FES Género in Jamaica
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1. Political participation |
Partnering with the Caribbean Policy Development Centre, training in gender analysis and gender policy design is provided as the central component in preparing women for leadership in representational politics. This educational programme has long-term benefits of strengthening the democratic political system and improving the human resources of the Eastern Caribbean. Through participatory activities, gender analysis of relevant data helped participants “connect the dots” between gender inequality, poverty, and HIV/AIDS, and begin the process of designing appropriate gender policy responses. Female leaders from political parties, community and women’s groups and government gender departments from Grenada, St. Kitts/Nevis, Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Dominica participated.
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2. Public policy |
The achievement of gender equality, equity and women’s empowerment are accepted development goals for Jamaica to become a developed country by 2030. A national gender policy has been drafted, and a gender sector plan is being finalized as part of Jamaica’s National Development Plan. FES Jamaica has facilitated working group meetings of the National Gender Task Force which identified the issues to be addressed and the objectives and strategies to be pursued through a gender sector plan. The Director of FES Jamaica also participates in the National Gender Task Force which is drafting the gender sector plan, and is part of the editorial team. FES Jamaica will partner with the Planning Institute of Jamaica in the publication of this plan by the end of 2008.
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3. Youth |
FES Jamaica partners with Women’s Media Watch (Jamaica) working with young female and male leaders together in participatory workshops which provide training for young leaders to create and maintain violence-free communities, and address the issue of gender-based violence against women and children. Working separately with a male facilitator and young male leaders, training is also provided which identifies and discusses messages of masculinity in music and other media, and helps participants to explore the intersections between masculinity and misogyny in the entertainment media, and how women are treated by men. They are guided towards alternative, creative expressions which respond to negative messages and images.
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4. Communication and media |
Preparatory work and discussions on the design of a research project for a gender analysis of the 2007 Jamaican election campaign have been started with the Centre for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies. The output will be a publication on this subject, as well as a working paper on gender and governance.
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5. Activities with global trade unions |
In addition to these seminar activities, FES Jamaica also successfully co-organized a four-day workshop for female members of Public Sector International (PSI) in the Caribbean. The main themes were gender analysis and gender audits, identifying links between gender and sustainable development and gender and trade liberalization, and discussing trade union policies on sustainable development with a special focus on climate and change and small island developing states (SIDS).
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