• Submitted by: admin
• Caribbean
• culture an traditions
• Education
• international
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• Politics and Government
• 07 / 14 / 2008

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Organized by the NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women, settled here, the meeting took place until last weekend with the presence of experts from 21 countries.

It tackled ways to foster that sector through micro-financing.

In Cuba, the work focuses on the social aspect. "Our population has a high educational level," stated Maritzel Gonzalez-Quevedo Alpizar, representative from the Federation of Cuban Women.

"Our experiences surprise many," she noted, "who do not know how successful we have been without large resources and developing education, health and social assistance programs."

The forum analyzed perspective of gender in access to work and control of resources, as well as a kind of exclusive financing for women.

After two weeks of discussions and a trip to the state of Terengganu to learn about the Malaysian experience in micro-credit for poor women, each country presented an action plan.

Representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, Granada, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Surinam, Timor Leste, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and the host country attended the event.

(AIN)