Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Beijing+25 Review (Bangkok)

President Jungsook Kim, Vice President Linda Liu, Representatives to UNESCAP Chularat Israngkool na Ayutthaya and Sirirat Tamrongterakul and NCW of Thailand Vice President, Dr. Lalivan Karnchanachari, represented the International Council of Women at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Beijing+25 Review which took place at the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok, Thailand 27- 29 November 2019. The conference highlighted the achievements, challenges and priorities for realizing gender equality and women’s empowerment in the region.

In general, many countries in the Asia Pacific region have achieved gender parity in education, significant reduction in maternal mortality, integration of gender equality in laws, policies, and national development plans. Noting that women faced additional challenges in the workplace and that rural, migrant and disabled women faced even more barriers in economic empowerment, delegates acknowledged the need for more gender responsive social protection systems such as maternity protections, child grants, social insurance for informal sector workers and universal health services for all women and girls.

Member states also identified key priorities in the eradication of all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) to include implementation of laws and providing support services to victims of violence. Regarding women’s political empowerment, progress was attributed to the effectiveness of quotas at all levels of government, capacity building programs for women and the inclusion of women’s equal rights in the constitution. In particular, members from the Pacific islands stressed the damaging impact of climate change and natural disasters on the lives of women and affirmed the benefits of women’s participation in disaster reduction, adaption and resource management programs.

On the second day, there were panels on the four areas identified as priorities for accelerating progress. Panelists in “Inclusive development, shared prosperity and decent work,” discussed good practices for economic empowerment such as providing access to financing for women entrepreneurs, provision of care as a business enterprise for women, and innovative funding like bonds for women led businesses.

Member states accepted that economic empowerment of women is a key to eradicating poverty, while civil society representatives emphasized the need to recognize the value of unpaid work to ensure social protection for women workers and to eliminate the gender pay gap. Experts on the second panel, “Freedom from violence, stigma and stereotypes,” agreed that sexual harassment and VAWG are widespread in all areas of life and conveyed measures and best practices such as criminalization of sexual violence, capacity building of security and police as well as necessity of prosecution and justice.

Speakers on the third panel, “Accountability, participation and gender-responsive institutions,” shared their experiences on institutionalizing gender mainstreaming at national and local levels. They underscored the importance of women’s political representation and enactment of laws to integrate gender equality into national development plans. They also noted that tools for the successful implementation of gender policy include gender responsive budgeting, planning and monitoring, establishment of gender indicators for all levels of government and collection of gender-disaggregated data. The fourth panel, “Environmental conservation, climate action and resilience-building,” highlighted the need to heighten societal awareness of the benefits of gender cooperation for climate change through collection of data on the impact of climate change on women.

Many special events and side events were held in-between the official sessions.

At “Time is Now: Partnerships and Innovative Financing to Close the Gender Gap,” panelists spoke about the need for all stakeholders to collaborate and create new types of funding for the achievement of gender equality.

The conference concluded with the adoption of the “Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+25 Review” which will be presented at the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York in March 2020.