Mary and Aridith Toodgood, my room mate, @ the NGO Forum

The first panel at the Forum had the topic of Advancing Women's Rights, 1975-2010 - What the World Conference on Women Accomplished. Jan Peterson, who is the chair of the Sectretariat of the Huairou Commission was the Moderator, had a great sense of humour which was appreciated. The 4 panelists, who all gave personal observations about the topic were varied, and interesting. All agreed we have advanced - women are no longer invitees. I appreciated hearing Gertrude Mongella, President of the Pan African Parliament. She commented on Rawanda - where the highest percentage of parliament are women - 57%. Sees many more girls now in schools. The panel spoke of the many crisis that the world has faced - women are affected. Also how the world has changed because of the computer - it doesn't know if you are a man or woman! Haven't moved much in peace though. There we must take action, or all is useless. The panel spoke of the networks that have developed - NGOs, Government partnerships. Even the preparations for Beijing, and I can attest to that - we had a wonderful network in Manitoba that started a good year before the Conference. Muriel Smith was a key to building that network, before, during and after.

Charlotte Bunch, (Founding Director and Senior Scholar, CWGL), Patricia Licuanan, President of Miriam College in the Phillipines, and there was a replacement for Virginia Vargas, from Peru. All presenters spoke of the work that has been done, and the challenges that ahead. Interesting to note all the world conferences came about because of the pressure from the women's movement. Commented about the situation in Haiti, how groups immediately came together to plan how to help the women.