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14 March, 2002Strategies to increase women's membership and participation in IMF-affiliated unions are a high priority.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Prior to the IMF's Southern African sub-regional meeting on March 5-6 in Richards Bay, a planning meeting of women from the sub-region was conducted by Jenny Holdcroft, IMF equal rights officer, on March 4 to enable participants to share experiences and develop strategies for increasing women's participation in IMF and affiliate unions.
Discussions focussed on identifying the most useful strategies for unions to adopt in order to improve the situation of women. Recommendations which resulted from the meeting, and were subsequently adopted by unions at the sub-regional meeting, were:
- Each union must have a designated position responsible for maintaining a women's caucus and coordinating women's activities.
- Unions should develop projects to elect women into shop steward positions.
- Unions should provide training to organisers on how to recruit and organise women workers.
- Unions' budgets should include a component for gender activities.
- Unions should collect information on women's status in the union and report regularly on it.
- Women must be present at all activities of the union, i.e. training, committees, conferences.