Women's Caucus
to the UN Commission
on Sustainable Development: 2000 - 2002

After the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created to monitor progress of implementation of Agenda 21.
The first 5-year review was held in June 1997. At its 55th Session in the autumn of 2000, the UN General will agree the place and agenda for the Summit - a 10-year review of Agenda 21 and a forward looking Summit conference. This will be the first major UN Conference since the Food Summit in 1996.
The UN CSD has pioneered the concept of multi-stakeholder dialogues, based on the acknowledgement of the role stakeholders have in implementing the global agreements. Women were the key group setting the agenda in 1992 - because they started their work before others. We need to do the same for 2002. 
The CSD NGO Women's Caucus is calling upon women's NGOs, grassroots women's groups, women in academia, business etc.  to join us now.

The CSD NGO Women's Caucus 
The CSD NGO Women's Caucus will pick up the challenge of the process towards 2002, aiming to ensure gender mainstreaming of all decisions to be taken.
The caucus is a working group of women and men who are interested in and working towards the mainstreaming of gender into sustainable development policies and practical implementation strategies. The caucus works towards the recognition and adequate action on gender-related aspects of sustainable development issues by providing information and research as well as lobbying on recommendations based on up-to-date analyses and consultation within the caucus.
The CSD NGO Women's Caucus grew out of the 1991 Miami Conference, organized by WEDO, and its outcome document Women's Action Agenda for a Healthy Planet. The women's caucus meets at the CSD Sessions, organizes side events and takes part in other caucus to ensure gender mainstreaming of NGO work. We lobby on the basis of position papers developed beforehand, make statements in negotiations and work on line-by-line amendments to text being negotiated. 
In between CSD Sessions, caucus members communicate via email, phone, fax, and post. We operate an open list server to prepare our positions and lobbying strategies, networking globally with interested organisations and individuals. At every year's CSD Session, the caucus members elect two co-facilitators, one from the South, one from the North. The caucus is part of the CSD NGO Steering Committee, which is facilitating input and participation of NGOs to the CSD.

The Women's Caucus List Server
A list server (electronic working group) has been set up for the women's caucus. 
To subscribe, send a message to women-csd-subscribe@egroups.com or go to http://www.egroups.com/list/women-csd. More than 340 organisations and individuals are currently subscribed to the list server - women's groups, NGOs, academics, UN representatives, etc. Subscribers are involved in various UN processes - Rio; Beijing; Copenhagen; Cairo; Istanbul.
The Women's Caucus Web-Site
is located at http://www.csdngo.org/csdngo. Click on "Women" under "Major Groups": 
* Introduction: background about the caucus an the CSD NGO Steering Committee; contact details
* Schedule of meetings: dates of upcoming meetings of the UN CSD and other bodies
* Upcoming issues: list of issues to be discussed at the next UN CSD meetings; gender-sensitive areas under these issues as identified by the caucus
* Caucus position papers: background and position papers which the CSD NGO Women's Caucus is / has been working on in preparation for the next CSD meetings
* Meetings reports: reports, statements, newsletter articles, etc. from / for CSD meetings
* Resources: a collection of resources, references, directories, useful web-sites, networking opportunities regarding each of the upcoming CSD issues
* Links: a collection of links to other useful web-sites
* Site map & search tool: Listing every section of this web-site


Become a member of the CSD NGO Women's Caucus !
Please register, stay informed about the preparations for 2002 and the work of the women's caucus and support us in this great effort.
Your organization. Name: ________________________________________________________
Street, No.: ____________________________________________________________________
City: _________________________________________ Post Code:  ______________________
Country: ______________________________________________________________________
Tel (incl. country & area code): ______________________ Fax: __________________________
Email: _______________________________________ Web-site: ________________________
Your name: ____________________________________________________________________
Personal Email: ________________________________________________________________
Issues you are interested in: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

You can email, fax or post the information to us:
Co-facilitators of the CSD NGO Women's Caucus 1999-2000
Chief (Mrs.) Bisi Ogunleye
Country Women's Association of Nigeria (COWAN) & WEDO
No. 7 Awosika Crescent Ijapo Est.
Akure Ondo State, NIGERIA
Tel: +234 34 231 945, Fax: +234 34 241 001
Email: bisiogunleye@yahoo.com
OR via Pamela Ransom, WEDO
355 Lexington Avenue, NY 10017, NY, USA
Tel +1 212 973 0325, Fax +1 212 973 0335
Email: pam@wedo.org
Minu Hemmati
UNED Forum
3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL, 
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 20 7839 1784, Fax: +44 20 7930 5893
Email: minush@aol.com
web: www.earthsummit2002.org




