Preface

The seminar held on 24 May 1995, Women's rights and development: vision and strategy for the twenty-first century, provided a short but stimulating apace to think and talk, to reflect on what had been achieved on women's rights in the last 20 years, and to discuss how we should move forward. It was an opportunity for women's rights and gender and development specialists from European and Southern NGOs and academic institutions to shift attention from the process leading to the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, and think ahead about policy priorities for the next decade. The presence in the UK of representatives of women's networks, development and women's rights organisations from Africa, South America, and Asia (several of whom were in Oxford for a meeting of the Advisory Board of Oxfam's journal, Gender and Development) contributed greatly to the success of this dialogue.

Over the last 20 years the policy agenda on women's rights, women and development, and gender and development has expanded. As the commitment to applying a gender analysis to our work has grown, so has the policy agenda; no area of policy can be neglected. The challenge for activists and researchers is to clarify the policy connections, identify the strategic policy areas, and build local, national, and international alliances across diverse interests.

One World Action and Oxfam UK and Ireland would like to thank the Gender Institute of the London School of Economics, and Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, for their collaboration in organising this seminar.

Helen O'Connell
One World Action
October 1995