CAFRA News

CAFRA is the only bi-lingual magazine of its kind in the region, and is a tool to generate exchange of information and discussion.

The January – June 2003 Issue of the CAFRA News focused on the question “Should there be a 5th World Conference on Women?” The AWID 9th International Forum, “Reinventing Globalization” fostered an ongoing critical debate on whether the International Feminist movement should be concentrating on yet another world conference, given that much of the Beijing Platform for Action remains to be achieved. CAFRA encouraged a debate which was reported in this edition of CAFRA News. It was generally felt that a meeting would be more feasible in 2010, since currently there was immense pressure to roll back the little progress that had been made in key areas such as sexual and reproductive health.

The July – December issue focused on Women in Politics. CAFRA co-sponsored national and regional workshops to address some of the factors which hinder women’s participation in politics and decision-making. The objectives of the workshops including the following:

  To create a pool of women candidates and provide a support system for all women in politics, and assist women in preparing themselves as viable candidates for the political arena.

  To bring together women in politics in a non-partisan atmosphere and provide training, or assist them in acquiring/sharpening/honing their skills in the areas of political campaign and gender sensitive campaigning and gender sensitive public policy formulation.

CAFRA News contains testimonials of female parliamentarians and community activist, as well as approaches to encourage greater involvement of women in politics and decision-making.