Outcome APA_D_6.1

Governments and civil society are able to assess and inform progress in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the SDGs as well as other global and regional normative frameworks

In 2021, the Asia-Pacific Beijing+25 regional synthesis report was officially launched jointly by UN Women and UNESCAP on the International Women’s Day. A brief interactive video summarising the report content and recommendations was screened at the event for all participants from Governments, Donors, UN Agencies, CSOs and private sector (Total participants is 71 in-person participants and 119 online participants via Zoom and 2,400 unique viewers via Facebook Live from across the region.) The report highlight Video can be found here As part of the Generation Equality Regional Journey for Asia and the Pacific, the ROAP convened six Generation Equality Asia-Pacific Regional Multi-stakeholder dialogues in the areas of : Feminist Action for Climate Justice on Earth Day i.e. 22 April (300 participants); Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality on 19 May (attendees at the highest peak: 158); Economic Justice and Rights on 25 May (attendees at the Highest peak: 165); Gender Based Violence on 16 June (175 participants) and; Feminist Movements and Leadership on 17 June (attendees at the highest peak: 268) and 3-day Youth Activism Accelerator Sessions (attendees 1,715 combining from 3 days). These dialogues brought together stakeholders from across the region representing : civil society including women's rights and youth -led movements, private sector, governments, academia, philanthropy, International Financial Institutions and the UN, to discuss areas of action under each of the Action Coalition Areas- and to invite stakeholders to consider making a commitment in line with these areas. In addition, as part of the #16daysofactivism and #IamGenerationEquality campaigns, the ROAP produced seven stories of youth activists who are at the frontline of fighting gender-based violence in their respective countries. The stories feature contributors from Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia and include key actions the interviewees have taken to combat GBV, as well as actions that the reader can take to make a difference. More information is available here . With the UN Coordination approaches used in this Outcome, Governments and wide-range of civil society are able to assess and inform progress in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as well as SDGs in large scale across Asia-Pacific region.

Governments and civil society are able to assess and inform progress in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the SDGs as well as other global and regional normative frameworks

In 2022, UN Women supported Governments and civil society in the Asia-Pacific region to assess and stay informed on progress in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the SDGs as well as other global and regional normative frameworks through several processes, namely: (i) the CSW66 Regional Consultation which brought together state and non-state actors including national gender machineries, ministries in charge of environment, national disaster management organizations, civil society organizations representing diverse constituencies, UN entities, international financial institutions, intergovernmental bodies, philanthropic institutions and academia. Convened by UN Women and ESCAP, in collaboration with UNDP, UNEP, UNDRR, UNICEF and UNFPA, these consultations allowed these diverse actors to convene and agree on ways to accelerate progress on key frameworks including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (in particular, the 2019 Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+25 Review), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These discussions were useful in that they were relevant to informing stakeholder perspectives during the COP 27. Further, UN Women also contributed to the sharing of good practices in line with the regional consultation recommendations, through two side events during the global CSW66 session. Link to resources: https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/stories/in-focus/2022/02/csw66 (ii) Secondly, UN Women ensured that all SDG goal profiles developed for the Ninth Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Forum (March 2022) i.e. for SDGs 4, 14, 15 and 17. UN Women also collaborated with ESCAP and UNFPA in leading on the development of the SDG 5 profile -as well as co-facilitating a roundtable on SDG 5 which allowed ESCAP member states, civil society, private sector and UN partners to discuss key impediments to progress on SDG 5 and strategies for accelerating progress in this area. The recommendations of the same were presented to ESCAP member states of 31 March and submitted at the 2022 HLPF. (iii) In the humanitarian sphere, UN Women were able to support the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management and its Secretariat to strengthen tools and good practice case studies for gender-responsive operationalization of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response Work Programme 2021-2025. (iv) Under the regional programme funded by the Government of Japan “Gender-Responsive COVID-19 Prevention and Response in Mekong Countries”, UN Women’s regional humanitarian and disaster risk reduction team provided support at regional and national levels, planning activities on inclusive and gender-responsive measures to prevent and respond to COVID-19, including support to COVID-19 vaccine access in Lao PDR, regional research and dialogues on women’s inclusion in socio-economic recovery, and development of communications campaign. Further, under the same programme, implemented in India and funded by ROK, a study on women’s leadership and meaningful participation in COVID-19 recovery and response in India were able to frame the planning of a similar regional study and dialogues to be replicated. Under the programme “Gender-Responsive COVID-19 Recovery in India” funded by MOGEF in the Government of the Republic of Korea, UN Women provided support to the India Country Office on implementing gender-responsive measures to prevent and respond to COVID-19 and support pandemic recovery efforts. In addition, the UN Women – through partnership with Humanitarian Advisory Group – rolled out two studies in India and Nepal on women’s inclusion and leadership in COVID-19 socioeconomic recovery efforts in Asia-Pacific, which aimed to: (1) Understand the current state of women’s leadership and participation in COVID-19 response and recovery in South Asia; (2) Identify recommendations to better support women’s leadership and participation in COVID-19 response and recovery. UN Women also partnered with the Korean Women’s Development Institute (KWDI) to jointly hold a regional dialogue with South Asian women civil society leaders on facilitating gender-response recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring women’s leadership in crisis decision-making and response planning in Seoul, South Korea. The regional dialogue identified best practices and lessons learned from CSOs’ experience during the pandemic and provided recommendations for enhancing women’s leadership and participation in planning and decision-making for COVID-19 recovery. (v) UN Women worked with UNAIDS and other Cosponsors to ensure that needs of Women living with HIV and LGBTQI communities are reflected in UBRAF's priorities in the Joint Plans at Regional and country level. Inputs were also provided in the development of Integrated Regional Action Plan for viral hepatitis, HIV and sexually transmitted infections in South-East Asia, 2022–2026 by WHO to ensure that needs of women affected by HIV are reflected and addressed. UN Women also provided inputs fin the development of 'Born Too Soon' - Global report, coordinated by WHO, focusing on gender inequity and structural barriers that contribute to poorer maternal health and stillbirth. (vi) In 2022, UN Women have also been engaging with women’s civil society, digital rights organizations and cyber defenders to support regional network building among leading stakeholders advocating for gender-responsive cybersecurity across Southeast Asia and to ensure that a WPS lens is applied to cybersecurity issues. A collective of 26 civil society organizations and women’s rights advocates drafted an advocacy brief with the support of UN Women. UN Women shared the key advocacy points in several international and regional fora and including in a technical Briefing Meeting for the development of the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security. As a result of this advocacy work, the now adopted ASEAN WPS Regional Plan of Action includes reference to cybersecurity as an emerging WPS issue, as well as four specific action points on cybersecurity and WPS. The Government of Thailand has also expressed keen interest in UN Women's work on cybersecurity and on 29 November 2022, UN Women organized a government consultation with key Government bodies to support discussions on gender-responsive cybersecurity, building a foundation for continued government dialogue.