MANILA, Sept. 14 (PNA) — In recent decades, there has been an economic transformation in many countries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But it has not reached all people and more often than not, it is women who are left behind.
The International Labor Organization’s estimate that the Asia-Pacific region alone loses around USD 47 billion billion (roughly P2.19 trillion) a year because of limited female access to jobs and more than USD 16 billion (around P748.8 billion) a year due to poor female education is a stark reminder of what we all lose when inequities persist.
However, momentum has been building around the world for women’s economic empowerment. People have learned that the blueprint of successful economy, with a thriving private sector, in which women are equal participants, gives countries the best chance of increasing living standards. The link between women’s empowerment and prosperity is now well understood and starkly evaluated.
Still, promoting gender equality and advancing the status of all women and girls around the world, including those living in the Asia-Pacific region, remain the biggest challenge at the present time.
Responding to this challenge is a priority for the Philippine government, both in its domestic policies and its international advocacy and development programs.
In fact, the Philippines is Asia’s best performing country in closing the gender gap. It is the only country in the Asia-Pacific that has fully closed gender disparity in education and health, according to the Global Gender Gap 2014 report of the World Economy Forum (WEF), released on Oct. 29, 2014. At 9th place out of 142 surveyed countries, the Philippines was placed best in Southeast Asia.
The report measured gender inequality in four areas – Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Political Empowerment, and Health and Survival. The Philippines was second on the ability of women to rise to positions of leadership and enterprise, and has the highest percentage of firms with female participation in the ownership.
Domestically, the Philippines has made headway through legislative, regulatory and socio-cultural support for women’s economic participation.
However, the pursuit of women’s full participation in economic life requires much more than projects in the Philippine government’s broad agenda. As momentum gathers globally for women’s economic empowerment, this is also a critical juncture for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to place women’s economic participation centrally in its agenda.
Increasing women’s economic opportunities in the APEC region is grounded on the fact that women comprise half of the human resources of many economies and evidences show that economies do better when women are harnessed; it is a moral imperative and is a matter of fairness and equity; and women have the right to economic development.
The strong public-private partnership that characterizes its work, places APEC uniquely to promote women’s economic empowerment.
To increase women’s economic opportunities, the constraints and bottlenecks in their participation must be addressed by the national economies and in view of the trade liberalization regime, the common challenges must be addressed at the APEC level.
Women of APEC economies have the possibility of expanding women’s economic opportunities through practical measures. This include empowering women by globalizing their outlook; organizing women entrepreneurs in the formal and informal sectors, technical and vocational education, leadership and political representation, more attention to micro-entrepreneurs in the informal economy in order to scale up their enterprises; enhancing women’s enterprise competitiveness through innovation and capacity development in entrepreneurship; ensuring enterprise resilience and reducing vulnerability.
The previous year, China, as APEC host country, submitted a Tasking Statement which indicates the various work streams, actions required, responsible parties and time lines. In the field of Sustainable Growth with Equity, two specific areas of concern identified were women and SMEs. As indicated in the statement, actions required include: 1.) Expanding women’s participation in the economy by creating an enabling environment through the development of gender-related structural reform measures, improving ICT training support, equal access to quality education and employment opportunities, and greater access to the market; and, 2.) Prioritizing integration of gender considerations across APEC activities, acknowledging the cross cutting nature of women’s participation in the economy, including greater private sector engagement.
This week, from Sept. 16 to 18, Manila will play host to the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) Management Council Meeting and the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy.
These meetings aim to come out with policy recommendations and strategies that would not only serve APEC 2015 purposes but could be used as inputs to the Philippine government’s future development planning, strategizing, and visioning exercises in a post-2015 scenario.
Through the APEC platforms, governments, private sectors and all stakeholders must work together to enhance the lives of girls and women, to increase their participation in economic and political fields to achieve gender equality and to eliminate any form of discrimination against women and girls.
APEC hopes to ensure that its public-private dialogues translate into tangible activity that makes a profound and enduring difference in the lives of our women and the health of our economies.
But despite the Philippines’ and APEC’s strong commitment and the commitment of every world government to address women’s issues around the world, it is still the women in every country who have to stand up, to raise their voices and to fight for their basic human rights. (PNA)