The purpose of the workshop was to support an objective review of the current status and local planning situation, in order to develop strategies for gender-sensitive planning that also addresses the multidimensional needs of the local clients in agriculture and rural communities. The definition of local clients should be inclusive of all, but in this workshop a special emphasis was on women as local producers and managers of local resources as well as on gender concerns that affect women's participation in local planning. In order to address the aspects of multidimensional needs and gender in planning, it is important that the dialogue include contributions drawn from multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary professionals involved in planning at provincial and district levels. Hence the workshop invited the representation of professionals who are involved in integrated planning for local development. In the workshop the dialogue was among the representatives from the agencies involved in planning for and with rural communities and they developed gender-sensitive planning guidelines. The focus was on integrated local planning that would be gender sensitive.
In order to achieve the above purpose, the specific workshop objectives were as follows:
Review the current situation on integration of gender concerns and inclusion of women in the local planning process, and programme development in local government.
Examine specific models of people's participation in gender-sensitive planning for local development that achieves prosperity with equity and equitably shared responsibility.
Compare country-specific experience of success in the integration of women in the local planning process and use of sex-segregated information for local planning.
Compare the country-specific constraints to include rural women's concerns and women's participation to achieve gender-sensitive planning.
Working within the country-specific framework for local planning processes and local development mechanisms, identify strategies for gender-sensitive strategies and women-inclusive approaches.
