Kerala's Gender Park eyes US partnership in biennial meet

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 17: Kerala's Gender Park, an initiative under the state Social Justice Department, is planning to rope in the US government as partner in an international biennial conference to be held here in November this year.

A top Gender Park official said preliminary discussions in this regard with the US Consulate in Chennai have been held to explore the possibilities of partnership in the first International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE-1).

UN Women, the United Nations' entity for gender equality and empowerment of women, is the key partner of the conference. The World Bank has also expressed interest to partner in the three-day event beginning on November 12 at Kovalam near here. "US Consul General in Chennai Phillip A.

Min recently visited the Gender Park office here and expressed happiness over the concept and activities of the institution.

He also said the US government is very much keen to partner in such a conference," Gender Park CEO Dr P T M Sunish said."Based on that, we submitted a proposal seeking US partnership in the international Gender Conference.

The Consulate's response was very positive and we are waiting for the final reply from the US government," he said.

The ICGE-1 on 'Gender, Governance and Inclusion' is envisaged to bring together thinkers, scholars, field experts, professionals and policymakers from around the world on a common platform to focus on gender inequalities and the need to find different ways of strengthening inclusion on women in development process.

PTI