CLOSING THE GENDER GAP
(Courtesy Asian Development Bank)
The
Asia and Pacific region has made impressive strides over the last
decade on narrowing gender gaps in education, health, employment and
political participation. Today there are more girls in primary and
secondary schools, more girls participating in tertiary education, fewer
women dying in childbirth, more women in wage employment outside
agriculture and more women in national parliaments and decision making
bodies. But, the progress and achievements are not spread widely and
evenly across the entire region.
Watch how this film weaves a connection between the importance of
workplace equality and the crucial role women play in building a strong
society and economy.
Disparities remain in many areas. Many women are still denied access
to basic services and essential assets such as land, and excluded from
decision-making. In some countries and among some groups, women still
suffer from entrenched gender discrimination and exclusion that
diminishes their life expectancy, education prospects, access to clean
water, sanitation, and employment, and exposes them to gender-based
violence.
Empowering women economically and socially and giving them `voice’ is
crucial for achieving ADB’s goals of poverty reduction and inclusive
development.
Promoting gender equity
ADB's Strategy 2020 highlights gender equity as one of five drivers
of change for promoting and achieving inclusive and sustainable growth,
reducing poverty, improving living standards and achieving the MDGs.
ADB's Policy on Gender and Development identifies gender
mainstreaming as the key strategy and approach for promoting gender
equality and women's empowerment across all sectors. A dual approach is
adopted that includes both gender mainstreaming and targeted approaches
to reduce glaring gender disparities.
ADB has set corporate gender targets to be met by 2016: 45% of all
operations and 55% of those financed by ADF resources will address
gender equality objectives. In 2013, ADB’s annual performance exceeded
the 2016 gender target; with 55% overall and 59% of ADF financed
operations categorized as "gender mainstreaming".
A new Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Operational Plan,
2013-2020 (Gender Plan) was approved in 2013. The new plan provides the
roadmap for guiding ADB operations and recognizes that more needs to be
done to reduce gender gaps and disparities across the region.
The Plan calls for increased emphasis on improving implementation and
monitoring for the delivery of better gender equality results. While
gender mainstreaming across all operations will remain the priority
approach, direct investments in women and girls will be pursued in areas
such as: (i) girls secondary education and completion (ii) vocational
and technical skills training for female youth; (iii) access to
productive assets, labor saving technology, employment, and income
earning opportunities; (iv) business development services for women
entrepreneurs; (v) financial services and access to credit; (vi) policy
and legal reforms to tackle issues of gender-based violence and
anti-trafficking, and; (vii) giving women voice in decision-making in
formal and informal institutions.
"ADB is firmly committed to promoting gender equality and women’s
empowerment. We believe that ADB has a responsibility to set a positive
example for the region in reducing gender disparities and supporting
women's empowerment," said Bindu Lohani, ADB’s Vice President of
Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development.
Investing in gender equality
ADB projects to improve the lives of women and girls in the region
have included support for education, health, basic infrastructure and
financial services. ADB projects that directly support gender issues
span across both the social and economic sectors.
- In some of our poorest borrowing countries such as Bangladesh,
Nepal, Cambodia and Lao PDR, ADB has built schools in remote and rural
areas to improve and expand access, provided scholarship to poor girls
and trained female teachers to support girls’ school retention rates.
- In Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Timor-Leste, ADB is providing
rural water supply and sanitation to reduce women and girls work
burdens.
- In Vietnam, ADB is helping ethnic minority girls in 20 of the most
disadvantaged districts by building schools with boarding facilities and
teacher housing, providing scholarships and training ethnic minority
teachers.
- Girls’ skills development is being pursued through increasing
support for technical and vocational education In Lao PDR and Cambodia
to assist girls make the transition from school to work and enhance
their chances of better employment outcomes.
- In Uzbekistan and Nepal, we are providing financial and business
services to help women start and expand their business enterprises.
- In Bangladesh, ADB has supported women’s economic empowerment
through constructing and reserving spaces for women vendors in rural
markets; providing employment opportunities for destitute women in road
construction and maintenance; helping women farmers to diversify into
cash crops that yield higher incomes, and; building the capacity of
locally-elected women leaders to give them “voice” in decision-making in
local governance institutions.
Even in some of our middle-income countries such as Indonesia
and Philippines we are tackling the remaining “pockets of disadvantage”
in access to education and health in remote and disadvantaged areas and;
supporting conditional cash transfer programs to tackle the demand side
issues in education and health.
Gender mainstreaming tools
To ensure gender equality objectives are realized, ADB has adopted
the project gender action plan (GAPs) as a mainstreaming tool to ensure
concrete strategies and actions are designed into projects to deliver
gender equality outcomes. GAPs include clear targets, quotas, gender
design features and quantifiable performance indicators to ensure
women’s participation and benefits. Key aspects of the GAP are
incorporated into project assurances to encourage buy-in from executing
agencies and other project partners.
ADB has also developed Gender and Development Plans of Action as
guide and roadmap for translating the GAD Policy into concrete actions
and programs. The plan of Action prioritizes 3 areas of action: country
strategy partnership and projects; GAD capacity development and policy
support and organizational effectiveness.
Country gender assessments (CGAs) are prepared to feed the
development of country partnership strategies and programs. CGAs are
also used by governments as strategic planning documents.
ADB regularly conducts gender assessments of projects under
implementation to assess progress on implementation of the gender and
development policy.
ADB engages in policy dialogue in countries and in the region to
encourage and support gender-responsive policy and law reforms.
Examples include gender equality laws, temporary special measures for
women’s representation in local government bodies and community-based
organizations, and joint titling by husbands and wives when land is
allocated.
Partnerships
ADB collaborates at the project level with many UN agencies,
development partners, and nongovernment organizations in different
countries to improve gender equality results.
The External Forum on Gender and Development established in 2001
promotes dialogue between ADB and external experts and advocates on
gender and development issues.
ADB has been active in various gender knowledge networks , such as
the UN regional thematic working group on gender, Multilateral
Development Banks Working Group on Gender, and GenderNet under the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Sharing knowledge
ADB supports gender equity through knowledge products such as country
gender assessments, gender mainstreaming tool kits, a guide to
mainstream anti-trafficking concerns into projects and research and
studies on human trafficking, and gender-responsive HIV prevention
programs in infrastructure projects. ADB’s community of practice on
gender meets regularly through knowledge seminars and events to share
experiences on gender-related activities and learn from cutting-edge
research.
Gender equality within ADB
ADB also pursues and supports gender equality within the institution.
Females make up nearly 35% of international staff and 27% of senior
staff. A new Diversity and Inclusion Framework was adopted in 2013 to
ensure a more gender balanced, diverse and inclusive work place.
