Strengthen Party and Government Leadership in Addressing HIV/AIDS as a Gender Issue in Guangdong Province

In cooperation with the Research Center on People-Centered Development of the Provincial Party School and Administration College in Guangdong Province , UNIFEM plans to strengthen Party and Government leadership in addressing HIV/AIDS as a gender issue in Guangdong province. The aim of this project is to address the increasing feminization of the epidemic and the specific vulnerability of women to HIV/AIDS.

The Research Center plans to achieve the following outputs for this project:

1. Increased understanding and high profiled political support regarding issues related to women, gender HIV/AIDS is achieved among Party, government and community leaders at all levels in Guangdong province.
2. Results of gender-sensitive HIV/AIDS political advocacy tools are developed and tested.
3. Gender and HIV/AIDS are mainstreamed as crosscutting development issues into the curriculum of the Guangdong Provincial Party School and Administration College .

This will be reached by developing gender and HIV/AIDS advocacy materials, conducting training for local leaders and mainstreaming gender perspectives on HIV/AIDS into the curriculum of the Guangdong Provincial Party School and Administration College . In addition, the Research Center will increase the number of national resource persons on gender and HIV/AIDS.

UNIFEM will periodically monitor and evaluate the progress of the project and its specific activities. It will also document the overall results through monitoring visits and assembly of progress reports from the national partners.

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White Ribbon Campaign for Ending Violence against Women

The White Ribbon Campaign is the largest global effort of men working to end men's violence against women. The event is designed to raise public awareness through education in schools, workplaces and communities to support local women's groups, and to raise money for the international educational efforts of the White Ribbon Campaign.

In China , there have been two White Ribbon campaigns. The first highlighted a media event at the China Women's Activity Centre while the second featured a media broadcast of awareness-raising performances from students and village women in December 2001.

Building on past success and with the goal of fostering international cooperation and increasing men's involvement, UNIFEM China held a White Ribbon series of activities in Beijing in 2002. The campaign sparked the formation of China 's first ever men's group for the elimination of violence against women and promotion of gender equality.

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Sharing Strategies for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Selected Provinces

Sharing Strategies for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Selected Provinces highlighted women and men working together to eliminate violence against women. Funded by the UNIFEM Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women in 2001, the project raised awareness among local community members of women's human rights and CEDAW. Capitalizing on progress made, UNIFEM China is disseminating key information to the pilot provinces and developing effective ways to introduce the campaign to other regions in China .
The specific outputs of the project were:
1. To identify and share best practices in pilot provinces where provincial legislation and intervention mechanisms have been deemed effective;
2. Raise awareness among local community members of women's human rights and CEDAW;
3. Develop and disseminate material of the successful experience of the public campaign against violence against women in Beijing to the pilot provinces in order to learn an effective way to introduce the campaign to other regions in China.

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Gender Focused Responses to Address the Challenges of HIV/AIDS

In 1998, UNIFEM launched a global pilot project entitled “Gender Focused Responses to Address the Challenges of HIV/AIDS”. The overall goal of the project was to build capacity of women's organizations and their networks to address emerging challenges of HIV/AIDS in a gender responsive manner. In response to the global initiative, we organized a workshop on “Gender and HIV/AIDS”, the first workshop on HIV/AIDS in China focusing on two important concerns ? gender concerns in HIV/AIDS and development; and gender, HIV/AIDS and human rights.

The workshop initiated a dialogue among participants and organizations that resulted in three outcomes which have guided the work of UNIFEM on gender and HIV/AIDS. These efforts include engendering HIV/AIDS prevention strategies through information sharing, human rights training and capacity building.

A framework for a community-based research plan was developed on “Gender and HIV/AIDS”. This plan promotes a deeper understanding of women's situation in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and provides Chinese policy-makers with concrete recommendations of strategies to prevent HIV/AIDS from a gender equity perspective.

In response to these issues, UNIFEM initiated a research project “Prevention of HIV/AIDS in China : A Study on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Safer Sexual Behavior". The research was undertaken in collaboration with the All China Women's Federation.

The objective of this research project was to understand existing prevalent knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding safer sexual behavior. The research provided recommendations on enhancing the promotion of male responsibility in the prevention of HIV/AIDS in China . Apart from the ACWF, project partners were the Family Planning Association of China and the National Academy for Preventive Medicine.
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Women's Leadership Development in Linqu County, Shandong Province

Integral components of women's political empowerment are: mainstreaming women in decision-making structures and processes and building women's capacity for transformational leadership.
UNIFEM China initiated a pioneering project on transformational leadership in Linqu County , Shandong Province in 2001. Building on earlier UNIFEM work which supported women's income-generating activities and micro-enterprises in efforts to reduce poverty in the Shandong Province , this project aimed to increase women's participation in decision-making and management at the grassroots level and to support women leaders who are gender responsive, effective and accountable.
In collaboration with the County Working Committee on Women and Children (CWCWC) in Linqu, UNIFEM China facilitated the strengthening of institutional mechanisms that would continue to promote transformational leadership. Significant support was provided for the setting up of a transformational leadership model for upscaling based on a vision of society that is socially equitable, economically viable and environmentally sustainable.

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China's Accession to WTO: Challenges to Women

China 's accession into the World Trade Organization has brought significant changes in Chinese society. UNIFEM China cooperated with UNDP between 2001 through 2003 in examining the specific impacts on women by the WTO. This is the first UN effort to conduct such an investigation from a gender perspective. The main focus was on WTO's socio-economic impacts on women in agriculture and industry. It looked at how the two sectors inter-relate from a rights based perspective, particularly at how women could take advantage of globalization and use this changing economic situation to promote women's issues and increase women's participation in economic and political processes.
The project strived to make national economists and researchers more sensitive to gender issues, as well as to better inform gender experts and women's groups on economic thinking and practices. Strengthening the capacity of economists, researchers and gender experts in advocacy and policy dialogue will enhance Chinese participation in global discussions on gender-sensitive development financing and impacts of WTO. Through these activities, the project contributed to national capacity building for gender inclusive research, dialogue/advocacy and policy-making.

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Women into the New Network for Entrepreneurial Reinforcement (WINNER)

In August 1999, UNIFEM in partnership with DEVNET launched a global project "Women into the New Network for Entrepreneurial Reinforcement" (WINNER) which was piloted in five countries: Albania , Ecuador , Romania , Nepal and the Philippines .

The pilot project has enabled over 250 women entrepreneurs in the five countries to become proficient in using networking technologies for their business and in using e-commerce tools for small enterprises. Building on WINNER's achievements, UNIFEM launched the second phase of this project (WINNER II) which has been extended to two more countries: China and Zimbabwe .

WINNER II positively impacted a large number of women entrepreneurs in China . TIPS China (UN's Technological Information Promotion System), the implementing agency, entered into a partnership with the All China Women's Federation, China Women's News, and the China Pacific Institute for Economic Cooperation and Research. Through WINNER II, UNIFEM China facilitated the training of more than 100 Chinese women entrepreneurs from small and medium enterprises to improve their ability in using information and communication technology as a tool for business operations, distance learning, and participating in e-commerce. Training workshops were conducted in Beijing in January, June and July 2001. Opening speeches were delivered by Mme. Gu Xiu Lian, Vice-President of the All China Women's Federation.
First International Fair on Women's Entrepreneurial Achievement

This event, co-arranged with the All China Women's Federation in 2002, brought together more than 500 women executives and entrepreneurs from more than twenty countries and regions around the world to meet with Chinese counterparts and discuss how women entrepreneurs can cope with challenges and opportunities brought by the international markets. The event sought to enhance the recognition of women's roles in international trade and development, and increase participation of women entrepreneurs. Due to popular demand, this might become an annual event.

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