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Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOs Gender
Violence and Reproductive Rights Rating: 5 on a scale of 10 Review This is an unusual book. I would classify it as a book on recent history. I bought it based on a review in a medical journal that touted it as an excellent book for gaining some understanding about how NGOs work and how things really develop in regard to NGOs. I would say the book does answer many things with regard to this. However, it really has little to do with medical NGOs per se. It has everything to do with the international development of the women's movement with regard to violence against women, human rights and reproductive rights. This development process could be applied to any other agenda in similar fashion, however there is no given formula, just a complex process involving many people, organizations and ideas all being gradually directed toward something meaningful and important. There are discernible principles The book begins with a description of a model of the interaction between NGOs and the United Nations. This is followed by a brief history of the women's movement in the early 20th century. This was quite fascinating. The early history involves what amounts to a peace movement in regard to World War I and issues regarding women who immigrate and what their rights were. She then moves into the realm of the 1960's thru the 1980's discussing the detailed development of the international women's movement with regard to human rights. Principally, she talks about the decade 1975-1985 and the associated United Nations conferences involving the decade of the woman. She reviews in detail the conferences with regard to women in Copenhagen, Mexico City, and Nairobi. She describes the gradual process of developing agendas, relationships, leaders, organizations, and events. Through these lengthy processes the movement develops a growing consistency, a shared vision, the ability to tolerate and work with differences, the ability to elaborate its message, the ability to exercise power, the ability to organize effectively, an understanding of how to work with the media, an appreciation for serendipity and ultimately the ability to bring an entire process to meaningful completion . These were tedious processes. She tries to capture the leverage points and point out the many small and large contributions which relate to the issues surrounding women's rights as human rights . She then moves into the 1990's talking about the same developments related to reproductive rights. The conflicts between "northern" and "southern" tier countries are talked about in detail and are quite interesting. This book would be of value to anyone who would like to understand more clearly much of the nitty-gritty details of how things gradually evolve, change and develop. I came away with a sense of how complex these undertakings are, and a sense for how long it really takes to accomplish something where hearts and minds must be made aware and changed. There is much to have conflict over in these long journeys, but much to be gained by sticking to the focus during the journey. The general concepts could be applied to any number of agendas. She gives clear examples of how different cultures can come into conflict or have legitimate differences of opinion and then tells how they resolved (or not) these differences. The book starts kind of slow. If you know a lot about agenda setting, skip chapter 1 and go to the stories in the latter chapters. I took away several things from this book:
I believe there is much more to this process than was described. What is written in this book is helpful, but just a beginning. This is an important history to have written. It is an important history to understand. It is important to not let it languish. All opinions are those of Curtis Climer, MD Copyright 2010
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