Chiang Mai, Thailand
21st - 26th January 2007

From the 21st to the 26th of January 50 women from twelve different countries -  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, East Timor, India, Lebanon, Palestine, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet(India), Uganda and Norway – gathered at the FOKUS networking conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The networking conference in Thailand was a meeting place for FOKUS’ project partners in Asia and the Middle East and their Norwegian partner organizations. The conference lasted five days and included meetings, lectures and workshops as well as a project visit and ample time informal dialogue. The conference aimed to be as participatory as possible, with the goal of developing practical tools for and by the participants, which are useful in the daily work of the organizations.

Many of the FOKUS-supported projects in Asia and the Middle East are located in contexts of war, conflict or other forms of unstable political contexts. Thus the natural thematic framework for the conference was ”Women in and after war and conflict”. The importance of organizing women was a central theme, as was the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 as a practical tool for women’s organizations.

Besides the usual conference report, FOKUS also developed a report for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: ‘Roadmap to the Norwegian Implementation of Resolution 1325 – Involve the women’s organizations!’
The report has as its starting point the different workshops organized during the network conference in Thailand, and reference is made to individual dialogues with some of the participants’, presentations of organizations, plenary discussions and the conference resolution signed by the organizations represented at the conference.

The FOKUS Networking Conference in Thailand was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.