ASEAN Women unite to promote Women’s Leadership

06-Oct-2016

Source:  ASEAN Secretariat News

ASEAN Women unite to promote Women’s Leadership

SINGAPORE, 6 October 2016 – The 15th Meeting of the ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW) finalised the ACW Work Plan 2016-2020 which aims to advance women’s rights and gender equality in ASEAN through regional cooperation. The plan highlights women’s leadership, non-gender stereotyping and social norm change, gender mainstreaming across the three pillars of ASEAN, elimination of violence against women (VAW), economic empowerment of women, and protection and empowerment of women in vulnerable situations.

Guided by the theme “Promoting Women’s Leadership Through Social Norm Change in ASEAN”, ACW representatives from Member States exchanged views on leveraging regional cooperation to enhance the leadership role of women.  The representatives agreed to engage all stakeholders in society in order to make greater headway in promoting the interests of women in the region.

Rahayu Buang, Director of the Office for Women’s Development of the Ministry of Social and Family Development of Singapore, and current Chair of the ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW), emphasised the relevance of the ACW Work Plan key priorities. She  said “women’s issues must be viewed within the context of changing social, economic and political landscapes.”

Emmeline Versoza, Executive Director of the Philippine Commission on Women and outgoing ACW Chair highlighted that ACW is committed to monitoring its work more systematically to ensure greater impact on the lives of women and girls in the region. ACW also collaborated with the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) to form adhoc working groups on mainstreaming gender across the three pillars of the ASEAN Community as well as in developing regional guidelines on data collection on VAW.  These initiatives are instrumental and strategic as “we need to amplify the voices of women and girls to realise a gender-responsive ASEAN,” said Versoza.

“We need to work together to collect data on the SDGs specifically on gender mainstreaming, in line with ASEAN Community Vision 2025,” said Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee as he underscored that the complementarities between ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development reinforce the urgency to link various sectors within ASEAN, particularly with the Economic and Political-Security Communities.

The ACW representatives also had a dialogue with other stakeholders including ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Network (AWEN), ASEAN Confederation of Women’s Organisation (ACWO), UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific – Asian and Pacific Training Centre on Information and Communication Technology for Development (UN ESCAP-APCICT). The dialogue focused on the existing and future collaboration on regional initiatives that promote economic contribution of women, the role of women as entrepreneurs, the private sector’s role and contribution to women economic empowerment, and how information and communication technologies can be leveraged to empower women economically.

Further, the ACW met with the representative of Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, who has affirmed commitment to continue dialogue and cooperation in the region to advance gender equality and women empowerment. Particularly, the Government of Japan has established the Japan-ASEAN Women Empowerment Fund which will provide financing for small businesses such as sole proprietorships, business groups and SMEs operated by women in ASEAN countries.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Singapore hosted a Forum on Women’s Financial Security in Old Age on 7 October in cooperation with the Tsao Foundation. The forum brought together key policy makers from ASEAN Member States, ASEAN Plus Three Countries, relevant non-government organisations, policy think-tanks and international organisations and leading academics to bring attention and action on the issue of financial security among older women.

The 15th ACW Meeting was attended by delegations from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam and the ASEAN Secretariat.

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