Follow up on U.S. Commitments Made
At the UN Fourth World Conference on Women
Beijing, September 4-15, 1995

The United States committed to action in the seven areas outlined below. In addition, an eighth commitment to education has been added since returning from Beijing. The administration contemplates further commitments during the coming months.

  1. President's Interagency Council on Women. The President has established an Interagency Council chaired by Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala. This intra-governmental body is charged with coordinating the federal implementation of the Platform for Action adopted at Beijing, including the U.S. commitments announced at the Conference. The Council is also developing related initiatives to further women's progress and engages in outreach and public education to support the successful implementation of the Conference agreements. The Council holds monthly public meetings to discuss its work. For informaiton about meeting time and location of public meetings, call (202)663-3070 for a recorded message.

    Currently Council members are working with their individual agencies, usually through a task force or working group established for this purpose, to analyze the Platform as it relates to them, with an eye towards identifying possible initiatives to take.

    Council members have been engaged in outreach activities across the country, attending conferences and meetings, participating on panels, and addressing gatherings.

    Many NGOs have been in contact with the Council regarding their follow-up activities and commitments they are making, and also communicating to the Council actions they would like to see the government take. All such communications are taken up with the appropriate agency representatives on the Council.

    CONTACTS: Theresa Loar, Kathy Hendrix, Lycia Sibilla.
    TELEPHONE: (202)456-7350, FAX: (202)456-7357
    President's Interagency Council on Women.

  2. Working Women. Through the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Women's Bureau's 1994 "Working Women Count" survey, more than a quarter of a million American working women spoke their minds about their jobs and their lives. In response, the Women's Bureau has created the Working Women Count Honor Roll program. The Honor Roll encourages employers and other organizations to implement real change in the three areas women say they care about most: improving pay and benefits, balancing work and family, and valuing women's work through training and advancement. Launched in September, and announced at the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Honor Roll has already generated more than 600 pledges: from major corporations, small businesses, state and local governments, and grassroots organizations. These pledges represent new policies and program making concrete improvements in the lives of hundreds of thousands of American women -- the Women's Bureau hopes to reach at least one million working people within the year.

    POINTS OF CONTACT: Diane Faulkner, (202)219-6601, Ext. 137, E-mail, dfaulkner@dol.gov.; or Harriett Harper, (202)219-6601, Ext. 105, E-mail, hharper@dol.gov, Women' Bureau.

  3. Violence Against Women. Through the Violence Against Women Office at the Department of Justice, the Administration has taken several very important steps to heighten awareness about the problem of violence against women, including domestic violence and sexual assault. The Administration declared October National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and a variety of local and national programs were held around the country, including an Information Fair held by the Department of Justice in Washington, the first step in its Employee Awareness Campaign. In addition, President Clinton signed an Executive Memorandum, directing all federal agencies to educate their employees about violence against women and resources that are available.

    The Department is announcing its first Violence Against Women Program grants to states for training of law enforcement and criminal justice system personnel and for enhancement of victims' services. all grantees, and their sub-grantees, must consult and coordinate with, among others, non-governmental victim services programs (such as sexual assault and domestic violence victim services programs) in developing their implementation plan, and document this involvement when submitting the plan.

    POINT OF CONTACT: Bonnie Campbell, (202)616-8894, DOJ.

  4. CEDAW. The Administration considers the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to be its top priority among the human rights treaties now awaiting the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. Last year, President Clinton forwarded a package of reservations, declarations and understandings prepared by the Department of State (DOS) concerning CEDAW to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a necessary step in the ratification process. However, the Committee has taken no action on CEDAW since the beginning of the present session of the Congress.

    POINT OF CONTACT: Gracia Hillman, (202)647-9358, DOS.

  5. Women and Economic Security. The Department of the Treasury, through the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, is establishing a Presidential Awards program to honor outstanding micro-lending organizations. The awards will help publicize the importance of microenterprises and micro-lending organizations, and will provide benchmarks for organizations to use in assessing their own efforts. The CDFI Fund will also coordinate a new Federal Microenterprise Initiative to ensure that funding by federal agencies effectively supports the growth and development of the U.S. microenterprise field.

    The U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Office of Microenterprise Development has completed agreements to launch new microenterprise programs in more than 15 countries, which will enable low-income women entrepreneurs to gain access to credit. USAID will work with each local implementing organization to enable it to expand its outreach and become financially sustainable. USAID will also promote microenterprise through the World Bank's new Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest.

    Also, most recently, USAID has launched a research effort to determine the impact of microenterprise services on women and their families, and it is about to launch a best practices project to ensure that all USAID funded microenterprise programs operate at high efficiency.

    The Interagency Committee on Women's Business Enterprise (ICWBE) in conjunction with the National Women's Business Council (NWBC), continues to secure economic self-sufficiency and business growth and development for women through entrepreneurship. In early 1996, ICWBE/NWBC will submit its first annual report to the President and Congress which will include the newly released census statistics on the growth of women-owned businesses and a review of the Federal programs and policies that foster women's business ownership -- a resource for current and prospective women business owners. On November, 1995 the NWBC hosted a workshop with the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University where academics, government officials and public policy makers met to design a National Research Agenda to promote women's entrepreneurship. The Agenda, which will identify what research should be conducted to enrich the profile of women's entrepreneurship, will be issued in the spring of 1996. The ICWBE and NWBC are also preparing a video which will highlight the business development programs that work for women. In May, 1996, the NWBC and the Kellogg School will again team up to host an assembly of 300 Presidents of women's business organizations and leaders from the corporate sector, academia, government and other social, research and philanthropic institutions to foster strategic alliances and produce an economic agenda which reflects the priorities of America's entrepreneurial women.

    POINTS OF CONTACT: Jeannine Jacokes, (202)566-6640, Treasury, Beth Rhyne, (202)663-2360, USAID. Amy Millman, Carolyn O'Brien, (202)205-3850, ICWBE.

  6. Health. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is taking action on a range of problems of concern to women throughout the life cycle, recognizing the additional problems faced by women of low income and from ethnic and racial minorities. Programs include: a comprehensive plan to reduce smoking among children and adolescents by 50 percent; a new initiative to reduce teen pregnancy; the establishment of a Governing Council on Children and Youth; the inauguration of the National Women's Health Clearinghouse; new initiatives on breast and cervical cancer, the impact of poverty-related diseases on women, and the inclusion of women in clinical trials; focus on contraceptive research and development; a continued commitment to the Women's Health Initiative; and a public policy agenda on HIV/AIDS specific to women, adolescents and children.

    USAID has committed major resources to the health and well-being of women in the developing world. USAID is working in more than 70 countries and with a number of public, private, and non- governmental organization (NGO) partners in the areas of family planning, safe motherhood, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, breastfeeding, women's nutrition, adolescent reproductive health, post-abortion care, and female genital mutilation. Comprehensive programs in these areas include: service delivery; training; education and communications; biomedical, operations and social science research; commodity procurement and logistics management; and policy development. USAID also supports financially the work of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.N. Joint and Co-Sponsored Program on HIV/AIDS.

    POINTS OF CONTACT: Sarah Kovner, (202)690-5400, DHHS.
    Elizabeth Maguire, (703)875-4402, USAID.

  7. International Development. USAID is continuing planning for two mutually-reinforcing initiatives concerning women's political participation and legal rights as well as an initiative on girls and women's education.

    The political participation program will increase women's access to and participation in political processes and elections in both transitional and consolidating democracies around the world. It will provide assistance in political leadership training, support networking among politically active women and women's political organizations, educate women about voter rights, civic rights and responsibilities and provide technical training and leadership services. The Global Bureau's Center for Democracy and Governance recently awarded The Asia Foundation -- in cooperation with the African-American Institute, America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc., and Participation of (of Chile)-- a $1 million, three-year cooperative agreement to carry out this program.

    The women's legal rights program will develop through research and disseminate knowledge about women's legal status, and strengthen the capacity of private voluntary organizations, NGOs and other actors to implement corrective programs. Goals will include strenghening women's legal literacy, integrating gender issues into law school curricula, providing gender-sensitive training to the judiciary, supporting legal clinics, engaging in dialogue with legislators to promote equitable laws and policies and facilitating partnerships and networks across sectors.

    USAID is continuing to carry out its Girls' and Women's Education Initiative. The major focus of the Initiative is on increasing girls' primary school completion in twelve USAID- assisted countries. USAID is serving as a catalyst in a process to promote local ownership of the problems and solutions to girls' education by assisting policy-makers from the government and the private sector in these countries to form constituencies to promote girls' and women's education. These constituencies are being trained in strategies for identifying the key economic, religious, social, educational and political constraints to girls' education in their countries. They are also being trained to develop culturally-appropriate policies, programs and practices for addressing these barriers. Chief among the objectives is to create programs that are sustained with locally generated human and financial resources. The programs aim to involve communities in activities to increase girls' primary school participation. Where appropriate, USAID is assisting policy makers to apply effective approaches, such as the "community school" approach, which stimulates involvement by parents and community members in the life of the school. Other successful approaches include developing programs that provide small incentives to girls and their families, training local female workers to provide tutoring assistance to girls, and training parent committees to find practical means for increasing girls' school participation. In addition, USAID is also working to increase women's literacy and young girls' school readiness in selected countries.

    POINTS OF CONTACT: Women's Political Participation -- Melissa Brown, (202)736-7979; Women's Legal Rights -- Cafe Johnson, (703)816-0291; Girls' and Women's Education -- Susie Clay, (703)875-4179, all of USAID.

    In addition to the seven commitments announced in Beijing, the Administration is pleased to announce a further commitment:

  8. Education. The Department of Education (ED) will take action on a range of issues to remove barriers facing girls and women of different backgrounds, including girls and women with disabilities, those of low income, and those from ethnic and racial minorities. Priority initiatives are as follows: to convene a national assembly on girls' and women's education and launch a public awareness campaign to change gender discriminatory policies and practices; to convene a leadership forum dedicated to nurturing a new generation of women leaders; and to intensify efforts to raise the number of employers who encourage family involvement in learning. ED also will intensify efforts and will collaborate with other lead agencies to promote girls and women in science, mathematics, and technology and to combat violence against girls and women.

    POINT OF CONTACT: Sandra Battle, (202)401-1000, ED.

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