CROATIA
January 2006.
The following sub-regional centres took part
in this meeting:
Anima INEC Kotor
INDOC Centar Beograd
Infocentar Skopje
enska infoteka Zagreb
enske studije i istraivanja Novi Sad
The 1st meeting of info-docu centres on the
sub-regional level took place in Zagreb. During
this meeting many suggestions for the future
and ideas for the improvement of our activities
came up, as well as a fruitful discussion on
the strategies for their implementation.
The starting point was the need for decentralisation.
We have already learned a lot and opposite to
the situation in the beginning of the REWNID
NET, both the material resources and the know-how
are now more or less equivalently distributed
throughout the sub-region. Therefore we can
all gain and produce more in the overall cooperation
and equal participation than in the situation
of having a tutor centre.
The main idea is to establish a strong decentralized
sub-regional network of info-docu centres. The
network would include all info-docu centres
from the sub-region willing to actively partake
in its work. Each centre will have its own duties
and responsibilities.
The basis of the collaboration will be the
following activities:
a joint website
media monitoring
updating of the database "Directory of
women's groups in the region"
on-line libraries (in more distant future)
coordination of the network
In detail:
1. A joint website
At the moment each info-docu centre has its
own website. One can reach websites of other
centres (either from the same country or from
foreign) using a link.
We agreed there is a need for a web-portal.
Our work would be much more efficient and useful
if we could use the modern technology according
to the following scheme:
users centres (data collecting) - editor
provider
Having a provider for the portal will enable
us to organize and present the data in a more
proficient way. We need an expert, a programmer,
whose technical support can provide us the possibility
to bring more information in a shorter period
of time to the final users. Info-docu centres
could continue with their work of collecting
all kind of information and data on women. Other
women's organizations could keep on working
in their particular domains. The editor would
be there to organize the in-coming data in a
searchable manner. The technical support would
ensure that the data is formatted in the most
appropriate way.
Contents of the portal:
Databases of the women's groups
Databases of the newspaper articles on women's
issues
News (legislation changes, new women's organizations,
activities)
Presentation of women's groups
Place for women to express their opinions
and talents
Forum
Electronic library
The great improvement would be the possibility
for all women's groups to forward the data they
have to one place where it would be automatically
publicized. As the centres would provide information
on both institutional and non-institutional
issues, the users could get all kind of related
data, for the whole region, at one place. The
portal would make the data much easier to find
and to compare; it would give a broader perspective
on how women's issues develop in the region
and would create stronger connections between
women's groups throughout the region.
2. Media monitoring
Beside archiving and documenting, info-docu
centres should also analyse the existing data.
REWIND NET already conducted an international
study on violence against women based on the
content analyses of the newspaper articles.
We all agreed upon the importance of further
analyses.
The centre from Belgrade suggested a research
on the strategies for reducing poverty among
women.
The centre from Novi Sad suggested we should
repeat the study on violence. The legislature
in Serbia and Montenegro has changed and it
would be interesting to see the effects. Other
centres were against this suggestion. Violence
is currently a very trendy topic and it is discussed
a lot. If we are going to conduct a longitudinal
research on violence against women it is better
to repeat the content analyses after 5 years.
This year we are going to do a research on women
and politics, women in parliament in particular.
In each of the countries involved in the network
we are going to study the media presentation
of the women who are the representatives in
the parliament.
The research will contain:
a survey of the efforts done by the women
representatives in parliament themselves regarding
their presentation in the media (via a questionnaire)
a content analyses of the articles in the
written media on the women representatives in
parliament which of them are present in the
media, which are not, and for those who are
present in what kind of context is this
a handbook that will contain conclusions and
advice a scientific insight in the messages
one can get from the media concerning women
politicians, and guidance to help women politicians
with their media presentation, as well as biographies
of all current women representatives in parliaments
for the whole region.
The proposed agenda for this research is:
1. Continuously (most probably we will use the
material from the period March June 2006):
press-clipping
2. In the following months, to be finished before
July: composing the questionnaire, conducting
the survey
3. September to November: content analyses
4. publishing the book of results
This research will be coordinated by enska
infoteka, as this centre already has experience
in coordinating an international research. A
sociologist working for enska infoteka will
compose the questionnaire and the matrix. All
the centres will use these same tools to enable
us to compare all the data collected and processed.
The questionnaire and the matrix for the content
analyses once composed will remain useful tools
for the future research or longitudinal studies.
3. Updating of the database "Directory
of women's groups in the region"
This is work to be done by each centre respectively.
It takes lots of time and we discussed how we
could organize it better. Many organizations
do not respond to our e-mails and many don't
have e-mail address at all (and these are the
ones which could probably gain the most from
being present in such a database). Nothing is
more efficient than spending a week every few
months trying to reach by phone all of the organizations
which do not reply to our e-mail inquiry.
A web portal would help with this problem because
it would enable all women's groups to easier
submit and make public all the data about them
and their work.
4. On-line libraries
On-line libraries are at the moment one of the
long-term goals of all info-docu centres.
5. Coordination of the network
To be able to establish an international (sub-regional)
network, as an institution, which will be able
to achieve more than each centre could produce
by itself, we need technical support and coordination.
The activity of maintaining a web portal, and
some other activities as well, require support,
which the network itself is not capable to provide.
We need a computer programmer and a person familiar
with the subject (women's issues and feminism)
will have to assist the programmer in editorial
matters. Also, the equipment is needed: a server
and some particular programs (e.g. spip).
The Office for Gender Equality in Novi Sad might
be interested in cooperation with the network.
In this case The Office could promote our common
goals by providing the network with a computer
expert and her/his assistant, with the equipment
and basic support for the centres to carry on
with their activities. The work already accomplished
by the centres, our credibility and tradition
would enhance the competence and effectiveness
of the Office. The contribution of each centre
will be in maintaining and reinforcing its fundamental
activities:
- collecting and archiving data on the status
and treatment of women, on initiatives and changes,
press-clipping
- media monitoring
- providing and developing public libraries
specialized in women's topics
- updating data in the " Directory of women's
groups in the region"
- publishing and keeping track of the publications
concerning women or written by women
- education (both scientific and awareness raising)
In order to make our work prompt, accessible
and of use as much as possible, beside coordinator
and assistant for data collecting and processing
in each centre, it is, according to our experience,
necessary to have a translator for the English
language. The translating can be done either
in each centre or at the editorial level.
As the network is sub-regional, we are going
to propose to all women's info-docu organizations
from the sub-region to take part in the network.
We will first ask to cooperate with info-docu
centres from the sub-region that have not been
present at this meeting, but are part of the
REWIND NET. If some of them are not able to
partake in the sub-regional network, we will
contact other organizations from the same part
of this sub-region that might be interested
to participate. We shall also contact organizations
from Slovenia (this country is not a part of
the REWIND NET but is a part of this geographical
region).
All the organizations that agree to join the
network will have to contribute with their own
work and responsibilities.
Coordination of the network will require from
the centres to gather periodically for evaluation
meetings and to discuss further activities.
Discussion on the REWIND NET as a regional
network (i.e. on the future of the network as
a whole):
As a result of this meeting the centres that
were present agreed to work together intensively
as a strong decentralized sub-regional network
of info-docu centres. Therefore we decided to
appear together as a sub-regional network in
the next annual meeting of the REWIND NET.
Conclusions and suggestions to be brought up
on that meeting are:
We recommend such a division of labour between
the different levels of the network where the
sub-regional centres would work with the databases,
and the regional level would be an educational
core of the network:
maintaining of the sub-regional level of the
REWIND NET
besides for the evaluation and planning, the
annual meeting of the REWIND NET should also
serve as a good opportunity for information
and knowledge exchange and for the process of
learning together
Trainings and workshops should take place during
the annual meeting. We propose the following
topics as the most necessary/useful: fundraising
(perhaps already for the meeting in Baku), (new)
principles of work in the libraries/archives,
approaches in documentary work (in order to
harmonize our standards and searching tools),
experience and advice from the "old",
already institutionalised info-docu centres
and networks (e.g. meeting with organizations
from Gφtteburg and Kopenhagen).
In order to work successfully, the network
should decentralize on the regional level as
well.
Due to the contemporary changes, the opportunities
to apply for funds are not equally distributed
throughout the region. Those centres with the
best chances for getting the funds should do
the fundraising - on one side the EU members,
on the other centres from the least developed
countries in the East.
The research (media monitoring) on women
in parliament can be conducted in the whole
region if other centres are willing to participate.
It is important for this work to be done professionally
(the data must be processed by the experts or
the results may be of no value at all). Therefore
each centre willing to participate has to be
able to provide an expert for its part of the
work.
These are the duties to be completed by the
members of the sub-regional network (for now):
Novi Sad a project proposal for the Office
for the Gender Equality
Zagreb composing the questionnaire for the
women representatives in parliament, and the
matrix for the media monitoring of their presentation
Belgrade have to send the matrix from a similar
research to Zagreb
All press-clipping and to survey women representatives
in parliament via a questionnaire
