NAM highlights plight of women in developing countries

PUTRAJAYA, Sunday (AFP) Women in developing countries are facing extreme poverty, armed conflict, health issues, violence and various other obstacles which hinder progress and development, the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) said over the weekend.

"While globalisation has brought greater opportunities, many are still deprived of its benefits," said a draft of the concept paper being discussed by delegates in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya.

"Poverty has been one of the critical issues faced by the developing countries, including NAM countries, and it remains stubbornly "feminised," it said.

Malaysia is the current chairman of the Non-Aligned movement, a grouping of mainly developing nations formed during the Cold War as an alternative to the Western and Eastern power blocs.

Struggling to maintain relevance in the modern world, it has turned its attention to social issues with the opening Saturday of a first conference on women called, "Empowering Women in Facing the Challenges of Globalisation".Officials from 75 countries were meeting to discus the contents of a draft declaration to finalise the agenda for the two-day ministerial meeting which starts on Monday.

The declaration would focus on seven issues - economic development, education, health, information technology, decision-making, armed conflict and violence against women - Malaysia's women's minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said.

She said she hoped the Putrajaya Declaration would be a blueprint for the advancement of women similar to the Beijing Declaration adopted in 1995 at the World Conference for Women, which called for measures to promote gender equality.

Government ministers from 55 member states will attend the four-day conference, which will be officially opened by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Monday.

Malaysia's NAM representative Hasmy Agam has said that the meeting represented a shift by the movement from pure politics to social issues for the first time in its 44 year history.