The Impact of Women-s Training on Socio-Economic Development- MCTC Celebrates 40 Years

MCTC was founded in 1961 by MASHAV (the Center for International Cooperation of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs) under whose auspices the Symposium was held. Then, as now, MASHAV and MCTC saw as one of the Center's primary objectives the need to put gender issues on the international agenda and help empower women, especially those from the developing countries and transitional societies, to be active participants in the development and progress of their nations.

MCTC owes much to the vision of two extraordinary women - the late Mina Ben-Zvi, its founder and first director, and the late Golda Meir, former Foreign Minister and then Prime Minister of Israel. Long before the international community recognized the need and importance of programs designed to help women advance, they went ahead to develop training courses - in Israel and abroad - that would give women the tools, skills and motivation enabling them to play a meaningful role in improving their lives and those of their families and the societies in which they live.

Mazal Renford, Director of MCTC, who took up Mina Ben-Zvi's challenge, said, "What have we done in 40 years? These women have come to tell us what they have achieved. How proud Mina would have been."

At the Symposium this year, held in Haifa and Jerusalem, graduates evaluated the training they had received, reviewed with other speakers current conditions and heard about new trends in training. The past, present and future - the integration of these three components created, as noted by Ms. Maria Julia Pou de Lacalle, Senator from Uruguay, "a stimulating forum where, by sharing experiences, we were able to learn a great deal from each other."

Lacalle described her country as well-developed, with a high rate of literacy, 96% to be precise. This development, however, is not reflected on the political scene. "In our Senate," she reported, "only three of the 30 Senators are women, while in our lower House, the Chamber of Deputies, only 10 out of 99 members are women. Of course, you must remember," she stressed, "that until 1984 Uruguay was under a military regime. Thus, we have only been a democracy since the coup d'etat of that year."

Lacalle noted other problems facing Uruguay, including its high rate of unemployment, "15% at last count," plus the fact that only 40% of its women are employed in the paid labor force. She is aware of the strong correlation between economic and political empowerment and has been working to improve both, serving on three important committees in her Senate - health, education and environment, all of importance to advancing and improving the status and position of women.

Mme. Madeleine Njine Sao, of the Republic of Cameroon, agreed that political and economic empowerment are related issues, "and in my country," she said, "women lack both. Only ten out of 120 Members of our Parliament are women, although we do have two Ministers and a woman is Secretary of State. This lack of political empowerment is compounded by two factors: one, a very high rate of unemployment and two, the fact that most of our women lack a basic knowledge and awareness of the rights to which they are entitled."

Sao is a career diplomat whose entire working life has been spent laboring for her country's Foreign Office. Today, she is a senior official in the Cabinet of her country's Ministry of External Relations. She was impressed by the high calibre of the participants at the Symposium, "women who hold very key positions in government, often as Ministers or Members of Parliament. And it is amazing," she added, "to see how similar are so many of our preoccupations although we all come from such diverse backgrounds." She ticked off some of the problems facing Cameroon, "almost universal in nature," ranging from domestic abuse and violence to health-related issues, "not only the high incidence of HIV carriers, but now the re-emergence of such diseases as TB and malaria."

"Most troubling is the fact that education in my country is neither free nor compulsory. The result: many of our girls are deprived of an education since families prefer to educate their boys." To attack this problem Sao designed a scholarship program for girls, operated from a radio program she is running. "Initially, five scholarships were given to girls to attend university, with 35 given to girls to attend secondary and even primary school. So far we have helped 60 students who have met our expectations and who are doing very well, with 10 of them coming in first place in their class and 30 coming in second."

Sao was in Israel in 1993 to attend an MCTC course on "Women, Family and Society," reflecting the fact that the U.N. had designated that year as the International Year of the Family. The course gave her impressive organizational skills but, most important, she stressed, "it taught me the importance of being daring, of taking chances, of moving into uncharted waters." She saw, for example, that it was not customary for women to sit and work together to solve problems unique to their gender. Striking out to remedy this situation, she established an organization, SYNERGYE (called in French SYNFED), which brought together the 22 women who worked in country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Essentially," she explained, "this is a forum where we get to know each other and ourselves and, in the process, become aware of the problems we face, such as those connected with promotion and advancement."

Sao credits the MCTC course she attended with giving her the impetus and motivation to form SYNFED, one that is filling a vital need in educating both its women members and their make colleagues. Last March SYNFED ran a very successful seminar on Discrimination in the Ministry, another eye-opener, another way of helping women become aware of their rights and of how to redress grievances.

Another participant, Ms. Malamo Neophytou of Cyprus, was one of MCTC's first graduates who, in 1962, attended a course on "Rural Communities and Economic Development of Youth Services." "I was a very young social worker then," she recalled, "having just received my degree in social work the year before. That four-month course in Israel literally changed my life and shaped all that I would later do. It was really a very revealing experience, first of all because it was the first time that I had the opportunity to meet people from so many different countries - in Asia and Africa - and to discover how many common problems we shared, how many common challenges."

Neophytou took back from the course what she describes as a firmer belief in herself, the conviction that she could make a difference. Equally important, she learned how important community activism is to the success of any social work program, how necessary it is to engage the community in as many different areas and on as many different levels as possible.

Upon returning home from Haifa, Neophytou's first task was to organize a National Youth Council, geared for those aged 16 to 27, which would demonstrate to the authorities what youth can do. From there she proceeded to move on and up, creating impressive frameworks, "all stemming from my course here in Israel," she repeated. Her projects included her successful attempt to solve the problem of adult education, or rather its lack, by introducing night courses in home economics, parenting skills and leadership training for women.

In 1967 Neophytou moved from the Department of Education to the Department of Social Welfare, working, all the time, with communities to provide facilities for children under the age of five. Today, she is the President of the Pancyprian Welfare Association, a large umbrella organization of local communities. In 1994 she and a group of volunteers from the Association returned to Israel for a special one-week course organized for them by MCTC. Highlights of the course were extensive visits to many volunteer organizations in Israel, observing how they were organized and run. Members of the Association have also attended on-the-spot courses in Cyprus and Greece, short- term missions geared to improving their managerial and professional skills.

Coming back to Israel for the 2001 Symposium was a very exciting experience for Neophytou. "Sitting here," she said, "I go back in my mind through all of my professional work and realize how much I owe to MCTC - to the people I met and to the ideas I absorbed and integrated into my work. I feel as if so many winds have sown so many seeds but, at the beginning, you never know where these seeds will land or how they will grow and develop. Now, back here, I remember that first course, almost 40 years ago, and realize that now I know where the seeds have landed, now I know that social work and I can make a difference - and we have."

Another early MCTC graduate at the Symposium was Mrs. Euna Mosala Mathabiso of Lesotho, a member of her country's Parliament and President of the Lesotho National Council of Women (LNCW), an umbrella organization of 19 affiliates, all women's groups operating in different fields.

The course on the Role of Women in Voluntary Organizations that she attended in 1963 had, she asserted, an enormous impact on both her professional life and the socio-economic development of her country. It led her almost immediately to found the LNCW, whose establishment and accomplishments she regards as dramatic proof of the efficacy of the multiplier effect, a concept she discovered in Israel. "An independent women's organization can do just so much, but, with the backing of a large umbrella organization which enables those with knowledge and know-how to transmit this to those who don't have this information, it can do so much more."

Mathabiso recalled the cold summer night, July 12, 1963, when she and three other heads of women's voluntary organizations in Lesotho began their journey to Israel, to a four-month course that would open their eyes to an entirely new way of helping women. The group toured the length and breadth of Israel, visiting a great number of programs and projects run by different women's groups, including daycare centers, nursery schools and vocational schools. They were impressed by the fact that, although each organization worked independently, they all belonged to one umbrella organization which enabled them to work together when addressing matters of concern to all. This Lesotho did not have.

As an umbrella organization, the LNCW plays different roles. In many cases, it actually helps an affiliate organization get started, initiating and encouraging it to develop its program and continuing this involvement with ongoing education, counseling, workshops and seminars. "The result," said Mathabiso, "is that we are reaching and having an impact on the lives of thousands and thousands of women."

The LNCW also serves as a lobby and advocate for women's and workers' rights, always operating from the premise that it is important for women of all social, political and religious affiliations to work together. It also runs workshops on various topics - gender, legal, human rights, democracy, advocacy, research, health, etc. "We are constantly trying to create a climate of awareness among all our women," said Mathabiso, "regarding their rights, what is often a new awakening and new understanding of who they are and what they can achieve."

The role played by the LNCW varies with the needs and demands of its individual affiliates. "For example," explained Mathabiso, "for one of our affiliates, the Lesotho Union of Women with Disabilities, we helped them to find funding for scholarships, food, clothing and wheelchairs, as well as helping them set up income-generating projects and organize workshops informing members of their rights."

Mathabiso regards as one of LNCW's major achievements its introduction of early childhood education to her country. "In 1972," she reported, "we set up the first preschool with 35 children. That was the beginning of great things. Soon we sent 12 teachers to MCTC for early childhood training. And, from those humble beginnings, preschools mushroomed throughout Lesotho, with the government ultimately setting up an Early Childhood Care and Development Department in our Ministry of Education."

The LNCW also helped various affiliates set up vocational schools, as well as vocational training centers. "For example," reported Mathabiso, "one of our affiliates, the Lesotho Women's League, set up a vocational training center in a very remote rural region which, today, has trained more than a thousand people." She gave other equally impressive examples of how the affiliates worked, frequently helped by the advice given by the LNCW. One affiliate, the Boitekos Women's Association, for example, has a cattle project where they rear cows and, when these cows breed, their calves are given to other members of the Association. Another affiliate, the Lesotho Trade Union Congress, has established a vocational training center to prepare its members for both factory employment as well as self-employment.

It is obvious that the 19 affiliates of the LNCW have their fingers in many pies, but all benefit by being under the aegis of a large umbrella organization to which they can turn for advice and help and which, in turn, is continuously lobbying for their interests. "And the seeds of all we do," repeated Mathabiso, "are a direct outcome of my four-month training course way back in 1963."

For Ms. Jacinta Makokha of Kenya, a 1986 graduate of MCTC's course on Promotion of Income-Generating Projects for Rural Women, the training not only taught her "in a very professional way" how to better identify and market micro-enterprises, but it also gave her a better understanding of the crises women face, not only from men but from other women too.

Makokha is an internationally-recognized expert in the field of gender training, "on opening the minds of women," she explained, "to ways of achieving better relationships with each other and with men, especially by learning how to recognize and break down traditional role-stereotyping." Gender training includes an ongoing attempt to create awareness among women of the importance of taking matters into their own hands. Currently, Makokha is a management consultant for women church leaders in her country, giving them the skills, strategies and information that will enable them "to take control of their spiritual as well as material lives."

Makokha agreed that training is a crucial component in the development of nations and this, of course, includes training of women, but stressed that training for women also means "restoring their dignity" by allowing them access to both political and economic empowerment. She, as other speakers, noted the correlation between these areas. "And, in Kenya," she noted, "which is still basically a poor country, women face many constraints limiting their access both to economic and political power." Only six of the 250 members of Kenya's Parliament are women, "due in part," explained Makokha, "to the fact that it costs money to win a campaign - and few women have these financial resources." Another constraint - the cultural pressures forcing girls in Kenya to marry at a very young age, denying them access to advanced educational opportunities.

Makokha has held significant positions with such bodies as her government's Ministry of Local Governments, the World Bank, UNICEF and UNAID. In every forum and agency in which she has been involved she has focused her attention on highlighting women's issues and helping to bring women into the decision-making process. As she stressed, "Only when women are in places where policies regarding their welfare are made and their input recognized and appreciated will there be true advancement."

In spite of constraints facing women in Kenya, Makokha is proud of how much has been accomplished. As proof she gave some examples of successful projects. In the GIZ Small Towns Development Project that covers eight towns from four provinces, she was influential in ensuring that gender issues be taken into account at every stage of the planning and development processes. "Today," she said, "the project has grown into a full-fledged program that continues to place high premium on community participation, and very significantly on women's participation."

Makokha has also been instrumental in promoting serious networking and coalition-building among women's NGOs, as well as mobilizing and training women candidates in campaign strategies and electioneering.

Looking to the future, the Symposium also focused on new trends in training, including Distance Learning (DL) and the impact of the New Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as the Internet, video-conferencing and satellite connection.

As was pointed out, this new technology can open up untapped vistas, improve ways of communicating and transferring information and knowledge to trainees sited far away from trainers. It is an exciting alternative to the traditional face-to-face frontal training now prevalent, which requires trainees to leave homes and jobs to come for training. It is also expensive. The participants, however, were heartened by the advice given by Ms. Brenda Juntunen, of the World Bank Institute, "not to think where they are now but to realize that the technology is developing so rapidly that they must think of the future. If, for example, the use of the Internet today may cost as much as $50 a month, definitely out of reach for many, realize that it will be much cheaper very soon."

Juntunen stressed the importance of the new technology and the way it will allow low-income groups access to information from all over the world. She cited as an example how a group of artisans, using this technology, will be able to learn where the best places for purchasing their raw materials are and where their best and most profitable markets are located. "This new technology will," she said, "be very valuable, especially for micro-enterprises. It will transform the way they do business. So even if you do not have the new technology, as most countries today do not, remember," she said, "that the potential is there and that it will be available for more and more countries sooner than most people realize."

Since the use of ITCs for distance learning, as we know it today, is still fairly new - in concept and execution - it is too early to gauge its impact on women, although, as reported at the Symposium, some programs are already targeting women. Commenting on the new technology, Senator Lacalle of Uruguay agreed that it can be "a valuable way of empowering women, of giving them knowledge not otherwise available to them."

There is no doubt that MCTC did celebrate its 40^th birthday in a most significant and meaningful way - assessing past training, reviewing current conditions and looking, as always, to the future.