1. Why are we organizing this?

2. Why is the CSW important? The NGO/CSW events provide the open Forum where the international women’s movement can meet every year. Under CoNGO, we helped organize the NGO Forums in Mexico (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1990) and Beijing (1995). The CSW is the policy body for the UN system on gender and women’s empowerment (e.g. it monitors CEDAW). CSW report goes to ECOSOC and to the GA. The UN depends on us to make sure that the voices of women are heard; that the creativity and energy of the international women’s movement influence the CSW.

3. CSW Priority Theme: Rural Women We help give them a voice Rural policies do not acknowledge the full diversity of rural women (by age, ethnicity, social and economic status or ecological situation) Rural women are also migrants, refugees, widows, girls and the elderly, women with disabilities. Rural women’s lack of access to education, science and technology, markets and financing; few own land or have credit. Rural women face violence, are victims of conflict, and have little access to justice Landless rural women have unequal access to agricultural leadership positions and rights to collective bargaining Rural women’s role in natural resource management and climate change adaptation/mitigation are not acknowledged

4. Our Role is to make it happen To provide a forum for exchange of information To assist the international community in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action and other UN agreements To facilitate cooperation among its member organizations

5. What can we do to make this happen?

6. Let’s cluster…be a collective