WLN website — apecWLN.org — is now live

This is the official website of the APEC Women Leaders Network (WLN). And it’s live from today!

There have been twelve (12) WLN Meetings since 1996, with the 13th Meeting due in May 2008 in Peru. As responsibility for organising each meeting rotates amongst APEC member economies, there is currently no single access point for WLN information. In recent years organising member economies have created dedicated websites through which information are widely made available to the public. While clearly a step forward, the need to create such sites from scratch also adds to an already long list of tasks that go with organising a WLN Meeting. Additionally, a unique website address for each Meeting still does not lend itself to finding the totality of WLN information. And there remains an enormous amount of records from past Meetings which remain in hardcopy format, physically stored at various locations amongst member economies.

This website will finally make it easy to find WLN in one place: at www.apecWLN.org. Archive materials from previous Meetings will be progressively uploaded to this site. Updates from recently held Meetings will be posted here, while information on upcoming and future Meetings will also be provided here.

If we’re ready to embrace new technologies, we can even have video and audio streaming of Meeting proceedings here — as they happen.

Finally, WLN has a home on the net — it’s at apecWLN.org.  Don’t forget to bookmark this site!

2007 Meeting Chair provides update

On 14th November the Chair of the 12^th WLN Meeting, Ms Heather Ridout, released a letter to the delegates to this year’s meeting outlining actions that have been taken since June. In it, Ms Ridout indicated progress in several fronts:

• The WLN Reference Group, through Ms Alison Terry, made an invited presentation to the Meeting of the Ministers Responsible for Trade in Cairns on 7th July on the set of recommendations from this year’s Meeting.

• In September Ms Ridout herself did a similar presentation to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). Mr Geoff Brennan, Executive Director of the ABAC Secretariat, had previously spoken about the potential for links between ABAC and WLN.

• One of the key recommendations from this year’s Meeting revolved around the the trade liberalisation agenda. Peru has since indicated that this issue will be a key focus of next year’s meeting. A workshop will be conducted at the Meeting on the impact of free trade agreements on women in micro, small and medium enterprises.

• Ms Ridout wrote about WLN’s work in The Australian Financial Review, Australia’s principal business journal. In it, she explained the depth of WLN’s experience and thinking on key economic issues facing our region, such as climate change, sustainable trade and business practices. A copy of the article can be downloaded from here.

• It was proposed at the Meeting to undertake research on the nature and extent of any differential impacts on women of regional trade liberalisation and Free Trade Agreements within the APEC region. The Australian Government Office for Women, in consultation with the Australian WLN Reference Group, is mapping the scope of this research with the view of securing funding to progress the research and present the findings in Peru next year.

• In its role as 2007 Chair of the Gender Focal Point Network, the Australian Government Office for Women is liaising with th APEC Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Working Group on its work to develop a 4-year strategic plan that will include support for women, youth and minorities as a strategic priority.

• The Australian Government Office for Women website for the 2007 Meeting has been updated and now holds all the materials from this year’s meeting.

Ms Ridout’s letter is available for download from here.

WLN Statement 2007

12th APEC Women Leaders Network  
Recommendations to APEC Leaders and Ministers
Port Douglas, Australia, 24-27 June 2007

The Women Leaders Network (WLN) – over four hundred women leaders, representing business, government, academia and civil society – met to consider issues that are critical to building a sustainable future.  Issues were addressed through the core focus areas of globalisation, climate change, sustainable trade, technology and business practices, and strengthening the capacity of women entrepreneurs and their communities of interest.

 It is requested that the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade note the following decisions taken by the WLN, including future actions for Leaders, Ministers and the WLN.

Read more

December 13, 2007 | Filed Under 2007 Meeting - Australia, Australia, WLN Statements

WLN 2007 - Resource Materials

Programme (63KB)

The Australian organizers of the Meeting provided copies of the following publications:

• Australian Government Office for Women, Better Conditions, Better Business: A report on carer and family-friendly provisions in Australian small and medium enterprises, Commonwealth of Australia, 2007. (PDF, 2MB)

• Australian Government Office for Women, Sensis Business Index Report: Special Edition, Commonwealth of Australia, February 2007.  (PDF, 3.7MB)

•  Australian Government Office for Women, Women and Exports: An export profile of Australia’s female-operated small and medium exporters, Commonwealth of Australia, 2007.  (PDF, 4.2MB)

• Commonwealth of Australia, Women in Australia 07, Commonwealth of Australia, 2007.  (PDF, 1.5MB)

• Commonwealth of Australia, Women in Trade: A Handbook for Women Going Global, Commonwealth of Australia, 2007.  (PDF, 23.9MB)

Download all five publications here.  (32MB)

The Australian government’s official website for the 2007 WLN Meeting is here.

 

December 13, 2007 | Filed Under 2007 Meeting - Australia, Australia

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