UN Women Asia and the Pacific’s Post

To create an enabling environment that offers equal opportunities and empowers women in the ASEAN region, we need to address structural barriers through gender-transformative systems, norms and policies in the care economy. Read our Data Snapshot of Women’s Economic Empowerment and the Care Economy in ASEAN: https://lnkd.in/db2CG6QW The ASEAN Secretariat | Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | Christine Arab

. In my experience working on a women's economic empowerment project at Oxfam in Bangladesh, the main beneficiaries were home-based women workers. They usually worked from home, which was often perceived as less significant work compared to traditional male-dominated jobs. Many people saw women's activities as mere leisure, but in reality, these women were working extremely hard, contributed both economically and carried out care responsibilities. This dual burden was overwhelming. During my training sessions on evaluating care work, I observed interesting responses. When I asked men about their wives' activities, they often claimed, "She does nothing; she stays at home." However, when questioned about who cooks, washes dishes and clothes, or takes care of the children, they seemed to dismiss these tasks as not being real work. Conversely, when asking women about their husbands' roles, many proudly noted that their husbands worked outside the home. When prompted about their husbands' support in household chores and childcare, women were often surprised and some even laughed, seeing these tasks as inherently their own responsibility. We introduced the 4Rs model—Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, and Represent. By applying this model, we aim to re-evaluate care work as genuine work, alleviate the double burden on women, and create space for their personal growth, enjoyment, and well-being. This aligns with Christine Arab's perspective that the unequal distribution of care work is a significant barrier to women's economic empowerment.

South Asia’s female labor force participation rate of 32% is well below the 54% average in emerging market and developing economies. A multi-pronged effort is needed where governments, the private sector, communities and households all have a role to play. Increasing trade openness, accelerating job creation, and providing safe transport & quality child and elder care will help more women to enter the workforce. We had a great discussion at NCAER with Poonam Gupta, Sonalde Desai, Ashwini Deshpande, and A K Shiv Kumar.

By International Labour Organization estimates, in high income countries, like European, women in comparison to USD1 earned by men – earn 73 cents. In low-income countries – a woman earns only 44 cents. In low-income countries women are more involved in informal economy, thus exposed to insecurity, violence, poverty, and mostly undertake low income, manual intensive jobs. In developing economies, a girl child might not have the opportunity to attend the school as male siblings are a priority. In low-income countries, women do face social biases and traditional social roles, more than in the Enlightened West. It creates a gap - in opportunities. In dreams. We at She Rebuilds the World want to close this gap. We want to give the freedom to choose and to dream! We want to educate women to make calculated risks in order to fly! We are sisters... It should be in the interests of all of us as - if women had the same opportunities as men the GDP of these low-income countries would grow by 8% (International Monetary Fund). As - if women all over the world had the same economic opportunities as men the amount of global GDP would increase by more than 25% (AFD - Agence Française de Développement). Thus, we are extremely delighted to be supported by Latvijas Republikas Ārlietu ministrija in the scope of #DevelopmentCooperation to launch SRW Season 3: in Namibia (Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board, Business Financial Solutions - BFS Namibia University of Science and Technology - NUST), Rwanda and Ethiopia (iceaddis). And across the African continent. To build a professional education and network platform for women entrepreneurs and business ladies to capture the benefits and opportunities of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The best strategy in turbulent, unknown waters is to cross the river by feeling the stones. In each of the countries where SRW is present or shall be soon – Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, we ask, we listen to our ladies. We try and adjust; we analyse the macro- and micro-economic trends of each of the countries we work with to give the best! Not what we think would be the best but the ‘best’ what is needed for the women! https://lnkd.in/dKa3_73R Ārlietu ministrija | Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia Riga Business School Riga TechGirls Enno Ence Anzelika Dobrovolska Zane Petre Claudio Rivera #DevelopmentCooperation #womenempoweringwomen #womenempowement #womenleaders #WomenLead #womenstrength #africanwomen #africawomenleaders #missionLatvia

🆕Boosting women’s labour force participation: Opportunities and challenges in Bangladesh What are the barriers to women’s labour force participation in Bangladesh? What are some promising evidence-based policy options? Where is more evidence required? Our first article in a series of posts reflecting on how the evidence from VoxDevLits applies to specific contexts is out today! Nusrat Jahan (BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University) explores the evidence on Female Labour Force Participation in Bangladesh: https://lnkd.in/ek35qAXz

📢 Big news from the ASEAN Summit! On 10th October, the ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening the Care Economy and Fostering Resilience Towards the Post-2025 ASEAN Community was officially adopted. Endorsed at the 3rd ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit, this declaration aligns with ESCAP’s Model Framework for Action on the Care Economy, calling on governments to implement comprehensive policies on care infrastructure, care-related social protection, care services and employment-related care. 🏛️ 👉 Learn how countries can align with the Declaration in our latest policy brief! https://buff.ly/3ZviRIw Oxfam in Asia #CareForCareWork #SDG5

EEPC INDIA joins the worldwide observance of #InternationalWomensDay2024 as a mark of respect to womanhood Department of Commerce, GoI Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Ministry of External Affairs, India Ministry of Culture, Government of India Ministry of Women & Child Development Let us uphold the United Nations theme for this year - Invest in Women:Accelerate Progress

All that diversity and women in politics and parliaments and the gap remains! The report indicates that, without China, incomes per head of emerging and developing countries have stagnated relative to those in high-income countries since the middle of the last decade. The relative incomes per head of the low-income countries have stagnated for even longer. In brief, the reduction in global inequality (between women of different nationalities) seems to have stalled. https://lnkd.in/d-N9dz_G

That’s a wrap for the second cluster of APEC meetings including the ministerial level meetings! Over two weeks, APEC officials, experts, delegates and ministers responsible for trade and women met in Arequipa, Peru, to pursue greater economic inclusion and advance policies that support the formalization of the informal economy and the inclusion of more women, youth and persons with disabilities into trade and other economic sectors. #ICYMI - pop over to our website to catch up on all the news and updates from the meetings in Arequipa. #APECPeru2024 APEC Perú 2024

A new United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) #SDGs Report, published in June 2024, details significant challenges the world faces in making substantial strides towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals over the next six years, and highlights where action must accelerate. Included in the Report is #IPU #data reflecting #WomenMPs representation in decision-making positions. From the boardroom to #parliaments, women's leadership numbers have only marginally improved. As of 1 April 2024, women occupied 26.9% of seats globally, up from 22.3% in 2015. Only six countries have 50% or more women in lower or single chambers (Andorra, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Rwanda, and the United Arab Emirates). Two lower chambers now have no women members (Oman and Yemen), down from five in 2015. Access the Report: https://lnkd.in/dgJKB8Mf