The programme was planned for three days, from 27 to 29 June 2000. R. B. Singh, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, delivered the opening address. Dong Qingsong, Deputy Regional Representative, also attended the opening session.
The opening session programme included a video presentation entitled “Phantom statistics” which highlighted the lack of statistics on women in agriculture and rural communities. The programme also included sharing of experience by representatives from the invited agencies and self-introduction by the participants. A participatory exercise on understanding gender was done.
Another media presentation in the programme, entitled “Net worth”, reported on women's participation in an aquaculture programme in Bangladesh. It was produced under the aegis of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research, by the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources.
The programme included country presentations from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam. The country papers were prepared following the outline provided by FAO. The RAPS group technical officers representing rural development and women in development areas presented two secretariat papers.
By design, the format of the workshop allowed exchange of views on participation, planning at the local level, institutional mechanisms for local planning and gender-responsive planning, constraints and potential modality for gender-responsive planning at the local level. The discussions were facilitated to draw the participants' views on prevailing conditions at the country level for gender-sensitive local planning, and the need and type of information needed for gender-responsive planning.
The country representatives also generated recommendations that were directed to promote and strengthen gender-sensitive local planning at national level and for an FAO follow-up to the workshop.
The workshop programme is presented as Attachment 2.
