The Norwegian Government has launched a new plan of action for promoting the rights of women through development cooperation. Norway will require its cooperation partners to take women’s issues and gender equality seriously.
09/03/2007 :: The new action plan shows that Norway wants to be a strong and visible promoter of women’s rights and gender equality in all of its development cooperation efforts. The plan focuses on measures to improve the lives of girls and women.
“Norway will require all of its cooperation partners, whether they are governments, international institutions or NGOs, to take issues related to women and gender equality seriously,” said State Secretary Anne Stenhammer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The four core areas of the action plan are women’s political participation, women’s economic participation, women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and combating violence against women.
“Funding is being provided in support of this plan. An additional NOK 390 million of development assistance has been earmarked for measures targeted at women and gender equality. This includes a new allocation of NOK 200 million. NOK 130 million has been earmarked for women-oriented initiatives within Norwegian humanitarian efforts and for peace and reconciliation. A total of NOK 3 billion has been allocated for development cooperation measures related in some way to projects that have women and gender equality as their primary or subsidiary aim,” emphasised Ms Stenhammer.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs