IPEN Women’s Caucus Roundtable Conversation Held in Bangkok
Following Regional Meetings at the Third Meeting of the Intersessional Process for SAICM beyond 2020, IPEN convened a Women’s Caucus informal roundtable conversation in Bangkok, Thailand.
In 2017, an IPEN Women’s Caucus was established to provide a forum for planning, discussion, and engagement around gender issues. One of the three focus areas identified was to work on gender issues within the IPEN network, including creating opportunities for training and for women to share experiences.
Engaging with policy makers on local, regional and international levels is a core element of IPEN´s work. However, women sometimes face challenges in doing so simply because of their gender. Therefore, providing venues where women in IPEN can share experiences, discuss strategies and share skills is an important tool for empowering women to fully engage in policy making arenas at all levels.
Former Co-Chair Dr. Olga Speranskaya led off the conversation, with comments from Sherika Whitelocke-Ballingsing (Jamaica), Gohar Khojayan (Armenia), and Alexandra Caterbow (Germany) about their own experiences working on chemicals-related policy locally, nationally and/or internationally.
We then heard from many attendees about their experiences and about what they are focusing on in their work to empower women and address gender inequalities.
IPEN Women's Caucus meetings aim to:
- Share experiences and skills among IPEN women active in the global, regional and/or local policy arena
- Strengthen IPEN women participating in the BRS COPs, and other policy meetings
- Provide a support structure for women NGO participants, both new and experienced
- Gather input for next steps of the Caucus and a potential strategy for engaging new women in IPEN´s policy work
Twenty-two women attended the meeting, coming from Armenia, Bangladesh, Benin, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay and USA.
