Introduction

Many of the articles in this issue focus on Africa, where women's peace groups are multiplying. The WRI Women's Working Group (WRIWWG) had been discussing with South African groups the possibility of holding the 5th WRI Women's conference in their country. While several groups were supportive, the challenges of building a new non-racist and non-sexist society are absorbing their energies. This fact, combined with a major criticism of the 1992 WRI Women's conference--that it was too large and tried to deal with too many issues at the same time--means that there are no immediate plans to hold the conference in South Africa.

At last year's WRI women's meeting in the Basque country, there was enthusiasm instead for the idea of holding smaller, regional meetings around a specific theme--for example, building up civil society, or reconciliation after conflict--which would culminate in several years in an international conference. A questionnaire about this idea, asking for suggestions about themes, was mailed out to WRIWWG members. A short meeting of WRIWWG core members will take place in London in early February to look at the responses to this questionnaire. We'll report back to you the results in the next issue. Meanwhile, we welcome your contributions and criticisms of the WRI Women's Newsletter. The deadline for the next issue will be May 30.

Shelley Anderson