ENG-2004 — Page 265

Social Welfare | 219

people, disengaged youth, the elderly, newly arrived families, women and ethnic minorities) becoming more socially included and gainfully employed. The CIIF will be extended for three years from 2005 to consolidate its early success in promoting social capital concepts and helping to break the cycles of disadvantage, as noted in the 2004 Policy Address.

The overall impact, critical success factors and possible future development directions of the CIIF are being jointly evaluated by a consortium of seven research teams from five local tertiary institutions, with results expected in 2006. The CIIF has also received external recognition. For example, an Asian Development Bank representative who attended both of the CIIF annual sharing fora was of the view that the CIIF provided social capital development know-how for the region.

Women's Commission

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The Women's Commission was set up on January 15, 2001 as a central mechanism to promote the well-being and interests of women in Hong Kong. It is tasked to identify women's needs and address matters of concern to women in a holistic and systematic manner. It has developed a long-term vision and strategy for the development and advancement of women in Hong Kong. The Women's Commission takes a strategic overview of women's issues, advises the Government on policies and initiatives that are of concern to women and seeks to ensure that women's perspectives are factored in (or mainstreamed) during policy formulation.

Chaired by a non-official member and comprising another 21 members, the commission's mission is 'To enable women in Hong Kong to fully realise their due status, rights and opportunities in all aspects of life.' To this end, the commission has adopted a three-pronged strategy of creation of an enabling environment, empowerment of women and public education. Special working groups have been set up to take forward work in these areas. It also performs three strategic functions in championing women's causes, inspiring and catalysing changes and mobilising community resources.

In respect of creation of an enabling environment, the commission has secured the Administration's agreement to introduce gender mainstreaming in different policy areas incrementally. The aim is to integrate women's needs and perspectives in formulation and implementation of public policies, programmes and legislation. An analytical tool in the form of a checklist (i.e. the Gender Mainstreaming Checklist) has been developed. Since 2002, the checklist has been applied to 14 policy areas or programmes. Plans are being prepared to roll out the checklist to more policy areas on an incremental basis, and to review the implementation of gender mainstreaming. In addition, since 2001, gender-related training has been provided to over 700 civil servants of different grades. All bureaux and departments have designated "Gender Focal Points" to serve as the contact/resource person for his/her organisation.

In the empowerment of women, the Women's Commission aims to better equip women for life's challenges and to create an enabling environment for women to develop themselves. The commission has reviewed and suggested improvements to a number of services for women to ensure their appropriateness, adequacy and quality.