First, the President of the Philippines has directed all members of his Cabinet to include the Beijing Platform for Action in their agency key result areas or KRAs, which they have produce.

Also, the President has directed all concerned agencies to mainstream the relevant areas of concern in the Platform for Action in the Social Reform Agenda.

And may I also say that your counterparts, the women legislators and some progressive male legislators in the Philippines also have a legislative agenda, which in a sense, has been inspired by the Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development as well as the Beijing Platform for action.

Ultimately, in conclusion, may I say, that ultimately, the Platform for Action is a platform for change. May I share with you one of my favorite experiences in my many years of involvement in the preparations for the Fourth World Conference on Women.

In 1991, in Vienna, because the Commission on the Status of Women was located in Vienna before it moved to New York, the CSW had to decide on the title and them of the Fourth World Conference on Women. At that time, I was Vice-Chairperson ofthe Com-mission and was assigned the task of chairing the consultations on this issue. That's why, I remember it quite well.

One of the early favorites for the title of the Conference and the theme as "Half the World, Halfthe Power." It was very short, it wa~ very strong and it had a nice ring to it, like a bumper sticker, very nice. But after some discussion, more sober heads prevailed as it was pointed out that the proposal sounded as it was pointed out that the proposal sounded a bit too threatening to men. Actually, it was the Asian group that pointed it out. We're very sensitive about conflict, right? And it may undermine the support that we would need from time, so in a sense, that was ruled out.

　

The second popular suggestion was "Partnership for Equality, Development and Peace." This was definitely much friendlier and it would have been chosen as the theme if it were not for one practical problem. We were informed by the Chinese delegate at that time, the Chinese delegation, that there would be a serious translation problem as there was no character, Chinese character that stood for partnership between men and women outside of marriage. Their character for partnership between men and women connoted marriage. So, again, back to the drawing boards.

Finally, the unanimous choice was "The Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace," basically, to emphasize that action was needed to achieve the goals of Nairobi.

As I reflect on Beijing and beyond, on the need for change and on the implementation of the Platform for Action, I realize the need to combine elements from these early discussion on the title and theme of the Conference.

What are these elements?