A pilot project, selected by the United Nation's Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), will be launched in Linqu, a well-off mountainous county in Shandong Province, east China, aiming at developing women's leadership skills.
The two-year project, jointly sponsored by UNIFEM and the Chinese government, will feature a series of activities, such as lectures and training programs aimed to build future women leaders, according to Wednesday's China Daily report.
Some 1,000 local women should have undergone some training by the end of the next March, and outstanding candidates will be chosen to further their training, increasing their chances of becoming a village leader.
"About 80 percent of the villages in Linqu have at least one woman leader at present, the percentage will jump up over 95 percent when the project wraps up," the newspaper quoted a leading official as saying.
The project is more important than simply increasing the number of local women leaders, according to Chen Lanyan, UNIFEM Gender Adviser for Northeastern Asia.
The project should also produce a new type of leaders, the " accountable" ones who are good at communicating to people their missions whilst willing to push forward these missions under the supervision of the people.
(Xinhua News Agency10/18/2001)
