Gender integrated into work of APEC
Gender integrated into work of APEC
The APEC Second Ministerial Meeting on Women, which took place in Guadalajara Mexico at the weekend, took an important step towards integrating gender into APEC activities, Labour Minister Margaret Wilson said today.
New Zealand and the Philippines presented a paper at the Meeting on the effects of trade liberalisation on gender.
Margaret Wilson, who has just returned from Mexico, said recommendations from this paper formed part of the joint Ministerial Statement agreed by the Meeting. They included:
active labour market measures; adequate social safety nets; EEO best practices; and policies that balance work and family life.
Ministers made recommendations to the APEC economies on:
the need
for a gender analysis and perspective in the work of APEC;
the need for more systematic and comprehensive collection of
sex-disaggregated data and on the contribution of unpaid
work of women, through the APEC sex-disaggregated data
study; encouragement for APEC economies to address
inequalities faced by women workers as a result of industry
restructuring due to trade liberalisation; encouragement of
APEC economies to identify women experts with a view to
increasing the participation of women in all APEC activities
including more appointments of women in APEC for a, as well
as in the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the APEC
Secretariat; in recognition of the unique contribution of
indigenous peoples to their economies, request APEC
economies and related fora to enable the participation of
indigenous women, and encourage research that reflects their
experiences with a view to addressing the specific
challenges they face from trade liberalisation.
“The
Ministerial Statement also agreed to the implementation of a
Gender Focal Point Network as a permanent mechanism in APEC
to integrate gender,” Margaret Wilson said. “This will
become the first gender integration mechanism in any
multilateral trade body once it is endorsed by the APEC
Leaders at their meeting later this month.”
The meeting
also addressed how to increase micro-financing to assist
women in business, and the need for measures to help women’s
full participation in the digital economy. “One of the
most informative sessions of the Meeting was one in which
business women exchanged experiences on the issues facing
women in developing business opportunities,” Margaret Wilson
said. “One of the three business women to address the
meeting was New Zealander June McCabe, an executive with
WestpacTrust in Wellington.”