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The Ten Year ( 2006-2016)

 Platform for Action of Asia Pacific

About the Congress …

The Sixth Asia Pacific Congress of Women in Politics and Decision Making was convened by the Center for Asia Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP), in cooperation with Pilipina, on 10-12 February 2006 at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Conference Center, Makati City, Philippines. Sixty-four delegates consisting of men and women leaders in government, civil society and academe from Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam attended the Congress.

Dr. Jung Sook Kim, educator, woman leader, politician, parliamentarian, chair and founder of the Korean Institute for Women and Politics and President of CAPWIP opened the Congress.

Keynote speaker was Ambassador Rosario Manalo of the Philippines, and current Chair of the UN CEDAW Committee. She advocated for the full application of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in the efforts to attain gender equality. She specifically suggested: the use of CEDAW to frame new laws and policies; building partnerships for CEDAW monitoring and reporting; engaging the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs and engaging mechanisms of globalization and economic governance in the application of CEDAW.

Dr. Jung Sook Kim

"Women’s Political Participation and Strategies for Greater Equality"

Patricia Licuanan,

"After Beijing + 10: The Road Ahead"

Teresita Quintos-Deles.

"Corridors of Peace in Corridors of Power, Bridging Spaces for Women in Governance for Peace."

Sherill Whittington

"Women and decision-making in post-conflict transitions"

Nicanor Perlas

"The Role of Women in Integral Sustainable Development"

Josefa Francisco

The Congress sought to: review and examine the Asia Pacific situation on women in leadership, decision-making and politics in the current global context; identify gaps and weaknesses in development actions to promote women’s political participation and define future courses of action to promote women’s participation in leadership and decision making.

As a result, the Congress drew up the Ten Year (2006-2016) Platform for Action of Asia Pacific Women in Politics and Decision-Making to promote women’s effective participation in leadership and decision-making in the Asia-Pacific region. The platform for action was woven around four major themes that were purposively selected as the foci for discussion during the Congress. Although there is a wide array of issues confronting women, four eminent concerns in the current global context were taken up during the Congress, namely:

• women’s participation in politics, leadership and decision making.

• peace and human security

• environment

• trade liberalization

RE-AFFIRMING THE WOMEN’S VISION OF SOCIETYAL TRANSFORMATION FOR GENDER EQUALITY

Societal transformation for a gender-equal and just society continues to be the aspiration of women and underpins the global efforts to increase women’s participation in politics and decision making. But this vision requires practical actions that take into account the current realities of a rapidly-changing world that poses new threats, risks as well as opportunities. An understanding of these is vital in defining the path that women should take to overcome the threats, mitigate the risks and maximize the opportunities.

After a decade of challenging, inspiring and pushing women to run and occupy the seats of power, women have realized the need to go beyond the game of numbers. To gain a place in the seats of power is only half the struggle. Now women know that the movement for greater political participation must be guided with a clear notion of the transformations in values, processes and institutions – big and small – that women leaders could bring about in their communities, societies and nations and in themselves.

The next step is to ensure that women walk their talk and when women speak they represent a clear and concrete agenda such as reducing poverty, social protection of the vulnerable and unprotected in society, respect for women’s rights in all spheres of life, eliminating violence against women, having affordable health and educational services and the like. Perforce, women must understand and engage in mainstream issues. And gender must be taken up as part and parcel of these mainstream issues. Women must understand these mainstream issues and how women are affected by it as well as how women can become part of the solution.

The exercise of women’s transformative leadership must be applied in aspects of life where women are most oppressed and disadvantaged. The ultimate goal remains to be: gender justice and gender equality. This long-term pursuit is set against the backdrop of a new global economic order that is unfolding and introducing more complexities in the social, economic and political environments:

• Conflict, war, civil strife and terrorism are rearing their ugly heads and threaten human security and survival. Alongside is the specter of the pandemic of avian flu that is now findings its way to different continents of the world.

• Technologies evolving at exponential speed facilitate greater mobility for people and products and have made national borders porous. The era of trade of liberalization is spreading far and wide and countries have now inked numerous bilateral trade agreements to open their trading regimes.

• Degradation of the environment and global climatic changes raise the risk of unsustainable development and has led to calamities and disaster such as the tsunami, mudslides, earthquakes and wild fires.

• Breakthroughs in science and technology have been mixed blessings. Unbridled and unethical use of nuclear and bio technologies can hasten the march to global wars. At the same time, technologies open the pathways to new prosperity and well-being.

Out of these global trends have emerged risks and threats to human welfare, development and well-being of both men and women. These global trends have been accompanied by human insecurity and suffering. At the same time, the new global order is opening up opportunities for greater prosperity of mankind. The challenge is to spot these opportunities and use them to propagate peace and security, development and equality.

A vital practical task is to evolve the praxis (practice and concept) of alternative paradigms in leadership, security, global trade and integral sustainable development. And women must shape these paradigms and ensure that their interests, rights and welfare are taken into full account.

Context

More than 20 years after the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and ten years after the Beijing Platform of Action was promulgated, where are the women in the political arena? Even though half of the voting population are women, the ratio of women to men in national assemblies, local assemblies and local government is still very low in many countries, including those in Asia and the Pacific.

• Between 1995 and 2005, only seven (7) Asian countries have more than 20% women in parliaments (New Zealand at 32.2%, Vietnam at 27.35, Australia at 24.7% of the lower house and 35.5% of the upper house, Tajikistan at 23.5% of the upper house, Laos at 22.9%, Pakistan at 21.3% of the lower house and Malaysia at 25.7% of the upper house);

• Institutional and cultural barriers continue to impede women’s meaningful participation in political and decision-making processes, namely: persistence of a patriarchal culture and male dominance where women are socialized and assigned traditional and domestic roles confined to the house; models and approaches of leadership are still associated with masculine traits. Femininity have come to be viewed as inferior and inappropriate in a leader; party politics and electoral systems are generally biased against women.

• Defining a clear and concrete agenda for women leaders and politicians. Within the context of their respective societies and communities, women must identify and define the relevant gender and mainstream societal issues that they would espouse and staunchly advocate for. The move to promote women’s political participation should now go beyond numbers of women in positions of power but in meaningful engagement in the mainstream issues of the day. Some concerns that could form part of the women’s agenda are: reduction of extreme poverty; transformative and transparent governance; implementation of laws promoting gender equality; allocation of resources for greater access to health services by women and fulfillment of their reproductive rights, campaign to eliminate violence against women.

• Building the women’s constituency. Undertake and constituency-building and capability-building of women leaders to develop their own brand of leadership styles and perspectives and to better equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge, with particular attention to formation and training young women.

• Institutional reforms to strengthen women’s political participation through quota systems in political parties, proportional representation, reforms in electoral systems, educating and scouting for talented women in politics and increasing political funds for women; voters’ education, awareness campaigns; training for women candidates.

• Educate women about their rights and build their capacity to claim their rights and fulfill their obligations as duty bearers. This includes the implementation of international commitments like the CEDAW, Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals; establishment of more resource centers for women, protection of women against violence of all forms; integration of gender sensitivity training in school curricula. Special efforts should be taken to motivate and develop the leadership capacity of young women and to build a successor generation of female leaders.

• Create a regional fund to train and support potential women candidates and to provide civic and electoral education.

• Encourage media to promote positive images of women and to break down cultural stereotypes that militate against women. Media should be effectively used to demystify the notion that there are not enough qualified women who can be elected or appointed to public office as well as to promote the balancing of masculine and feminine perspectives.

• Establish governance systems, policies and practices that are transparent and accountable towards the eradication of graft and corruption such as lifestyle checks of public officials, campaigns against gift-giving and the like;

More women at the peace negotiating table, especially Track One…

ContextOf the 25 armed conflicts cited in the publication Alert 2005: Report on Conflicts, Human Rights and Peace-Building by the Escola de Cultura de Pau, eleven were in Asia and the Pacific, with Thailand added as a new area. Amidst these conflicts, the face of international terrorism appears alongside dire realities of extreme poverty, political exclusion, manipulation and cultural subordination leading to contested identities. These plus the paucity of law and order, the preponderance of rugged and forested terrains, along with porous borders between states provide fertile soil for all forms of armed violence and international terrorism. In light of these, conflict resolution is a policy priority in the Asia-Pacific region.

Women are everywhere in the peace process except at the negotiating tables and decision making posts. In 2005, out of the 61 senior UN officials and deputies in charge of "running peacemaking, peacebuilding, or peacekeeping missions of one kind or another or acting as envoys in situations of conflict and post conflict… just four (6.5 %) are women – two in top jobs and two deputies. One of these for women is Asian, Bangladeshi Ameerah Haw, DSRSG handling Afghanistan, since June 2004; the first Asian woman, barring Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Otunbayeva, to hold such a post.

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 promulgated in 2002 urges member states to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management and resolution of conflict; expresses willingness of the Council to incorporate a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations and urges the Secretary General to ensure that, where appropriate, field operations includes a gender component; and calls on all actors involved when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective. Significantly, many women in Asia and the Pacific are not aware of Resolution 1325.

In the rare examples of women’s engagement in the peace process such as the 23 Indonesian women who were among the 1000 nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, the women’s voices were carried forth in initiatives pertaining to violence against women, land rights of marginalized groups, internally displaced populations, children in conflict, access to basic health and education services, and interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

A vital step is to prepare women to fill in the leadership vacuum in post conflict transitions. This means training women as leaders. decision makers and policy makers should be an imperative in post conflict transitions.

• More direct participation of women in Track One process which involves the highest levels of peace negotiation. Toward this, more women need to be put in foreign service and security tracks but women peace negotiators must maintain their connection to the communities and constituencies in order to ensure accurate representation of the interests of the affected populations.

• Build women’s capacity in peace negotiation and post conflict reconstruction. Women must gain a better understanding of foreign relations so that they can influence and reshape national foreign policy towards increased human security instead of national defense. Women must learn to debate with the militarists. Women must mentor each other in order to build their skills in peace negotiation. Create a body of experts that can assist women to aspire for leadership positions in the post-conflict transition Develop a blueprint for action toward post-conflict empowerment of women.

• Establish a knowledge base on women’s participation in peace negotiation, peacekeeping and post-conflict transitions. Compile good practices and lessons learned and develop these into resource and training packages. Map and inventory expertise and resources on conflict resolution, peace negotiation, peacekeeping and post conflict transition in the Asia-Pacific region

• Peace education and information dissemination in schools and communities. Workshops for the youth, trainings for the military and the police on gender and cultural sensitivity. Hold inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogues.

Action Agenda No. 3: MOBILIZE WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN PROMOTING INTEGRAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

ContextThe theme of women and the environment needs to be viewed from the broader perspective of integral sustainable development. Global climatic change is not just an environmental concern. Its roots can be traced to dysfunctional habits of mankind in various realms. Global warming happens due to waste from cars and industries (economic); poor consumption habits and science and technological applications (culture). It has to do with laws and policies (political) that do not protect the environment, unbridled population growth (social) and sheer materialism (human and spiritual). Environmental concerns is the intersection of the economic, cultural, political, social aspects of life. Thus, environmental concerns must be reframed as the pursuit of integral sustainable development.

Attaining integral sustainable development entails actions on all fronts and the exercise of power and leadership which has been dominated by masculine thinking for so long. In fact, masculine (alpha) and feminine (beta) characters can be found in both men and women. But the model of leadership upon which development has been built is highly masculine. The lack of balance of masculine and feminine perspectives in development processes has not been productive in terms of ensuring sustainable development. The time has now come to harness feminine perspectives, feminine power and the multiple intelligence that women have in addressing the issues of sustainable development. Women’s role in the environment and in integral sustainable development must be spelt out and followed through in action.

• Cultivate a common understanding of integral sustainable development as the guiding principle in protecting the environment and the roles that women can play in ensuring long-term sustainability. This implies a paradigm shift in the way we regard issues and concerns pertaining to women and the environment. Promote a sense of balance in the use of natural resources vis a vis human needs for livelihood and welfare.

• Early socialization of children on the notion of integral sustainable development and its linkages with gender and leadership, politics and decision making.

• Mentor a successor generation of young leaders that could promote the values and attitudes supportive of integral sustainable development. Inculcate values and attitudes that respect natural processes and instill discipline in the use of natural resources and re-shape consumption habits.

• Build the knowledge base. Conduct studies and research; share information on good practices that enable integral sustainable development.

Action Agenda No. 4: MAKE TRADE LIBERALIZATION WORK FOR WOMEN

Context

The current regime of trade liberalization has intensified the removal of trade barriers and unabashed opening up of national economies, now referred to as trade intensification. Trade rules have expanded and now include new areas related to the import and export of goods that were not previously covered by the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT). Among the most important are services, investment fisheries, and trade-related intellectual property. Trade negotiations are giving more emphasis on non-tariff measures which tend to impinge on domestic regulation.

As a consequence of trade intensification, the authority and power of the state to regulate and control economic transactions are being erode by the global push to open up economies. Further, supranational bodies such as the International Financial Institutions (IFI) are entering the spaces that were once the sole domain of the State and national governments.

What are the impacts of trade intensification on women? What role can women play in economic governance and decision making, especially in the trade arena? Answers to these questions have not been forthcoming in the existing research literature and have kept women mystified about the effects of trade intensification in their lives as consumers, producers, petty traders and as leaders and politicians. The primary challenge is to gain functional trade and economic literacy so that women can engage in intelligent, meaningful and gender-responsive debate and policy making. Understanding the implications of trade intensification is therefore the imperative for women leaders.

• Demystify trade liberalization and its effects on human welfare and well-being as well as its gender dimensions. Attention should be paid to concrete measures to restore and/or maintain the global competitiveness of local industries as far as possible. Women must appreciate and understand how trade intensification could lead to adverse consequences such as job flexibilization, casualization and informalization of work as well as trafficking of women and more importantly, draw up measures for social protection and safety nets for the affected segments of the population, oftentimes the women,

• Increase women’s participation in economic policy making, especially in matters of trade and globalization. Civil society and women’s groups must engage the government in policy dialogues to gain understanding of the bilateral agreements conclude by their economic managers and policy makers with trading partners of their country.

• Advocacy and campaigns against corruption. Put qualified women and men into anti-corruption agencies. Conduct anti-corruption research with a gender lens. Forge partnerships with business schools and academe for relevant studies, including study of the consumption patterns of women and how they may be affected by corruption

Based on the above ten-year action agenda, priority actions for the next five years have been identified:

1. Conduct research and action

1. Inventory of existing initiatives, experts and resource organizations and disseminating them (e.g., 1000 women-nominees for Nobel peace prize) through information and web links;

2. Enhancement of data-base and tools on gender and development (GAD) in general and local practices/knowledge on peace building, in particular.

1. Capacity-building/mentoring directed at both current leaders and successor generation, with focus on:

   1. peace and security, inc. understanding the UNSC

   2. Resolution 1325 and its practical application;

   3. economic/trade literacy (e.g. training in Basic Economics)

   4. integral sustainable development

2. Advocacy with political parties for them to nominate women for general seats and mainstream them in party decision making. Persuade political parties to adopt more gender-fair recruitment and nomination policies and practices and to provide financial assistance to women candidates during elections.

3. Continue networking, lobbying and advocacy at all levels (international, national and local levels) through cyberspace and face-to-face interaction. Build linkages with organizations promoting women’s participation in politics, leadership and decision making, share information and to use each other’s strengths for maximum impact.

                            Web: www.capwip.org; www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org