Activities under UNESCO programmes (2002/2003)

Women, girls and education

9.In the context of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, UNESCO launched a joint study of the E-9 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan). At the national level the project consists of taking stock of existing achievements and bottlenecks, identifying policies adopted to facilitate access to education for all girls, and examining implementation procedures to see if they match adopted policies and plans. A synthesis study on the basis of national findings not only summarizes the lessons learned and good practices, but also develops proposals for proactive policies and programmes to achieve education for all girls.

Fellowships

10.Under the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme, Cristiane Grando, Paula Krause Correa, Michelle Agnes Magalhães, Juliana Morães and Emily Sugai Takeuchi received fellowships to continue their training.

Women, science and technology

11.With the support of the Ibero-American Bureau of Education (OEI), UNESCO is currently carrying out the Science, Technology and Gender Ibero-American Project (January 2002-December 2003) in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela. The project will contribute to improving the state of science, technology, and gender knowledge by developing theoretical and methodological capacities, identifying social factors and variables that affect women’s participation in higher education, science and technology, and promoting analysis of the legal, organizational and administrative frameworks of higher education institutions and scientific and technological research centres, so as to influence the design of policies, instruments and regulations related to women’s participation in those fields.

Women and the urban environment

12.The project entitled “Cities, the environment and social relations between men and women” proposes to analyse grass-roots groups of women in their social and environmental relations in medium-sized cities in West Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Switzerland. In Brazil, under this programme, a study was carried out of the Gamboa II favela in the city of Santo André. It is supported by the Swiss National Commission for UNESCO, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations Programme.

13.The global objectives of this research project are to contribute to strategies of social transformation and citizen participation, to distribute the results to decision makers and technicians, and to contribute to the body of knowledge. The gender objectives of the programme are to include women in policy-making, to empower women in the structure of social relations of power and to strengthen urbanity in cities. The full findings of the first phase of the project have been published in a book entitled Women and Urban Crises: Gender-Sensitive Strategies for Managing Critical Urban Environments in the South and in Eastern Europe.

Costa Rica

Basic statistics — population and education

	Population
	Total	Male	Female
2000	4 024 000	2 040 000	1 983 000
	Gross primary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net primary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	107.51	108.99	105.97	91.27	91.39	91.15
	Gross secondary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net secondary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	50.94	48.09	53.94	43.37	40.84	46.04
	Gross tertiary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female
	Unavailable	Unavailable	Unavailable

Activities under UNESCO programmes (2002/2003)

Women, science and technology

14.With the support of OEI, UNESCO is currently carrying out the Science, Technology and Gender Ibero-American Project (see para. 11 above).

Ecuador

Basic statistics — population and education

	Population
	Total	Male	Female
2000	12 646 000	6 350 000	6 296 000
	Gross primary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net primary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	113.91	114.28	113.53	97.73	97.44	98.03
	Gross secondary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net secondary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	56.66	56.22	57.12	46.90	46.21	47.62
	Gross tertiary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female
	Unavailable	Unavailable	Unavailable

Activities under UNESCO programmes (2002/2003)

Women, science and technology

15.With the support of OEI, UNESCO is currently carrying out the Science, Technology and Gender Ibero-American Project (see para. 11 above).

France

Basic statistics — population and education

	Population
	Total	Male	Female
2000	59 238 000	28 856 000	30 382 000
	Gross primary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net primary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	105.16	105.78	104.51	100	100	100
	Gross secondary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net secondary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	108.69	108.53	108.85	92.55	91.64	93.51
	Gross tertiary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	52.53	47.19	58.09

Activities under UNESCO programmes (2002/2003)

Women and health

16.On 10 March 2003, UNESCO organized a discussion forum in Paris entitled “Overcoming fear, winning the battle against breast cancer” in collaboration with Paris Match and the French anti-cancer league (Ligue nationale contre le cancer). Specialists from all over the world were invited to present an overview of the latest advances in this area.

Japan

Basic statistics — population and education

	Population
	Total	Male	Female
2000	127 096 000	62 212 000	64 884 000
	Gross primary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net primary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	101.26	101.31	101.22	100	100	100
	Gross secondary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net secondary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	102.05	101.48	102.65	100	100	100
	Gross tertiary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	46.05	49.57	42.35

Morocco

Basic statistics — population and education

	Population
	Total	Male	Female
2000	29 878 000	14 964 000	14 914 000
	Gross primary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net primary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	90.43	98.04	82.55	74.48	78.97	69.81
	Gross secondary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net secondary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	39.34	43.58	34.95	29.94	32.74	27.04
	Gross tertiary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female
1999/2000	9.34	10.59	8.04

Activities under UNESCO programmes (2002/2003)

Women and education

17.The UNESCO Chair of migration and human rights of the University Hassan II Ain Chock Casablanca, together with the Casablanca Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences and the Migration and Humanitarian Law Research and Study Centre, organized an international conference on the theme “Women, migration and human rights” in 2002 and a round table on the theme “Migrant women and culture” in 2003.

18.UNESCO has established a UNESCO Chair of adult education and literacy in Morocco. The chairholder has been named a member of the National Education for All Forum and the United Nations Education for All Support Team, and will assume primary responsibilities for advising on the drafting and implementation of the National Education for All action plans, in particular as regards literacy.

19.UNESCO signed an agreement with the University Mohammed V (Rabat-Souissi) and the University Ibn Tofail (Kenitra) on 28 October 2002 for the establishment of a UNESCO Chair of women’s rights, to promote research, training, information and documentation on women’s status, the promotion of women’s rights and the elimination of gender discrimination. The aim is also to increase regional cooperation between researchers and university teachers.

Women and health

20.UNESCO, in partnership with the United Nations Development Fund for Women and UNAIDS, organized a seminar in Rabat to promote an understanding of the sociocultural dimensions of HIV/AIDS, with specific emphasis on the gender dimension. The seminar attempted to identify the sociocultural and gender aspects that favour the transmission of the virus and that represent constraints to prevention and treatment interventions. The participants were asked to analyse in groups their own cultural representations, values and behaviours underlying the stigmatization of and discrimination against persons living with or associated with HIV/AIDS. The seminar aimed to help the participants identify the positive cultural resources that can foster sustainable behavioural change and curb stigmatization and discrimination vis-à-vis the pandemic.

Strengthening local capacities — promoting cultural practices

21.UNESCO, in cooperation with the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, helped to organize a training workshop in carpet-making, for two trainers from each of the francophone sub-Saharan African countries (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, the Niger, Senegal and Chad). The aim of the workshop, which took place in Ouarzazate, was to equip participants with the capacity to initiate the members of women’s centres and associations in their respective countries into the production of handmade carpets.

Slovenia

Basic statistics — population and education

	Population
	Total	Male	Female
2000	1 988 000	966 000	1 022 000
	Gross primary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net primary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1998/1999	97.65	98.14	97.14	93.89	94.32	93.44
	Gross secondary enrolment rate (percentage)		Net secondary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female		Total	Male	Female
1998/1999	98.75	97.40	100.17	89.50	87.95	91.13
	Gross tertiary enrolment rate (percentage)
	Total	Male	Female
1998/1999	53.33	45.72	61.34

Activities under UNESCO programmes (2002/2003)

Women and science

22.With the support of UNESCO, an international workshop on the topic “Statistical indicators on women in science” was held in Bled in October 2002. The workshop sought to improve UNESCO’s statistical data collection techniques in the fields of science, research and development, and higher education from a gender perspective, to increase knowledge of gender issues in these fields at the national level and to provide decision makers with more transparent statistical indicators.

Notes

a Sources : Population statistics come from World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision , published in February 2001 by the United Nations Population Division. Basic statistics concerning education in every country come from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The school years 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 correspond in some cases to the calendar years 1998 and 1999.