Opening Statement by
H.E. Ambassador Mochammad s. Hidayat
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia
to the United Nations
before the Policy Dialogue on
"Empowering Women in Autonomy and Decentralization Processes"


New York, May 29, 2003

 

Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.


It is my great pleasure to see you all here today, and on behalf of my colleagues here at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia, let me welcome you to the Policy Dialogue on "Empowering Women in Autonomy and Decentralization Processes," for what I am sure will be a fruitful discussion.

Today's event is an important one. As policy-makers and civil servants, we are familiar with the rush to pass resolutions. But all too rarely do we take the time to reflect and evaluate collectively on issues that are meaningful to us. Today we set out to redress this imbalance.

We have carved out a space and time to engage in genuine dialogue, to exchange thoughts and compare notes, and to listen to people who have years of knowledge and experience in the field. To make good policies, we need to rely on specialized knowledge and expertise, as well as on differences in experience and culture. Today's discussion is designed as a collaborative education, from which we can design policies that are more attuned to real women's liv.es.

For the past three decades, United Nations agencies have considered the roles of women, especially in regard to their participation in development policies. A dramatic change took place in the mid- 70s when the UN and its member countries began to pay attention to women's experiences and women's participation in political processes. In the decades that followed, we honed these discussions and exerted more efforts to come up with concrete actions.

We link two discussions here today -a discussion on decentralization and a discussion on women -that have no natural boundaries, but need to be increasingly connected in current discourse on women and development. By linking these fields of thought, we seek to bring the perspectives of experts in both fields to bear on our collective approach.

As we think about autonomy, decentralization, and gender today, we will be speaking about women as people who stand to benefit from government policies and also as people empowered to contribute to those policies. Central to our discussions today are questions such as :

  • How can we empower women to participate in decentralized processes of government?;
  • How can provincial and local governments ensure that women participate in political processes?; and
  • What kinds of considerations come into play for women as we formulate policies at national, provincial, and local levels?

Those questions are far-reaching, and they touch on women's lives -as well as men's lives -in all areas, including health, education, environment, economic development and political participation.

Since Beijing, most countries in the world have been trying to implement the objectives recorded at the Conference, for Beijing +5 targets in 2000, and now Beijing +10 targets in 2005. These conferences have helped to accelerate the pace of change and to create an environment in which women have real opportunities in their home countries. Our dialogue today is a modest effort to keep our attention on gender issues as they relate to political events in the world.

Today we can exchange information as well as concrete initiatives, and together arrive at innovative policy ideas. Let us try to translate our individual experiences and knowledge into real policies for our respective home countries, as we all prepare to meet the Beijing +10 objectives. The policies that we witl design to empower women will be filtered through our national governments, but today's discussions will help us figure out ways to implement these policies at national, provincial, and local levels as well. And it is at these levels, I believe, that women stand the most to gain.

Once again, let me welcome you to the Indonesian Mission and to our policy dialogue. I am extremely grateful to our speakers for the thought they have given this subject, and to our participants for the interest they show. I have every faith that our deliberations will be fruitful and that our discussions will have a real bearing on ,the policies of our respective countries.

Thank you.