by Nina Somera, Isis International

“A cup that is half-full.”

That is how Dr. Patricia Licuanan, president of Miriam College described her expectations in the upcoming Asia Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing + 15 from 22 to 24 October 2009 in Manila, Philippines and its culmination in the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in February 2010 in New York, United States. A veteran of Beijing processes, Licuanan chaired the drafting committee that yielded what is now known the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA).

“We are not longer the flavour of the decade. After 1995, competition has come in, [recently with] climate change and the financial meltdown. Any UN process usually means a release of new energies. [Yet] the feeling has not come back since 1995,” she admitted. This, taking into account the continuinung cuts in the funds for women. The 1990s were also an era of important UN conferences such as those on human rights, population, sustainable development and others.

Nonetheless, she has never lost hope in the determination of women in pursuing their issues and maximising the UN as a space. “We are in a slightly desperate time. The UN distracted by other things and the women are frustrated. But the UN is a space that has made breakthroughs. Grim and determined women have always come to the rescue,” she asserted.

She pointed out the new General Assembly resolution that provides the consolidation of UN offices on women and gender such as the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW). “Four countries were initially blocking it. Of course it is slightly weaker but it is there. We will probably get some and lose some,” she put it.

It is for this reason that the AP NGO Forum on Beijing + 15 remains a “cause for optimism.” With the theme “Weaving Wisdom, Confronting Crises, Forging the Future,” the AP NGO Forum on Beijing + 15 will assess the 12 critical areas of BPFA. Learning from past stock-taking, Licuanan cited as examples the concepts of microcredit and gender mainstreaming. Microcredit may be able to address the “hand-to-mouth” everyday necessities “but there is a need to go beyond that.” Similarly, she called for further reassessment of gender mainstreaming. “While I think it is still a good idea but it has been made to preserve the status quo” as it became a reason for the decommissioning of women's bureaus for instance.

Licuanan also noted key present challenges for women such as the increasing rise of fundamentalisms and its disturbing impact on democratic institutions and global financial crisis. “Afghan women may be back in school but the whole place is a mess. Women are suffering more that the men from the financial crisis yet women can be the solution in this crisis,” she asserted.

She likewise cited opportunities with the new politics offered by the increasing synergies between the women's movements and other social movements as well as the emergence of young feminists. As Licuanan pointed out, “I think the fact that we are so tenacious and that there is a new generation of feminists are something.”

The AP NGO Forum on Beijing + 15 is being organised by the Asia Pacific Women's Watch. It is hosted by Miriam College.