Board, UN structure and our representation at all levels and some of our activities, the subject and our strategy were presented to the Division.
• Annarosa Colangelo successfully was able to receive an invitation for the President and Immediate Past President to represent BPW International at the World Food Day at FAO – October 16th is official opening
• BPW Delegation is invited to participate in the plenary of the Commission on Food Security meeting, October 17th to 21st, lobby and exchange experiences with others delegations and states representatives when the Global Strategic Framework will be adopted for food security and nutrition
• An appointment on October 17th will be arrange for BPW International President, BPW International delegation and Marcela VILLARREAL, Director, Gender, Equity and Rural employment Division, FOA to follow up on the meeting of September 7th and on the collaboration that will take place at the CSW 56

Two options

• 1st: BPW to organize the Parallel event and invite Marcela VILLARREAL to speak
• 2nd: Marcela VILLARREAL’s division to organize an event with UN Women and to invite BPW to contribute.

Marcela VILLARREAL proposed to collaborate on the best practices between BPW International projects, FAO’s JFFLS program and DIMITRA project

1. Cristina Gorajski Visconti will follow up on BPW’s involvement with DIMITRA project
2. Huguette Akplogan Dossa will follow up and send another reminder to all the presidents (clubs and federations) to remind about the questionnaire
3. Marcela VILLARREAL opened for discussion collaboration between Young BPW International and FAO’s JFFLS program. Young BPW International to act as mentors to the trainees that participate in the JFFLS program (target group age between 14, 15 and 16) after they complete first year of the program. The Young BPW International Representative was asked if she will be able to visit one of the programs with the division with Kenya as a possible location.

Introduction of the Division and division programs was covered by Peter WOBST and Nora OURABAH HADDAD

Peter WOBST, Senior Economist talked about the Farmers Field School (FFS) program - youth rural employment.
The JFFLS approach has a unique learning methodology and curriculum, which combine both agricultural and life skills. An innovative aspect of the JFFLS is the way youth are encouraged to develop as people; a school timetable includes cultural activities such as singing, dancing, and theatre. This allows the youth to develop confidence while keeping local cultural traditions alive.

Nora OURABAH HADDAD, Institution Building Team Leader Group, presents briefly the Gender Agriculture program and the collaboration with Dimitra. This program is only for the moment in Niger. We proposed to contact BPW Niamey in Niger for this program.
- Dimitra is a participatory information and communication project which contributes to improving the visibility of rural populations, women in particular.
General principles for Good Agricultural Practices - FAO is not defining a rigid set of principles but provides a technical reference for concerned stakeholders to assess existing GAP schemes and, using best expertise available, develop locally-appropriate good agricultural practice programmes.
Institution Building Team Leader Group, managed by Nora OURABAH HADDAD is a Group that has been created recently at the FAO.  Its goal is to connect NGOs and Civil Society with the local and governmental Institutions in the different countries.


The meeting started at 3 pm and adjourned at 4: 15pm. Picture was taken after the meeting.

Huguette Akplogan Dossa
BPW International 1st Vice President