Transcript Slide 1

A Report
for and by
the people
of the
Asia-Pacific
Power, Voice and Rights
1. Main messages
2. Where the region stands
3. Three strategic areas
• Building economic power
• Promoting political voice
• Advancing legal rights
4. Bringing equality within reach
5. Moving forward
No single measure is
sufficient to capture
entrenched gender
inequalities
Data are selective or absent to
capture gender gaps
•Asset ownership; violence against
women; how gender norms affect
men; different status of men and
women in households, other genders
Various gender related indices
emphasize different aspects
• UNDP - Gender-related
Development Index (GDI), Gender
Empowerment Measure (GEM),
Gender Inequality Index (GII)
• WEF - Global Gender Gap Index (GGI)
•OECD - Social Institutions and Gender
Index (SIGI)
•Social Watch - Gender Equity Index
(GEI)
Three strategic windows
• Economic
power
• Political
voice
• Legal
rights
Where the region stands
Asia-Pacific often ranks low on gender Indicators
1.00
implies
parity
M=F
Note: EAP – East Asia and the Pacific, SA – South Asia, SSA – Sub-Saharan Africa
Source: World development indicators online, World Bank 2009
Male to female sex ratio at birth
Asia exhibits some extreme forms of gender based
discrimination…
girls may not be even born.
More
baby boys
than baby
girls
compared
to the
world
average
In 2007, the estimated number of females who were “missing” – who
Asia
the worst
performance
in the
in male-female
died as
as aa whole
result has
of health
and nutrition
neglect,
or world
were never
born in the
sex
ratio
at
birth.
And
the
divide
is
increasing
over
time.
first place – was close to 100 million in just seven Asian countries.
Source: World population prospects, the 2008 revision
Women’s inheritance, safety and voice
are not guaranteed
• UNEQUAL INHERITANCE: More than 1/2 the countries in South and
West Asia favour men in land inheritance laws, compared to 1/3 in
East Asia. In the Pacific, the rates are even higher with customary
laws on inheritance that discriminate against women
• PERVASIVE GENDER BASED VIOLENCE: More than one-tenth of
women in Asia-Pacific report assaults by their male partners; yet
more than 60 per cent of the countries in the Pacific and nearly half
in South Asia have no laws on domestic violence
• RESTRICTED POLITICAL VOICE: The region has the second-lowest per
cent of women parliamentarians in the world; the Pacific has 4 of the
6 countries in the world with no women parliamentarians. Only
about 1/3 of Asia-Pacific countries have a gender quota system in
place for political participation
Women are
disadvantaged in paid
work
•
EAST ASIA IS AHEAD IN LFPR*: About 67% of
women from EA &P participate in the labour
force, above the global average of 53%; but
South Asian women are far behind, at only
36%
•
BUT UNEMPLOYMENT GAPS WORSE THAN
GLOBAL AVERAGE: In most of the region, M-F
gap in unemployment is twice the global
average. A majority of women in the region –
up to 85% in South Asia – are in “vulnerable”
employment, such as self-employment, or
the informal economy; far above the global
average of 53%
*LFPR: Labour force participation rate
Economic power: key challenges
Assets, earnings: Asia-Pacific is growing but nowhere are women in advantage
Hardly Any Women Farm Owners in
Asia-Pacific
Women Earn Less than Men
Per cent of Farmland Owned by Women
Regional Comparisons
Source: FAO agricultural census 1989 to 1999
Ratio of Female-to-Male Estimated Earned Income in
Asia-Pacific, 2007, US $ PPP
Source: Based on UNDP Human Development Report 2009
Political voice: key challenges
Asia-Pacific is second from the bottom; only Arab states are lower
Source: As of 30 June 2009, IPU
Legal rights: key challenges
• The regions history has led to
legal systems rooted in a web
of contradictory influences
• Laws meant to ensure justice
fail to treat women and men
fairly
– Absent, unequal,
contradictory
– Only technically equal (nondiscriminatory)
• Even equitable laws do not
always translate into equality
in practice
• Unequal access is still linked to
gender
Economic power: recognize barriers
•
•
•
•
•
•
With women as full economic
agents, economies and individuals
should fulfill their potential
Neglect of health and nutrition, often
over the life-cycle
Lack of access and stereotypes in
education curtail potential
Access to assets mediated through
males and compromised due to marital
status
The burden of unpaid care work
affects opportunities for paid work
Informal employment is often the only
option, and on poorer terms
Unsafe mobility limit market
opportunities
Bringing equality within reach:
boost economic control
• Ensure equal rights to property and earnings through
laws, policies and political backing
• Reform labour markets:
• Reduce wage gaps
• Improve work conditions; contractual status
• Address unpaid care work, practical needs; don’t
treat them as ‘burdens’
• Strengthen investments in female education and
health; target the poor
• Ensure safe mobility within and across borders
• Assess change
Barriers to
political voice
Political decision making touches all
areas of people’s lives. Access to the
political arena is essential to
articulate and shape solutions
• Lack of access to campaign
financing
• Political parties: men set the
political terms
• Attitudes limit female
participation and mobility
• Budgets treated as economic
rather than political process
Bringing equality within reach:
harness democratic dividends
• Governments and political
parties should boost the
number and quality of female
representation to deepen
democracy
• Build capacity, nurture interest,
facilitate mentoring both inside
and outside the formal political
system
• Bring gender-friendly budgets
on political agendas to
transform mainstream fiscal
spaces
• Seek out women’s voices in
crises and after to ensure
women are at all decision levels
• Assess change
Legal rights: confront barriers
Legal equality opens doors to transformation in other spheres
•Women experience laws differently from men. Laws are the
backbone for guarantees of rights and the regulation of
people’s quality of life, security, freedoms
•The complex web of laws, simple and mechanical descriptions
of “non-discrimination”
•Laws—de jure or de facto, written or unwritten, by act or
omission, or by interpretation—affect men and women in
harnessing their full potential
Bringing equality within reach:
enforcing rights; correcting wrongs
FIX LAWS; IMPROVE ACCESS
• Support legal reform and synchronize contradictory legal
webs for real justice
– Go beyond simple mechanical ‘non-discrimination’ of
treating likes alike
• Improve access to justice
– Orient the police, judiciary and increase female shares
– Identify religious and traditional leaders, CSOs as
champions of gender justice
– Assess and track change
• Use international norms as useful benchmarks for gender
equality
• Support judicial activism for positive change
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