Development Gateway Foundation
dgCommunities: Gender and Development
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender?intcmp=911 
September 27, 2006

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1.   NEW! HIGHLIGHT: : "Girl Power: The Impact of Girls' Education on 
HIV And Sexual Behaviour"
2.   RESOURCES
3.   NEw DISCUSSION FORUM - Education is Empowerment for Women. 
4.   MEMBER DIRECTORY: Update Your Profile for Networking & 
Collaboration 
5.   DISTRIBUTE YOUR CONTENT
6.   VIRTUAL CONSULTATION FOR INTER-AMERICAN MINISTERIAL MEETING ON 
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT  
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dgCommunities Member Survey, Fall 2006

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You're invited to participate in our first survey of the entire 
dgCommunities membership! Our aim is to obtain invaluable feedback from the 
community as a whole. You are part of a worldwide practitioner community 
that is well over 36,000 strong - won't you add your voice by taking 
just a few minutes to complete our multiple choice survey questions at 
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=458122624514)? We know there is 
much more we can do to provide a platform that facilitates your work and 
assists you in achieving a greater impact. With this survey, you can 
play an integral role in the decision making process regarding 
enhancements to the dgCommunities platform going forward. This is your platform 
and your community. We look forward to your advice, guidance, and 
suggestions! Please access the survey at 
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=458122624514).



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1. NEW HIGHLIGHT: "Girl Power: The Impact of Girls' Education on HIV 
And Sexual Behaviour"
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Girl Power: The Impact of Girls' Education on HIV And Sexual Behaviour 
- This is the title of a recent publication by ActionAid International, 
in its Education and HIV Series.   In this systematic review of over 
600 pieces of research on girls' education, sexual behaviour and HIV, 
ActionAid has shown that secondary education provides African girls with 
the power to make sexual choices that prevent HIV infection.  The 
situation is the same in many other countries as well, from India to the Far 
East and in Latin America and the Caribbean. 
Education gives girls power, reduces vulnerability and helps them make 
more independent, confident choices about their sexual behaviour.  The 
report shows that schools and teachers are the most trusted sources for 
young people to learn about HIV, and that school attendance ensures 
greater understanding of prevention messages. 

Peer group solidarity within school strengthens girls' social networks 
and creates more responsible attitudes to sexual behaviour, safer sex 
and HIV. Conversely, girls who drop out of school are more likely to 
enter into adult sexual networks, where older partners with more 
experience and power dictate the "rules" of sexual engagement. 

Poverty and vulnerability to HIV are closely linked. More educated 
women have better economic and social prospects and consequently have more 
choices.  Girls educated to secondary and tertiary levels are more 
likely to wait before having sex, are much more likely to use condoms when 
they do have sex, and are therefore at much less risk of contracting 
HIV.

read more at http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender?intcmp=911 

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2. RESOURCES
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- India: Helping Girls Protect Themselves with Education
  
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/
ItemDetail.do?itemId=1072833&intcmp=911 

- Educating Girls : The Best Weapon Against HIV/AIDS 
  
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1072815?intcmp=911 

- UNESCO IATT Education Events at International AIDS Conference
  
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1072812?intcmp=911 

- From Micro Finance to Micro Change ? Integrating Health Education and 
Micro Finance to Empower Women and Reduce Poverty
  
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1072129?intcmp=911 

- Primary Education in India ? Prospect of Meeting the MDG Target
  
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1072289?intcmp=911 


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3.   NEw DISCUSSION FORUM - Education is Empowerment for Women. 
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Share your views on the importance of educating girls and women as a 
means to empowerment as well as freedom from subjugation, sexual slavery 
and violence.  The community will benefit from program case studies and 
examples. Do remember that you can also upload these as resources 
through "Add Content" on the home page: 
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender?intcmp=911 


Some Member comments: 

a. ICT knowledge will empower women silently.The modern age demands 
functional 
   power of women rather than only notional literacy. 
  
   DR.PRABIR Dutta  (India)  Date posted: Sep 20, 2006 01:34 AM  
 
b. I am happy to see that women's education is part of the equation for 
sustainable 
   development to reduce poverty. Education will empower the women of 
the developing 
   countries and free them from all sorts of slavery they have endured 
for centuries. 

   Stanley Chassagne  (Canada)  Date posted: Sep 11, 2006 05:28 PM  


c. Denial of education for a girl is akin to denial for freedom; 
psychologically, 
   economically, physical and in any sphere of life. Educating them is 
freeing them,as 
   they will become independent and self-dependent. 

   John Mambambo  (Zimbabwe)  Date posted: Sep 11, 2006 04:46 AM

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3.  NEW MEMBER DIRECTORY - UPDATE YOUR MEMBER PROFILE!
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With over 30,000 registered dgCommunities members, the Member Directory 
provides a one-stop shop for key contacts and collaboration worldwide. 
We invite you to take advantage of this unprecedented collaborative 
tool and add your profile today!

Our new Member Directory enables you to more easily contact fellow 
professionals in the international development community for expert advice, 
information, and collaboration. You will be able to find development 
practitioners from over 200 countries, with interests and expertise in 
dozens of areas, including your own!  We invite you to update your member 
profile to let your colleagues in development know more about your 
interests and expertise. You'll find the profiles very useful when using 
the Member Directory to communicate and collaborate with fellow members 
on your next program or project. From 
http://www.developmentgateway.org?intcmp=911  simply click on "My 
Gateway" in the upper right corner, log in, scroll down to "My Member 
Profile" and click "edit this information."

Quick Start - 4 Easy Steps:

-ESTABLISH YOUR PROFILE
 
Let your colleagues in development know more about your interests and 
expertise through your dgCommunities profile. Simply log in, go to My 
Gateway, scroll down to "My Member Profile", and click "Edit this 
information".
http://www.developmentgateway.org/topics/um/user/showUserAccount.do?intcmp=911 

-SEARCH FOR MEMBERS

Log in to the Development Gateway, and click the Member Directory link 
located in the right column on any dgCommunity home page. You can 
search by: name, country, interest, expertise, organization, organization 
type, or by keywords in member bios. Search Results will show you a list 
of members with a link to their profiles. You can also reach the Member 
Directory when you log in, go to My Gateway and click on "Add Members 
to My Contacts". 
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/um~user/showMemberDirectory.do?intcmp=911 

-COMMUNICATE WITH MEMBERS 

When viewing a member's profile, click "Contact this user". This will 
open a message box in which you can type and send a message through our 
message forwarding system. 

-CREATE OWN CONTACT LIST OF MEMBERS

You can build a list of key contacts and form your own network of 
members. Searching for members will produce a results list; you can then 
select members to be added to your "My Contacts" list by clicking on the 
plus sign under "Status" for each desired contact. Or, when viewing a 
particular member's profile, click "Add this member to My Contacts". Your 
full "My Contacts" list can be viewed when you log in, go to My 
Gateway, scroll down to "My Contacts" and click "View My Contacts." 

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4. DISTRIBUTE YOUR CONTENT
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Have knowledge resources you want to share with the community, such as 
websites, reports or presentations? Want to raise awareness AND drive 
traffic to your website? You can accomplish both of them by adding 
content to the Development Gateway in dgCommunities. It's easy: simply go to 
http://topics.developmentgateway.org?intcmp=911  , click on the topic 
most related to your content, and click "Add Content Here" located in 
the middle of the page. Links to approved content are sent by e-mail 
alerts to registered members--an effective way to share knowledge and 
direct traffic to your website! 

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5. VIRTUAL CONSULTATION FOR INTER-AMERICAN MINISTERIAL MEETING ON 
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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dgCommunities members are invited to share their views in a virtual 
consultation forum with civil society and indigenous peoples sponsored by 
the Government of Bolivia and the Organization of American States, and 
in cooperation with the Development Gateway Foundation. The forum will 
address sustainable development issues. A summary of comments will be 
presented by the OAS to the First Inter-American Meeting of Ministers 
and High-Level Authorities on Sustainable Development, to be held in 
Bolivia on October 5-6. 

To participate in the consultation in English: 
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/environment/discussion/showDiscussion.do~id=1441?intcmp=911 

To participate in the consultation in Spanish: 
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/environment/discussion/showDiscussion.do~id=1461?intcmp=911 

To explore similar collaborative opportunities with the Development 
Gateway, please contact us at partners@dgfoundation.org

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DID YOU KNOW??
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As a member of the dgCommunity on Gender and Development you can share 
your knowledge resources (e.g., websites, papers, reports, 
presentations, images, news, events, etc) in just about any format including 
streaming audio and video. Each resource will be described on a unique 
interactive page that will acknowledge you as the contributor and link to 
your profile. To view full text of knowledge resources, users will follow 
links to host websites, which will benefit from increased traffic from 
the Development Gateway community!

Simply click on the "Add content here" hyperlink at:  
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/
Contribute.do~flag=url~from=SampleLayout?intcmp=911 

Thank you!
Anuradha Bhattacharjee 
Email: gender@dgfoundation.org
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender?intcmp=911 
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