Gender Has Become a Cross-Cutting Theme in APEC

Despite real advances in recent decades, the chronic under-representation of women in positions of prominence and authority persists across the globe. Socio-cultural perceptions mean that women continue to face more difficulties in overcoming obstacles than men and other gender-specific constraints can block them from full and effective participation in the economy. The failure by policymakers to understand how polices can have unanticipated impacts on different groups has often meant that reforms aimed at increasing productivity and export competitiveness have failed to achieve those goals.

Just take trade as one example. While female entrepreneurs and workers make substantial economic contributions to the GNP of their economies, women face gender-related barriers to participating in business and international markets, including access to information, credit, training, information and communications technologies, and networks. These barriers act as a brake to the aspirations of APEC economies for growth through trade and investment liberalization strategies.

The gender gap is narrowing but still remains large with women earning less than men in all economies. According to a recent APEC study, "The Economic Contribution of Women and Men in APEC Economies," women's participation rates in the labor force are lower than men in all economies, although their activity in the informal economy in most countries is greater than men's, and is steadily rising. Women-owned businesses tend to be smaller than men's with limited access to technology, training and legal support. Informal employment is dominated by women. Female disadvantages still remain after controlling for professional experience and education. Women are more likely than men to be unpaid family workers.

"Just having sex-disaggregated data in an economy is a challenge," notes Dr. Charles Barrett, project overseer of the Workshop on Best Practices in Capacity Building for Trade Facilitation, held in Jeju Korea in May and director of the Canadian International Development Agency's APEC Economic Integration Program. (The lack of sex-disaggregated data hides the actual as well as the potential contributions of half the population to economies and may hinder effective policy development.)

Trade is an arcane technical area, Barrett adds, and trade specialists and gender specialists "tend to be different people." Says Barrett: "Trade people don't usually think about gender equalization as a trade issue but it surely is. If you look at areas in trade liberalization and their impact on developing economies in particular, small industries are female dominated sectors so there may well be a different impact on women than men of structural change."

APEC has been addressing barriers to women's participation in business, the workforce, education and leadership since the mid-1990s. APEC leaders committed themselves in 1996 and 1997 to take steps to promote the role of women in economic development. APEC held its first Ministerial Meeting on Women in the Philippines in October 1998. In November of that year, ministers submitted recommendations to APEC Leaders in Malaysia. In a joint statement, APEC ministers called for a framework for the integration of women. Senior officials set up a task force for the Integration of Women in APEC.

Less than a year later the Framework for the Integration of Women in APEC was completed. The Framework - a practical and systematic guide for APEC to integrate women in the mainstream of its processes and activities -- called for three things: gender analysis (a methodology to help identify different impacts of policy and programming on women and men); the collection and use of sex-disaggregated data (data classified by sex and presented separately for women and men); and the involvement of women in APEC (increasing participation of women in all APEC fora as well as involving women's networks and organizations in APEC activities as participants and recipients of training among other things).

"Adopting a framework for the integration of women was a momentous event in APEC's history because it was something that no trade organization had done before," recalls Alan Bowman, chair of the Committee on Trade and Investment. "Other trade bodies have been reluctant to deviate from promoting trade issues to look at softer issues like gender. The fact that APEC did this was very unique and progressive. It's something that put APEC ahead of the curve."

In late 1999, the Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) set up the SOM Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Gender Integration, or AGGI, to provide gender advice and expertise to SOM, and other APEC fora, on the implementation of the Framework. AGGI has undertaken projects that focus on increasing awareness of the Framework and developing mechanisms to integrate gender issues into the work of APEC, including integrating gender criteria in APEC project proposals and evaluations; planning the analysis and evaluation of gender statistics workshops; creating a good practices book called "Gender Mainstreaming: Good Practices From The Asia Pacific Region"; developing an APEC Website on Gender Integration (www.gfpn.apec.org) and a Gender Resource Kit.

The AGGI completed its mandate and was disbanded in 2002 and Ministers endorsed the establishment of the Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN) at a second Ministerial Meeting on Women in Los Cabos, Mexico, in October 2002. The GFPN was established as a sustainable and effective mechanism to integrate gender considerations in APEC; to advance the Framework; to provide policy and practical advice on gender issues to APEC fora and senior officials.

The purpose of the GFPN is to encourage a higher number of women representatives in APEC meetings and in project-related activities. It encourages the use of gender analysis and collection of sex-disaggregated data on sectoral activities. GFPN also encourages greater representation of women on member delegations in APEC activities; establishes a network of gender experts at the economy level and serves as a resource for gender experts in doing gender analysis and other support; conducts gender sessions to economy members of fora with introductions of gender issues and training on analysis and so on. The GFPN encourages fora to consider gender issues in all work, and to identify issues affecting women's participation and advancement.

Dr. Soon-Young Jung, this year's chair of APEC's Gender Focal Point Network, argues that much needs to be done. "With appropriate policies and programs in place," she noted in a May workshop in Jeju, Korea, "women's increasing labor force participation and the growth of women's businesses will significantly contribute to the capacity of APEC economies to engage in and benefit from global trade."

Unfortunately, increased trade negotiations at the bilateral, regional and WTO levels do not usually take into account the particular effect that trade may have on women, she added in her speech. "The specific realities faced by women must be recognized, understood and systematically taken into account in the formulation and implementation of policies, programs and projects. In parallel with the trade negotiations and trade facilitation activities, adequate technical assistance and capacity building should be provided."

Jung recommends that a more systematic and comprehensive collection of gender-differentiated data on variables important in assessing the impact of trade liberalization and facilitation should be done. She argues that policies placing greater emphasis on science and technology education and skills development are needed for women. Technical assistance and support for capacity building should be provided and implemented according to the different needs and priorities of women in APEC member economies.

In the area of trade, she argues that APEC's Trade Facilitation Action Plan could target small women producers and organizations working with marginalized women. Transaction costs identified by fair trade organizations and small producers should be cut. Sex-disaggregated data should be utilized on employment, business ownership, export interests and activities of small producers in identifying the distribution of cost savings. Furthermore, Individual Action Plan templates, against which APEC members report annually on their progress towards APEC's free trade and investment goals, should include the provision for members to show improvements have addressed gender considerations. Finally, APEC's Trade Facilitation Action Plan should include initiatives to assess the cost and benefits for small women producers, including strategies to assist marginalized groups with adjustment costs.

Jung, who previously worked as a senior research fellow at the Korean Women's Development Institute, also points out that policy reform and legal frameworks must provide women equal access to financial resources. She says business networks between women entrepreneurs in the formal and informal sector should be encouraged and there should be more effective participation of women in trade negotiations at the regional and multinational levels. In addition, there should be specialized women's training and education that should meet the labor requirements of globalization, and assistance should be provided to women in small and medium-sized enterprises to cope with multiple roles by facilitating "family friendly" employment. Finally, gender sensitive policies and measures related to the development of SMEs should be promoted and necessary measures should be taken to remove barriers to increase women's contribution to social and economic growth in the region.

But it's an uphill battle. "Gender integration is not an easy job and the GFPN has not been able to make a significant impact thus far," concedes Jung. Not only is it still in its early stages, but it has suffered from a lack of leadership and coordination as well as scarce Secretariat resources, she explains. "Gender issues are not considered very important in APEC fora, even if there's a mandate to include gender - in their reports, in submitting project proposals," she admits. "Not many people understand what gender analysis means or how to prepare sex-disaggregated data and these things limit GFPN activities."

Bowman of CTI agrees. The Framework for the Integration of Women involves having all the different groups in APEC put gender on their agenda and actually take gender concerns into account when they develop projects "but the problem is that very few groups have picked up that idea and very little effort has been made by APEC Senior Officials to actually encourage groups or parts of APEC to advance the gender agenda and different committees were left to do it pretty much as they wished.

Still Jung isn't giving up. This year GFPN will continue to encourage fora to implement joint projects and initiatives; strengthen the existing coordinating mechanism; and revisit GFPN's strategy for gender integration in APEC programs and activities. "I am trying to get as many opportunities as possible to provide gender information sessions," notes Jung in a recent telephone interview with The APEC Secretariat. "When we first started we provided seventeen gender information sessions. Last year there was only one."

Jung notes that the GFPN will also provide gender experts to analyze three or four projects that are being undertaken by different APEC fora such as the Committee on Trade and Investment and the Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group, to see whether the project proposals meet gender criteria. She also plans to analyze as many as possible of the recommendations put forward in an APEC-funded study conducted by the North South Institute in 2003 entitled "Supporting Potential Women Exporters." "We have to prioritize them and see which ones we need to follow up on," Jung says.

Among other things "Supporting Potential Women Exporters" recommends that APEC's Trade Facilitation Action Plan could include specific components targeting small producers, including women, and organizations that work with marginalized women to assist in identifying, designing and evaluating interventions. APEC could consider collaboration with those organizations and agencies that are engaged in linking small producers with global markets. It recommends that APEC should incorporate issues identified by fair trade organizations and small producers when identifying areas to target for reductions in transaction costs for producers. (These issues include difficulties for producers in remote areas accessing papers for Certificates of Origin, long delays and complicated procedures and paperwork.)

The study also recommends that APEC's Trade Facilitation Plan should use sex-disaggregated data on employment, business ownership, export interests and activities of small producers. This data will help governments better identify groups that may benefit or lose out as a result of implementation of trade commitments and to design policies to mitigate negative impacts.

The study also recommends that APEC's Trade Facilitation Plan should use sex-disaggregated data on employment, business ownership, export interests and activities of small producers. This data will help governments better identify groups that may benefit or lose out as a result of implementation of trade commitments and to design policies to mitigate negative impacts. IAP templates also should be expanded to include provision for members to show how their improvements have addressed gender considerations including access, participation, and where gender impact assessments have indicated a need, mitigating initiatives to offset impacts linked to gender.

The study notes that the Trade Facilitation Action Plan should include initiatives to assess the costs and benefits of the liberalization of financial and telecommunications systems for very small women producers. Liberalization of financial services may have unanticipated implications for credit markets in formal and informal markets, affecting availability of credit for small producers. Strategies to assist APEC members adjust to a paperless trading regime should include strategies that would assist marginalized groups with adjustment costs.

Bowman of CTI notes that his committee will work to raise awareness about gender issues and focus some of its trade facilitation and transparency implementation efforts on identifying and reducing transaction costs that affect women and small businesses. "CTI will work to identify best practices for supporting women entrepreneurs in APEC economies," he notes. "Over the next few months our member economies will bring to the table examples of things they do to support women exporters in their economies so that those best practices will be shared ... so that members can have a better idea of what works and what doesn't work. We also are going to work more closely with GFPN. We want to work to really assess our projects against the gender framework in a much more meaningful way to actually make a difference rather than just pay lip service to the gender agenda. CTI has also agreed to raise awareness on trade facilitation and transparency and focus on reducing transaction costs that affect small business for women. So we will look at trade facilitation projects from a gender perspective."

In June this year, APEC trade ministers said in their joint statement that they recognized the different impacts and opportunities that trade presents for men and women, and the relevance of integrating gender concerns into trade policy. They also instructed officials to proceed with follow-up activities to the project, "Supporting Potential Women Exporters", including reporting on economies' current policies to support women exporters; identifying the APEC region's best practices on the basis of those reports; and working to identify and implement trade facilitation and transparency measures that meet the needs of women exporters and small businesses.

Alongside these statements, efforts are being made to strengthen the interface between the GFPN and trade officials. The CTI plans to draw on the expertise of the GFPN by having a "gender information session" (an opportunity to have a workshop with trade officials on gender and trade concerns); seek the advice of GFPN on the CTI projects, and ask other APEC committees, including the SME Working Group and the Finance Ministers' Process to consider what they could do to follow up on the project.

At the end of the day, progress may be slow but it is being made. "Gender integration is not an easy job," concedes Dr. Jung. "To work on gender is obviously very frustrating because you don't see the output right away in front of your eyes. But I'm very positive and hopeful. Even if we don't see the progress right now, after a few years you realize that it has been progressing."