UN Women Transparency Portal

Region:Asia Pacific Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022

World Bank Income Classification:Low Income

Least Developed Country:Yes

Gender Inequality Index:0.575

Gender Development Index:0.723

Population:209,497,025 Male:19,976,265 (9.5%) Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)

Disclaimer

outcome XM-DAC-41146-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 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.

outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_D_6.5

Women have better access to formal and informal legal systems

UN Women supported the promotion of gender-responsive legal technology resulting in the digitalisation of Timor-Leste mediation case management system. The programme utilised the CEDAW reporting and implementation process to support the adoption of the Anti_Sexual Violence Act in Indonesia. A legal needs survey for women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in Fiji, the Philippines, Nepal and Indonesia. Community-based justice mechanisms were supported in Nepal resulting in higher trust and satisfaction rather amount women community members. UN Women worked with the Philippines government conducting paralegal and mental health training for incarcerated women.

outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_D_6.6

Women are empowered to build resilient, cohesive and peaceful communities to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism

UN Women has made significant progress on the outcome 6.6 in 2022. In total, over 2.5 million individuals strengthened their understanding of the role women play in preventing terrorism, violent extremism and hate speech through the regional Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) programme called "Empowered Women, Peaceful Communities" - Phase V (April 2021-March 2022). UN Women continued to support the implementation and localization of National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security (NAP WPS) in Bangladesh and also has successfully advocated retaining a national policy framework for the government's commitment to advancing the Women Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in Thailand. In Bangladesh , UN Women has consolidated the experience and networks of prior phases to create a strong basis to scale up impact on preventing violent extremism and advancing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. UN Women has enhanced partnerships with the government, civil society, academic institutions, and development partners that can be leveraged for further engagement. The Women Peace Café (WPC), co-created by UN Women and the Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), is a key product of the overall regional PVE programme, which is the foundation of this project. Within the context of COVID-19 in this project, the WPC model expanded and proved to be a replicable and sustainable model for engaging youth to promote peace and social cohesion. Two new WPCs have been established in the two leading universities of Bangladesh; Brac University and Dhaka University. In this model, a total of 244 women enhanced their skills of entrepreneurship, including 154 female students trained in online Women Entrepreneurship Training for Promoting Peace and Social Cohesion; another 90 female students engaged as volunteers in the six Women Peace Ambassador initiative groups, to benefit directly from the innovative social entrepreneurship activities of the initiative. With a reach across four universities in total, the WPC platform is expanding the constituency for peace and resilience by reaching young future women leaders and better equipping them to prevent terrorism, violent extremism and hate speech. In addition, with the technical support of UN Women, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs formalized the Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group for implementation of the National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security in 2021 through its first formal meeting, which included representatives from all relevant ministries/divisions/departments. Throughout 2022, UN Women contributed to the NAP implementation by undertaking a mapping exercise to determine the status of activities undertaken by Coordination Group members under the NAP WPS, as well as refining tools and templates for monitoring and reporting against the NAP. In Thailand , UN Women contributed to strengthening the cooperation and multi-stakeholder partnership between the government and civil society organizations (CSOs) at the local level to respond to online threats and localize the WPS agenda. Both relevant local government agencies, CSOs and women’s groups have enhanced their knowledge to sufficiently understand digital space and the WPS agenda. Approximately 141,000 people were reached by online digital literacy trainings to prevent hate speech and promote resilience. Women leaders, women, and youth in communities in the southern border provinces (SBPs) who were trained as digital literacy trainers conducted and facilitated the training to raise awareness and advance cybersecurity in communities and attend to the issue of hate speech. Furthermore, a total of 110 women have increased their skills in the online marketing courses for women entrepreneurs and cooperatives in SBPs. The entrepreneurship activities have been critical connecting measures in SBPs to gather the beneficiary women’s groups and to engage local authorities in building trust with the Buddhist and Muslim communities. At the national level, UN Women has successfully advocated retaining a national policy framework for the government’s commitment to advancing the WPS agenda. The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) has agreed that UN Women will work closely with the Department of Women’s Affairs and Family Development at the national level and with Coordination Centre for Children and Women in the Southern Border Provinces (CCCW-SBP) at the local level to support the review and extension of the Measures and Guidelines on Women, Peace and Security. According to the review of the Phase V conduced in 2022, overall, the project was highly relevant in addressing key gendered challenges relating to violent extremism, particularly relating to vulnerabilities of women in the COVID context. It also appropriately supported women’s empowerment in ways that enable them to contribute to PVE more broadly. The project made less progress on policy implementation, in part due to government resources being diverted to tackling the pandemic. The project adapted its policy approach, working with civil society actors to localise policy implementation and awareness whilst adapting plans to work with government longer term. Therefore, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is applicable. During the five phases of "Empowered Women, Peaceful Communities" (April 2017 - March 2022), approximately 5 million individuals have strengthened their understanding of the role of women can play to prevent violent extremism and gender dynamics of this threat, particularly in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and regionally and globally including through innovative communication tools as well as capacity development, awareness raising and knowledge sharing efforts. More than 6,000 women from over 200 communities in the four countries have strengthened their capacity to generate income as a result of the project’s economic empowerment initiatives. They have become to be agents of change in their communities and promote peace and social cohesion, thereby preventing radicalization and violent extremism. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital platforms and online spaces are being increasingly used to spread sexist, inaccurate, and dangerous rhetoric about women, inciting hatred and potentially provoking violence – online and offline. Through digital literacy training, 420 young leaders (408 women and 12 men, including indigenous peoples, transgender individuals, the urban poor and rural communities) in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Thailand have strengthened capacity to identify, protect against and report online hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, especially in the context of COVID-19. They also learned how to create and disseminate edutainment videos to promote gender equality and social cohesion through social media. The key lessons learned and good practices emerging from the programme include the following: collective space for women's engagement in peacebuilding; national consultations and coalition building; digital literacy and social media skills were highly valued; engagement with new stakeholders (including youth and religious leaders) by incorporating a more comprehensive approach to community-level preventing violent extremism trainings; partnership formation; use of creative communication materials; development of a body of research and evidence that supports the implementation of a gender-sensitive approach to PVE; awareness of the subject matter's sensitivity and the need to ensure the safety of all participants and implementers. (Please refer to the attached programme brief for more details)

outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_D_6.8

Timely gender-sensitive data on the impact and responses to crisis, including COVID-19, are produced and their use is promoted to inform policies, programmes, advocacy and research

Sex-disaggregated data on the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was generated, some of which was used to inform responses and government discussions (for instance, in Indonesia, estimates were used to inform G20 discussions). In addition, a nationally representative survey on gender and the environment was conducted in Tonga. Data collection finalized in December and data analysis is currently on-going. Estimates are expected to inform the country's disaster strategy. Finally, a pilot Time Use Module was implemented in Indonesia in two select provinces, to prepare the country for implementation at a national scale in 2023-2024.

outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_D_6.9

Gender statistics, sex-disaggregated data, and knowledge are produced, analysed and used to inform policymaking, advocacy and accountability for delivering gender equality and women’s empowerment results

In light of the new available estimates on the gendered effects of COVID-19 generated by UN Women in 7 countries in 2022, Indonesia and Kiribati have both made use of the findings for national purposes. In the case of Indonesia, the estimates have been used widely to inform speeches and government discussions, including within the context of the G20 discussions held in Indonesia, where the Ministry for Women and Children used the survey estimates to higlight the importance of investing in women's economic empowerment. In the case of Kiribati, a national dialogue on the gendered consequences of COVID-19 resulted in heightened government interest in using the estimates, including to inform discussions on drafting the gender strategy. Furthermore, the figures were used for implementing a training on using gender data, so media professionals, civil society representatives, government officials and statisticians got to learn where to use the data, how to interpret it, and conducted their own analysis with it.

Showing 6 - 10 of 14

Disclaimer and notes

The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).

Download Data

CSV PDF