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Dr. Souad N. Barnoti
Jordan University for Women
The Role of Women’s NGOs in Enhancing Human Development: Lessons
drawn from the Experience of Arab Women’s Organisations
Dr. Barnoti summarised the experience and
the development of organisations working to improve the lives of
women in the Arab States.
Dr. Barnoti drew attention to the progress
which had been made in the strengthening of the women’s NGO
sector in the Arab World and the impetus which was given to women’s
organisations particularly since the Fourth World Conference for
Women, held in Beijing in 1995, the International Conference on
Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 and the World Summit
for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995.
Many NGOs concerned with women’s issues
had originally been conceived as social service organisations providing
employment or assistance to women and children. She reviewed the
trend towards the development of agencies which were focused on
enhancing women’s capacities – in training in vocational
skills to give women greater access to productive employment. Dr.
Barnoti also drew attention to the need for women’s organisations
to organise themselves and their communities, and in ensuring that
women had a voice in community level, municipal and national decision-making
forums. She drew attention to women’s legal rights and the
progress, which was being made by organisations, which were fighting
to ensure women’s equality before the law in land ownership,
property rights and inheritance.
She cautioned, however, that conflicts and
competition amongst women’s voluntary organisations could have
a negative effect on their output and she recommended that there
be closer co-operation and collaboration between organisations in
an under-resourced sector.
Dr.
Souad Barnoti is Professor at the Jordan University for Women.
She previously worked with the General Union of Women in Iraq and
has taught economics at the University of Baghdad.
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