Editorial/Editorial.

• Author: Butegwa, Christine

2005 has been an eventful year in the development arena, and a year of historic firsts. The early part of the year saw the formation of a global social movement that has made history with members ranging from grassroots people in developing countries to pop idols in developed countries. This social movement is the Global Call to Action Against Poverty that is demanding for trade justice, debt cancellation, more aid and increased national efforts to eliminate poverty.

GCAP took its campaigns to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in July 2005 and it captured citizen's support with the White Band symbol and Live8 concerts. Women form the majority of the poor in sub-Saharan Africa and they have called for the incorporation of gender and human rights content in the GCAP messages in order to reflect their realities. This newsletter highlights African women's participation in and contribution to the GCAP campaigns.

Another historic first was the organization of the Informal Interactive Hearings of the United Nations General Assembly with non-governmental organizations, civil society and private sector that took place on June 23-24, 2005. The Interactive Hearings were part of the preparations for the Millennium +5 Summit to be held in September 2005.

In her Opening Statement at the ceremony, Ms. Renate Bloem, President of the Conference of NGOs (CONGO) described the event as "a historic moment in time: for the first time ever, since the founding of the United Nations, the General Assembly is holding hearings with civil society and the private sector." She noted that multi stakeholder partnerships between governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector are not an option but a necessity to achieve the millennium development goals, as exemplified by the World Summit on the Information Society.

This newsletter features some of the highlights of the Informal Interactive Hearings from the African women's perspective. We also feature articles that analyse the relationship between gender and the MDGs.

As always, we welcome feedback from you on the content of our newsletters and your articles for upcoming issues.

Christine Butegwa

Communications Officer

African Women's Development

and Communication Network (FEMNET)

L'annee 2005 a ete marquee par des grandes premieres historiques et des evenements dans le domaine du developpement. La premiere partie de cette annee a connu la formation d'un Mouvement Social Mondial qui a marque...