The Platform of Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing calls for the development of a comprehensive national strategy for improving women's access to health, education and social services, and for measures to be taken which ensure women's equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making. In support of national activities to prepare for and follow up of the Beijing Conference, and the FAO's own framework for the implementation of the Platform for Action, two workshops were held on the preparation and implementation of national action plans for the integration of rural women in development. The first was held in Budapest, Hungary, 4 - 6 May 1995, and the follow up workshop in Wageningen, the Netherlands, 18 - 20 January 1996. Both were organized by the FAO Regional Office for Europe (REU) in collaboration with the FAO Women in Development Service (SDWW) and supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, Management and Fisheries of the Netherlands.
Encouraged by the success of the previous workshops on the preparation of national action plans for the integration of rural women in development, it was decided to hold a third workshop in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to continue the process of developing and implementing action plans and to promote activities that have a positive impact on rural women's integration in national development policies. The Subregional Workshop on the Preparation and Implementation of National Action Plans for the Integration of Rural Women in Development was held 23 - 25 October 1997, organized by FAO/REU in collaboration with FAO/SDWW, and supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food (MAFF) of Slovenia.
In preparation for the workshop in Ljubljana, the action plans for Hungary and Slovenia, developed in the previous workshops, were reorganized and chosen for publication as a training tool. It is hoped that the workshop will raise awareness of the factors hindering rural women's full participation in development in the European region, and that the case studies can be used to aid other countries in developing their own national action plans, to support rural women having a greater voice in their own development and in the development of their countries and rural communities.
