The First Gender Focal Point Conference, organized by the Colombo Plan Gender Affairs Programme (CPGAP) commences today (26) at the Hilton Hotel Colombo and continues until The 27 member countries to be participate to the conference and Women's and Children's Affairs Minister Chandrani Bandara will attend representing Sri Lanka.
The First Gender Focal Point Conference aims to create a platform for each member country to share their country needs and how they would like to collaborate with the Colombo Plan and other member states in the area of Women and Child Development. In order to achieve the latter each member country of the Colombo Plan will be represented by two or more delegates to present their country plan and to partake in key discussions that are to be undertaken at the Conference.
The Colombo Plan has been working on Gender issues and development since 2007 by facilitating training programmes in member countries and shelters for women and child victims of violence in Afghanistan. The importance of establishing a specific programme for women and children was recommended during the 43rd Consultative Committee Meeting in Manado, Indonesia, 2012 and on 7 May 2014 in Colombo, as approved by the Colombo Plan Council, the Colombo Plan established the Gender Affairs Programme.
CPGAP aims to increase awareness on gender equality, gender development, women’s rights and gender issues among the developing member countries through workshops, capacity building and trainings and by conducting research on women and child development issues. The programme highlights the importance of assisting the member countries to formulate the implementation and formulation of policies to support government and non-governmental agencies to implement the global/UN standards on gender and development.
The Gender Affairs Programme also intends to raise funds on gender capacity building and to undertake direct empowerment such as income generation, education and health programmes. Furthermore the Gender Affairs Programme aims to represent the Colombo Plan in International forums on gender and social development to upgrade knowledge and to share our collective experiences among the member countries on women and child development.
