Israeli teams travel to China to teach bottom-up development

Changes in China in the last decades have prompted this immense country to seek development solutions from others. Despite its comparatively tiny size Israel has a wealth of know-how to offer in various types of training, in absorbing immigrant populations and providing agricultural know-how and community services.

It is against this backdrop that the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC) in Haifa (under the auspices of MASHAV, the Center for International Cooperation of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the All China Women's Federation (ACWF), based in Beijing, have joined together in carrying out a series of successful workshops that place the emphasis on the potential contribution of women- as community members, as entrepreneurs, as parents - to contribute to the emerging China of the new millennium.

MCTC's training programs are designed to promote women's involvement in the process of development, and Chinese women have participated in international courses from as early as 1990. In 1996, two Chinese women from the International Liaison Department of the All China Women's Federation (ACWF) took part in an MCTC course on "Management of NGOs (non-governmental organizations)."

"ACWF is a national level service organization, amalgamating women's federations and groups at all levels of government from provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, to districts, towns and villages. Since there is no Ministry of Social Welfare in China, ACWF fills many of its roles," notes Fannette Modek, retired director of MCTC and currently director of this particular program of cooperation with China and one of the team which traveled three times to conduct on-the-spot courses.

"ACWF elected officers work closely with civil servants at each level of government giving voice to women's particular interests and needs. Given this, ACWF is not a government body, and has an independent structure and constitution. It has a membership of over 5,000 women's groups, ranging from trade unions to groups of women academics, writers and farmers."

Upon completion of their studies at MCTC, the two ACWF staff persons returned to their positions in the Africa and West Asia Division at ACWF's Beijing headquarters. As a result of their reports and the relations nurtured by the then Israeli Ambassador to China Ora Namir with ACWF's executive committee, the ACWF inquired into the possibility of MASHAV giving an on-the-spot course in China. The following year Fannette Modek, whose specialty is adult education, accompanied by Nazareth-Illit deputy mayor Edna Rodrig, went to China to do just that. The subject requested by the ACWF was "Women and Development," with the accent on gender, community development and project planning. (It was to be repeated each year thereafter.)

"At the start the name of the workshop was rather vague and undefined, as were the expectations of the Israeli lecturers, the local coordinators and workshop participants," says Modek. Of the 25 women attending the first course, only three spoke English. Therefore, all was to be translated from English to Chinese and vice-versa.

"It was the first time ACWF was hosting a training activity as opposed to a women's delegation, we learned. When we know the trainees' needs in advance, we can plan with confidence and be specific in the subjects offered," explains Modek, "but in this case we weren't yet familiar with the organization, or with their programs in the local communities. We faced a double challenge, to teach through translation and also to learn, receiving immediate feedback after each activity.

"So we decided to have sessions where the participants would exchange information on the projects in which they were currently involved, where they would trace the major societal changes taking place for women. We also decided that the section on program planning would be based on a community survey carried out in one of Beijing's neighborhoods. This would give the trainers an idea of ACWF's role in the field and also expose the participants to our methods of community work."

The workshop took place at ACWF's headquarters. At the back of Modek's mind was a nagging question, the answer to which would only appear gradually: "I knew the Chinese organization was running its own huge projects, so my big question was what can it learn from us?'"

"Our teaching methodology is based on interactive learning, giving a prominent place to the participants' own experiences so the workshop made much use of the problem solving approach and learning games," Modek recalls. "We started off with getting-acquainted games, with all of us taking part. This was followed by a session, executed in small groups, focusing on 'changes from my grandmother's time and my mother's time.'"

Dr. Lui Bohong of the China Institute for Women's Studies was invited to give a lecture on: "The Status of Chinese Women Today." In 1995, the 4^th UN World Conference on Women held in Beijing had triggered an immense effort to research and document the situation of women in China which Dr. Bohong presented in a brilliant statistical analysis. Though women have gained in status since the implementation of the Reform and Open-Door Policies, they still lag behind men. On the Gender Development Index, due to the negative weight of the rural populations, China rates 71 after Sweden, Denmark and Canada. However, on the Gender Empowerment Index, as China's women are politically active, with a comparatively high percentage in parliament, government administration and high professional levels, China's rating is 23.

"All this was extremely enlightening to the Israeli lecturers, but redundant for the participants as we later discovered in the feedback, " recalls Modek.

Since the Reform and Open-Door Policies China has been going through a period of drastic changes, involving the massive restructuration or privatization of state-owned factories. Many women and men have been laid-off. This, in turn, has unleashed heavy migration of men, women and entire families to urban areas to look for work. Urban neighborhoods have fixed and transient populations. Those arriving from rural areas speak various dialects. There is a strain on the infrastructure and community services, and housing conditions are inadequate," says Modek. "Recently passed legislation has transferred some of the responsibilities and resources of municipalities downward to Neighborhood Committees. (Beijing municipal area has a population of 12 million, for instance). The government wants communities to take greater initiatives in developing more social services so it is looking for methods and tools to involve the populations, e.g., in keeping areas clean, providing medical services, services for the elderly, retraining women laid off from work, etc."

"In spite of having learned some vital information," she notes, "We were just starting our process of discovery. It was not a cut and dried affair." The community survey in one of Beijing's neighborhoods was another enriching and enlightening experience for Modek and Rodrig as well as for the participants who came from Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the West and provinces closer to Beijing such as Henan, Ganzu and Hebei. "So, little by little, through the eyes of the participants, we got to know the community's needs and community services in action."

After visiting a kindergarten, the group walked through the streets, noisy and dusty from the constant passage of tourist buses, bicycles and hand-drawn carts. They arrived at the community hall for a question-and-answer session with the Neighborhood Committee. The latter included representatives from the political party, the ACWF, and Dept. of Foreign Affairs, actually the public relations division of the Neighborhood Committee. After the formal presentations, the participants through their questions in different subjects areas induced a situation where small groups were formed and each spoke informally with one of the leaders. "Whwe teach community surveys and needs assessment, we need to be able to ask questions and talk to leaders individually to become acquainted with the various opinions that exist."

After lunch there was a visit to families in the area, not before going up to the second floor to visit the First Aid Clinic and the Activity Center for the Elderly. Then the participants returned to the classroom and tabulated everything they had learned. From their one-day "rapid appraisal" exercise they did nevertheless identify community needs in the area of traffic regulations, sanitation, income-generation and better integration of migrants.

The second week dealt with planning: "Learning to see what tools one needs for community work. Until now, the norm in China was to carry out whatever instructions came down through the hierarchy. Now, what China wants to promote is development from the bottom up. The citizens are being encouraged toward participation and self-sufficiency."

Modek points out, the courses "aimed to make these women more capable and improve their planning ability. We try to refine the participants' work approaches, stressing responsibility, being knowledgeable about all aspects of the project in mind. When planning school lunch facilities for example, it is not enough to calculate that 1,500 lunches could be prepared by 30 women (laid-off workers), each preparing 50 lunches. You need to ask questions like: What is an adequate menu for children of different ages? How many of the prospective women can cook a nutritious meal? What does a self-employed woman require to organize her activity? Does she have the appropriate personal and technical qualities? Who and how will the school lunch providers be supervised? Can all parents cover the calculated cost of the meals? Another example: When setting up a steering committee, who should be on it besides the Neighborhood Committee and the Women's Federation representative? The school principal, health personnel, parents, a representative of the laid-off women? Your responsibility as a planner is much more far-reaching than just allocating women and school meals!"

"The workshop went well! Despite the need to use two-way translation, there was good communication, also thanks to the deep interest and availability of the Chinese coordinators. All in all it was a fascinating mutual learning experience - we supplied 50 pages of learning materials which the ACWF translated into Chinese. We broke the conventional wisdom of training, sat in seminar style - semi-circle - asked pointed questions, led them to reveal personal opinions. They spoke about the way men treat women and about leadership, and didn't shirk from role-playing."

As planned from the beginning, a part of the group (19) came to Israel on a Study Tour. They looked at immigrant integration in a development town (Nazareth-Illit in the north of Israel) and at new approaches in working with multi-cultural populations in school and in the community with women. There were visits to a center for treating violence against women run by the Ministry of Social Welfare, in cooperation with the Naamat Women's Organization. In the Misgav Region they received explanations about the Small Business Encouragement Centers for new entrepreneurs, among them women. Visits to urban and rural community services for the elderly, handicapped and children were interspersed with lectures and sightseeing.

The then Coordinator of the National Authority for the Advancement of Women, Attorney Naomi Liran, related how, thanks to the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) law which established the Authority she can call to order government bodies that are lax in respecting the existing laws on Equal Opportunities for Women at Work, on Domestic Violence and on Sexual Harassment. At the University of Haifa, they learned from researcher Dr. Shoshanna Ben-Zvi Meir that although boys and girls in Israel both finish high school, more women are underrepresented in public life. The Ministry of Education has introduced a special program to create awareness among teachers that, unwittingly, their teaching style and classroom behavior causes their girl pupils to internalize that their achievements are less important than those of boys. Teachers undergo workshops to change this.

"I think that on the whole, the Chinese visitors were impressed with the pragmatic approach to planning they saw here, i.e., needs are assessed, solutions are planned and objectives are achieved - and all in an atmosphere of informality but profound striving!" Modek says, summing up.

The next two seminars in China (1999 and 2000) were, as expected, easier to plan. Firstly because Modek now had some concept of what to expect. The first group, she recalled, had been "a bit dismayed, in the beginning, by our methodology and spontaneity. In their evaluation they even said that they should have been warned."

Another advantage was that the ACWF organizing team and translators were co-workers from the previous events, assuring smooth interaction with the Israeli team.

Ambassador Ora Namir, a prime influence in the setting up of the ACWF-MASHAV joint project, attended the April 2000 workshop opening, as did ACWF Secretariat member Ms Feng Cui and ACWF International Liaison Department deputy director- general Ms. Zou Xiaoqiao.

At the third workshop, 21 of the 24 participants (who ranged in age from their mid-20s to mid-50s) came from 14 provinces and three from ACWF headquarters. Some 15 were presidents or vice-presidents of Women's Federations at city and provincial level, while six held managerial positions in the provinces. All had college or university training.

At the start of the April workshop, participants were asked to write down their expectations. They placed a high emphasis on achieving a better life for women - more education (including access to new scientific and technological fields), more self-respect and self-confidence, and closing the gap in equality between men and women. They also wished to acquire more knowledge about project work, training community workers, working with vulnerable groups such as the elderly, minorities and the poor.

By now, a new source of motivation existed: "At headquarters, people link the course to Israel. Participants know that they will visit here at a later date."

The workshop program included a community survey, a number of exercises, and an individual final project, thus introducing additional practice in project planning. As in previous years, there was an emphasis on project planning, needs assessment, decision-making, establishment of services and leadership and teamwork, with general reference to gender issues. What was new was that two evening sessions, including films, were added: "The Land and People of Israel" and "Israeli Women."

This was no mere public relations exercise, notes Modek. "Even though we try to achieve our objectives through translation, we and our students miss the informal contact we could otherwise have - during breaks, say, or while in the elevator. Both sides are frustrated, because these are intelligent, experienced women with lots of management experience. They are leaders. And we have a lot to say to each other.

Because of this, they asked us last year for much more informal contact, so we added the extra sessions."

The participants were particularly interested in knowing about the standard of living and details of Israeli life. "The Chinese people are very down to earth, and are themselves in a burst of development, building new housing and improving standards of living."

As in the past two courses, the main practical aspect of the third workshop was expressed in a survey of a community. This time it was in the West Chang'an Street area, a 4.2 square mile cluster of housing compounds, over 100 years old and housing 25,000 families, in central Beijing, where tourism facilities are being developed. The agenda included meetings with community leaders and with residents, visits to a range of service centers (including a masseur who was blind as are many of these professionals), and a kindergarten for 150 children, which has bshrinking as more and more young families move out of the area to modern apartment houses.

The workshop broke up into small groups that visited families in their homes. Finally, each group had to propose a community project according to a need/problem identified by them and confirmed by local leaders and residents. Projects were elaborated for the following: Cleaning and "greening" one of the lanes, renovation of the traditional houses and compounds, upgrading the marketing of local handicrafts, training volunteers for community services, and establishing a tourism agency.

Still searching to grasp the amplitude and strategies of the ACWF in the field, Fannette Modek and her partner in the latest workshop, Hanita Zimrin, director of "Eli," the Israel Association for Child Protection, were delighted to accept ACWF's suggestion to spend the weekend in the Province of Henan and observe projects. They traveled in an entourage, that included two graduates from the 1998 workshop, the Provincial Vice-President and the Director of the Provincial Department of Rural and Urban Projects, and the head of the Luoyang Women's Federation which had invited them. "Luoyang is one of China's three ancient capitals and they were very proud to show us their tradition and history," says Modek.

Parallel to the sightseeing there were numerous official functions. "For many of the city dignitaries we met - the head of the Party committee, the vice-mayor (a woman), the head of the county or local government - it was their first encounter with Israelis. Each hosted a lunch for the guests."

Sandwiched between the sightseeing and receptions was the real objective of the visit. The group visited two agricultural projects assisted by the UNICEF/ACWF micro-credit project in the Yiyang county of Henan, most of whose 300,000 women inhabitants are engaged in farming. In one project 90 women, 30 from each of three villages work in greenhouses (improved versions of traditional Chinese greenhouses), rented from the local government, producing cucumbers and tomatoes. Each woman received a loan of 1,000 Yuan - a third of her potential annual income to cover the rent, water and her initial investment in seeds. This is repayable within one year, after which they are eligible for a new loan. Concurrently, recipients must attend a Women's Poverty Eradication Center for training in new agricultural methods, childcare, nutrition, family life, education, etc.

"We were impressed by the close cooperation between the local government and the women's federation and the pride the women took in the modern cultivation (using trellises) of the vegetables. No doubt production increased significantly and if the modest loan enables 90 women to become integrated in high-tech agriculture and increase their income, this is significant," adds Modek.

The guests also visited a project for open-field cultivation of asparagus, linked to a labor-intensive packing factory, whose production is exported. Women producing asparagus are granted loans as well to cover the preparation of the furrows and the seedlings. Though the harvesting season is only 100 days, their potential income is higher than those cultivating greenhouse vegetables.

So what can ACWF learn from MCTC? Today, after three on-the-spot courses in China, and the study tours for two of the groups in Israel, MCTC is able to point to the needs and interests of the members of ACWF.

"China's entrance into the era of openness, reform and modernization made it necessary for ACWF to design a program for the Development of the Chinese Women (1995-2000). Its main elements are: