Introduction

The conference was attended by over 300 delegates from various parts of Africa. Delegates were drawn from NGOs and government, although people were invited in their individual capacity not as representatives of governments. However, a large majority of representatives were female ministers and high ranking civil servants.

The colourful opening ceremony was officially opened by the Vice President of Uganda, the highest ranking African women politician and she also returned to close the conference. Dr F. Mayo, the Director General of UNESCO, Mr Salim Ahmed Salim, the Secretry General of the OAU, and the President of Zanzibar officiated at the opening ceremony. The first lady of Zanzibar was the guest of honour at the closing ceremony.

The Goal of the conference was to provide a forum for African women to co-ordinate their actions for peace in order to have an effective and significant impact on decision making processes on the continent and serve as an early warning mechanism. The objectives of the conference were:

• to develop an understanding of the impact of violent conflicts in Africa, notably from a gender perspective
• to collectively formulate forward looking strategies for African women's action to build a culture of peace
• to outline the appropriate operational mechanisms based on information and communication technologies that will allow women and women's organisations to strengthen their roles and active participation in building of a culture of peace
• share information on African women's best practices for peace, including lessons to be learnt regarding African women's traditional role in mediation and reconciliation.

My participation at the conference was as a representative of GAIN. I chaired the "Workshop on the role of women's information services in the creation of a culture of peace". The workshop explored how information can be used in the creation of a culture of peace. I also made inputs as facilitator of the "Workshop on transforming security from a gender perspective". Tilly Vriend of the IIAV, Amsterdam, which hosted the Know How Conference, participated at both these workshop as reppotuer. She also presented a copy of Women's information services and networks: a global source book to Mrs Getrude Mongella. This work is based on information from the "Mapping the World of women's information Project" which has been supported by GAIN in gathering information from African Centres.

Conference Process

Mrs Getrude Mongella was chairperson of the conference. The morning sessions were dedicated to plenary sessions with presentation of papers from various war torn areas. Various people presented papers. One presentation that moved the whole auditorium to tears was a tearful presentation by Ms Deen from Sierra Leone. She outline how the rebels besieged Freetown and how the inhabitants awaited the inevitable attack - which came as soon as the rain season stopped. Potential conflicts also arose when warring factions gave divergent views on conflict with each blaming the other for causing and perpetuating the conflict. Ethiopia and Eritrea were examples. However, positive occurrence were reported. Women form warring factions, particularly those from the great lakes region, were reported to have held talks. The afternoon session of the of the 18 and were dedicated to workshops and group work.

Outcomes of the conference

On the morning of the 20th a draft Zanzibar Declaration on Women and culture of Peace was presented and discussed in a plenary with 300 women in English and French-quite an undertaking it was! The Zanzibar Declaration was intended to be a two page document that carried the spirit of the meeting and outlined what women of Africa felt about war and desire for future peace. The final document will be produced out of the draft and corrections made at the plenary.

At the same meeting the Women's Agenda for a Culture of Peace in Africa This was the detailed outcome of the conference which set out the agenda which will be presented to OAU and to African governments as a working document. It is impossible to reproduce the whole document here but the relevant recommendations made in relation to women's information services were:

1. The promotion of information education for women to empower the value information and their own knowledge systems
2. The development of an information culture among women in and out of conflict areas.
3. The encouragement of responsible management of gender sensitive information that reduces propaganda and maintains confidentiality
4. The strengthening of co-operation among national and international information services in order to facilitate speedy collection and dissemination of security information
5. Utilisation of existing and emerging ICT for collection , organisation and dissemination of information as well the training of women in this area

The women's agenda for peace thus entails the following programme components:

• Advocacy for policy change
• Capacity building
• Peace missions
• Peace meditation
• Curriculum development
• Information sharing and the development of Communication strategies
• Research and documentation
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Resource mobilisation

These will be realised through the following strategies:

• Needs assessment
• Gender analysis of peace mechanisms
• Workshops
• Development of training modules
• Development of indicators
• Networking and coalition building
• Tracking progress

Conclusion

One can identify several areas where information people have a role : research and documentation, networking and coalition building, and information sharing and communication strategies. The radio was singled as one tool to be used for disseminating information. However, the invitation and profiling of women's information services means that UNESCO envisages a role for women's information services. Organisations will, therefore, have to create a niche for information in the creation of a peace culture at national level, while pan African organisations like GAIN can have a co-ordinating role as well as a specific regional programmes that profile the importance information sharing.

Involvement of GAIN in Follow up work.

There is a role for GAIN and its members but it will take initiative and identifying opportunity. I noted several areas in which GAIN can make an impact:

1. An immediate activity is to continue to participate and co-operate with IIAV in the Mapping Africa initiative. UNESCO is definitely interested in this. (I also spoke to IDRC and they were willing to look at our proposal on this).
2. Another area is in collecting and disseminating information on conflict and peace. Women from Angola and Sierra Leone were asking how GAIN can help them to get information in and out of conflict areas. How can GAIN participate in such activities?
3. Training in ICT. Women have not seen IT as a solution. The majority of women at the conference were sold out on radio. Few appreciated websites and listservs. They kept saying the majority of the people do not have access to it. We need to highlight the role and relevance of ICT. I think UNESCO can help us mount an effective campaign for using ICT as vehicle for transmitting information in Africa.