204 Social Welfare
was set up to encourage mutual concern and assistance, promote community participation and mobilise community resources through cross-sector collaboration to build social capital and foster harmony.
At the end of 2006, the CIIF had approved $91 million to fund 116 projects carried out by more than 2 700 organisations, schools and businesses working together. Eighty-five of these projects are at various stages of operation. When fully implemented in three years, the projects will enable over 20 000 people who were previously service recipients to become volunteers. These projects will result in over 340 mutual help networks and over 20 cooperatives being formed. In addition, 2 000 jobs will be created; 3 500 jobs will be matched; and over 300 000 people will be helped under the programme.
Some of the new strategies are showing encouraging results, with groups. previously considered marginalised, such as unemployed middle-aged people, disengaged youth, the elderly, new arrivals, women and ethnic minorities, the homeless, ex-mentally ill and people with disabilities, becoming more integrated into society and gainfully employed. The viability of these social capital development strategies was affirmed by the Chief Executive in his 2006-07 Policy Address. The Chief Executive acknowledged the contributions made through the CIIF over the past four years that created new models of district collaboration in mobilising community resources and building mutual support networks. The CIIF will extend these good practice models to mainstream services.
Women's Commission
The Women's Commission was set up on January 15, 2001, to promote the well- being and interests of women in Hong Kong. The commission identifies women's needs and addresses their concerns in a holistic and systematic manner. It has a long- term vision and strategy for the development and advancement of women in Hong Kong. The commission advises the Government on policies concerning women and seeks to ensure that their perspectives are taken into account when formulating policies.
The commission comprises 22 members including the chairperson who is a non- official member. Its quest is 'to enable women in Hong Kong to fully realise their due status, rights and opportunities in all aspects of life'. In line with this goal, the commission has adopted a three-pronged strategy: creating an enabling environment, empowering women and promoting public education. It also performs three strategic functions in championing women's causes: inspire and act as a catalyst to speed up changes, and mobilise community resources.
The commission has secured the Government's agreement to gradually introduce gender mainstreaming in different policy areas to create an enabling environment. A Gender Mainstreaming Checklist was drawn up in 2002 to facilitate officers to take women's needs and perspectives into account in the formulation of government policies. This checklist has been used in 19 policies or programmes. Plans are being made to extend the checklist to cover more policy areas. Since 2001, gender-related training has been provided to over 1500 civil servants of different grades. All