MEETING CONVENED BY OFAN AND RADCLIFFE ON "GENDER, SCIENCE, AND
TECHNOLOGY: CURRENT TRENDS AND FUTURE ACTION:"

Many of you may remember the Once and Future Pavilion at the NGO Forum
in Beijing (Huairou) 1995, where women asked questions, searched for
solutions, shared ideas, demonstrated their knowledge of science and
technology and showed how they made it work for them. The work has
continued and one of the more recent happenings was a meeting convened
by the Once and Future Action Network (OFAN) and the Radcliffe Center
for Public Policy Center April 30 through May 1, 2001. Possibilities
for closer collaboration among the global gender, science, and
technology (GST) networks were discussed and plans outlined for future
activities. Among the global GST networks present in addition to OFAN
were Gender and Science and Technology (GASAT), the Global Alliance
for Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce, the Third
World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS), and the regional
focal points (Southeast Asia and Pacific, Africa, and Latin America)
of the Gender Advisory Board (GAB) of the UN Commission on Science and
Technology for Development. Decisions reached at the two-day meeting
included:

1. the rotation of the OFAN global secretariat from India to Fiji 2. a
renewal of OFAN's role as a policy monitoring and advocacy network on
gender, science and technology issues with an immediate focus on
Rio+10 and the annual meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of
Women (CSW) to review implementation of the Beijing Platform for
Action, and 3. an agreement to explore a global collaborative project
on information and communication technologies (ICTs).

For further information contact the new global secretariat at:
ECOWOMAN, Box 9874, Nadi Airport Post Office, FIJI, South Pacific or
email .