A Report for and by the people of the Asia-Pacific

1. A Report for and by the people of the Asia-Pacific

2. Power, Voice and Rights • Main messages • Where the region stands • Three strategic areas • Building economic power • Promoting political voice • Advancing legal rights • Bringing equality within reach • Moving forward

3. Main messages • Gender equality • Is a right • Is good economics • Promotes democracy and long term stability • Across Asia and the Pacific women face severe deficits in power, voice and rights Asia-Pacific is at crossroads • Progress in some areas is negated by persisting gender inequalities in others depriving countries of a significant source of human potential • The after effects of the global economic downturn, high on policy agendas, should be seen as an opportunity, not an excuse to delay gender equality Whether gender equality is pushed aside or pursued with greater energy, depends on actions taken or not taken now

4. Towards a common understanding of gender inequality • The concept of equality is complex. How to define and how to achieve are debated • Gender equality is not sameness of genders; but that all are equally valuable and entitled This Report advocates that: • Equality is based on fairness for freedoms and choices and is inherent to the idea of human development • Equal access to capabilities for men and women, freedom, opportunities, rights and resources are not restricted to gender • Historical disadvantage based on gender needs to be taken into account in policies and programmes

5. 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) and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) WEF - Global Gender Gap Index (GGI) OECD - Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Social Watch - Gender Equity Index (GEI)

6. Asia-Pacific has a wealth of local accounts from the past–as it was or can be imagined. A common thread is women’s power and voice, their creativity and capability. Please turn to the separators in the Report! From history and folklore She dared to dream (Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, 1880 -1932) Talented in business, generous at heart (Kim Manduk, 1739-1812) Leader in war, organizer in peace (Nafanua, circa 16th Century) A brave voice against injustice (An anonymous woman, circa 6th Century) A couple stands against inequality (Jotiba and Savitribai, 19th Century) A woman’s tale lasts a thousand years (Murasaki Shikibu, circa 11th Century)

7. 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

8. Asia exhibits some extreme forms of gender based discrimination… girls may not be even born. Male to female sex ratio at birth More baby boys than baby girls compared to the world average In 2007, the estimated number of females who were “missing” – who died as a result of health and nutrition neglect, or were never born in the first place – was close to 100 million in just seven Asian countries. Asia as a whole has the worst performance in the world in male-female sex ratio at birth. And the divide is increasing over time. Source: World population prospects, the 2008 revision

9. 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

10. 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

11. Three strategic windows • Economic power • Political voice • Legal rights

12. Addressing unequal voice, unequal power • We do not expect fairer societies to emerge automatically • just as we do not wait for poverty to come down and inclusive growth to happen in the normal course of growth and development • Consciously pick strategic areas and institutions that • are amenable to policy • have a wider transformative potential • Explicitly recognize and factor-in complexities of gender, recognizing attitudes • these influence the gap between policies and practice

13. 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

14. Political voice: key challenges Asia-Pacific is second from the bottom; only Arab states are lower Source: As of 30 June 2009, IPU

15. 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 (non-discriminatory) • Even equitable laws do not always translate into equality in practice • Unequal access is still linked to gender

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. Moving forward: Institutions, Attitudes and Assessments The three areas are strategic. An eight point agenda for action includes… 1. Make international commitments a reality 2. Craft economic policies to support gender equality 3. Make the content of education more gender-equal 4. Boost political participation and women’s role in government 5. Pursue better laws 6. Close gaps between laws and legal practices 7. Collect better data and strengthen capacity for gender analysis 8. Foster new attitudes

23. Thank you for listening  All Pictures /Courtesy Reuters http://www2.undprcc.lk/ext/pvr/