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Mrs. Rosa Alegria represented the Núcleo de Estudos do Futuro Brazil, the Brazil Node of the Millennium project at the Millennium Project Planning Committee Meeting in April 2005. She presented the  latest accomplishments of the node and plans for the future, focussing on Women and the 15 global challenges project that the Brazil Node will coordinate:

The purpose of the project is to develop a study relating how the mitigation of the 15 challenges can affect positively women´s condition.
Events relevant to the Status of Women: 5 th World Social Forum: Porto Alegre, Brazil – January 2005; World Women Charter for Humankind equality – freedom – solidarity – justice - peace, and the Tsunami Effect: more than 150,000 women are currently pregnant in the affected areas,of whom 50,000 are due to give birth during the next three months
Next... October 11-18, 2005 The 10th Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Women in São Paulo. This summit was first held in Colombia in 1981 and the last one was hosted in 2002 in Costa Rica,
Central America.

Women and the 15 challenges. A preliminary update.
1. Sustainable Development. 1985 World Conference on Women in Nairobi. 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCEDA): Women´s Action - Agenda 21
How can policy planning address extensive efforts to reduce the environmenntal crisis on women?
What are the most effective strategies to accelerate the implementation of the WQOmen´s Action Agenda 21?
How can traditional cropping methods used by rural women and developed overtime become integrated into local and regional knowledge systems to protect and sustain the environment?
2. Water. What could be the best government water srouces to help women as household runners develop local communities? What could be the best services that national governments could deliver in water resource management? How can gender inequalities and discrimination be readdressed in water resource management? Participation of women in water resource management is being often promoted by national governemtns to readdress gender and racial inequalities and discrimination of the past.
3. Population and Resources. Women play a major role in agricultural development as the most significant suppliers of family labor and efficient managers of household food security. What kind of programs could help increase agricultural productivity by considering specific gender issues like labor constraints, knowledge and decision making?
4. Democratization. women often suffer alienation and isolation, and are largely unrepresented in government bodies and in other sectors of the public sphere. How can democratic process be more open to women access? How can representation rules in politics be changed at the same pace as economic and social rules to promote the election of more women?
5. Global Long-Term Perspectives. • Family planning; • New leadership roles/models • Childcare; • Agenda 21; • Household; • Post-feminism?; • From the search for equality to the praise of the differences; • Health; • Workplace (what place, what time?) • Media: from object to subject • Etc.
6. Information Technology. There are many encouraging signs of a closing gender gap in the use of ICT products. How can these developments might impact positively on the position of women in ICT? What kind of interventions could eliminate gender gaps in the digital inclusion processes and programs?
7. Rich and Poor Gap. The poverty group deserving more particular attention is poor rural women,,, who are the most significant suppliers of f amily labor and efficient managers of household food security
What kind of policies can be addresses to enable girls and boys, women and men progress to a stage of life in which discrimination is not perpetuated? As the majority of the rural poor (up to 70%) how can women share their survival strategies knowledge to develop local economies?
8. Health. • Maternal Health • Reproductive Health • HIV/AIDS How can women have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of fertility regulation of their choice? How can the right of access to approriate health care services be engendered to enable women go safely through pregnancy and child birth? How can the many gender issues surround effectively all HIV/AIDS educational and prevention programs? Hoe can safe mother hood initiatives help reduce significantly morbidity rates in the developing countries? How can current interventions be scaled up to combat maternal death and illness in the next 10 years?
9. Capacity to Decide. Throughout the world women face obstacles to their participation in decision- making processes. In 2004 the rate of female representation in politics stand at 15% globally. What kind of global, regional and local strategies could increase the level of female participation in decision-making processes considering different cultures and political systems?
10. Peace and Conflict. Women are stil excluded from peace tables despite their pivotal role. “Women remaing over whelmingly excluded from participating in peace talks and post-conflict reconstruction, and continue to suffer physical and sexual violence during war”Secretary-General Kofi Annan. How can peacemaking training and operations be engendered around the world? How can gender issued and perspectives become a natural element in all peacemaking missions?
12. Transnational Crime. Global sexual exploitation – Trafficking – Prostitution – Pornography – Organized and institutionalized sexual exploitation and violence How can global sexual exploitation be stopped from becoming one of the largest industries in the world?
13. Energy. There is a growing widespread interest in understanding the issues and formulating appropriate strategies which relate to women and energy Dilma Roussef, Brasil Ministry of Energy How can energy programs imcorporate gender perspectives to engage women in income generation, local and renewable energy sources and other energy-related productive activities?
14. Science & Technology Women are still on the margins of science and technology developments and achievements How can progress be faster in the S&T educational programs to reduce dramatically the gender gap?
15. Global Ethics. • A sizable gap exists between women´s and men´s moral experiences • Reemerging feminine principles • A feminist approach to ethics entails women resisting and overcoming their continuing oppresion under patriarchy

The presentation can be downloaded from: http://www.millennium-project.org/millennium/mppc-0405/Brazil-Women%20Study.pdf

Contact:
Alegria, Rosa, Node Co-Chair
Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo
"Rosa Alegria" <rosa.alegria@terra.com.br>