Photobook on women’s contribution from the Rohingya and host communities in Cox’s Bazar to climate change adaptation

The photo story book “From Where I stand” is a tribute to the gender equality champions who made exemplary efforts in reducing risks and shaping a sustainable future. It is an initiative under the National Resilience Programme (NRP) with the Government of Bangladesh to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in national disaster risk reduction policies and practices. The programme is supported by the Government of Sweden and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

In partnership with Gobi Partners, the WEA regional team virtually held the Asia Gender-Smart Investing Forum on November 2-3.

In the coming years, it is likely that hazards will only further increase in frequency and intensity due to climate variability and temperature spikes, exacerbating the primary risk drivers leading to gender inequality and poverty.

This report covers the key highlights of the session entitled “Untold Tales of Women Champions in Climate Change”. The webinar was held on 23 January 2021 in partnership with the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) as part of the 7th Annual Global Gobeshona Conference.

This report covers the key highlights of the session entitled “Disaggregated Data for Resilience Building”. The webinar was held on 18 January 2021 in partnership with the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) as part of the 7th Annual Global Gobeshona Conference.

This paper is a review of gender mainstreaming principles and examples of interventions by countries and organisations in Asia and the Pacific region. It also includes tools and approaches to mainstream gender into climate change and disaster risk reduction policies.

The 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action remains the most comprehensive and progressive blueprint for achieving gender equality to date. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reinforces its ambitions, through advancing Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review was convened by ESCAP and UN Women in late 2019.

The linkages between organized crime, including trafficking in persons, and violent extremism are a global concern. These linkages are starting to receive some attention, but this is limited to specific conflict contexts such as Iraq and Syria. In recognition of the link between violent extremism and trafficking in persons and the gendered nature of both, the UN Security Council adopted its first resolution on trafficking in persons in areas affected by armed conflict in 2016 (UNSCR 2331). But overall, there is little understanding of the relationship between violent extremism and trafficking in persons, or of how gender informs this interaction.

[Stories of Rohingya women seeking refuge in Cox’s Bazar] Since late August 2017, more than 715,000 Rohingya’s have fled Burma’s Rakhine State to escape the military’s large-scale campaign of ethnic cleansing. UN Women Bangladesh, through the development of this photo book, documents the resilience and transformation of Rohingya women in the crisis response in Cox’s Bazar, along with human interest stories that demonstrate strength, agency and leadership.

As the formal justice system in Timor-Leste develops to meet the needs of the population, many disputes and conflicts continue to be resolved outside of the formal system, using alternative dispute resolution (ADR), such as customary justice, mediation or arbitration. The Ministry of Justice, recognizing the importance of ADR in accessing justice, is working on draft legislation related to informal justice processes and has received support from the Ministry of Justice in Japan. The Ministry...

Women and girls inKachin State are bornto experience the natureof earth’s beauty,and to contributepeace, harmony and well-being in theirfamilies, communities, overall societyand the nation to shape the processfor sustainable development for all. OnJune 9, 2011, human-made armed conflictemerged in Kachin State, and hassince then resulted in extensive loss oflife, damage to infrastructures, destructionof livelihoods and protracted andcontinuous displacement of more...

The importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment and leadership as a central element of humanitarian action, and across the humanitarian-peace-development nexus, has been recognized in international normative frameworks to which the Government of Myanmar is a signatory. These include the World Humanitarian Summit Agenda for Humanity and the Grand Bargain, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms...

A Pacific Regional Consultation on Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls - To advance the regional dialogue and action on primary prevention, UN Women convened a three-day consultation bringing together key stakeholders from the region to discuss current prevention programming practice, and hear from global practitioners and researchers working on violence prevention. Forty-two participants attended from across seven countries...

The discussion paper “Unpaid Care and Domestic Work: Issues and Suggestions for Viet Nam” is developed specifically to help policymakers gain a better understanding of what unpaid care work is and how this affects women’s participation in the social and economic life; and recommend policy measures that would help recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work...

As Viet Nam is taking further steps to operationalize the gender equality principles set out in the State Budget Law 2015, this discussion is designed to help policymakers and relevant stakeholders understand the linkages between gender inequalities, tax laws, and tax policy options. Specifically, the paper examines the gender impact of tax laws and tax incentives in Viet Nam, including in relation to personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, consumption taxes such as the Value Added Tax,...

Every day, come early afternoon, the Dangals take a walk back to the spot where their house used to be before the earthquake: today a cherry blossom tree is in full bloom next to a pile of rubble. “This is where our house used to be,” says Bishnu Maya, who is unable to rebuild because they don’t have enough money. But hope lives on. One day Bishnu Maya is hopeful she will be able to go back to her old life, her home, and bring her family together again...

The Asia Pacific Regional Symposium on National Action Plans for Women, Peace and Security gathered over 80 experts from 17 countries to consider the regional thematic and emerging priorities for NAPs-WPS and to evaluate how NAPs-WPS can benefit women affected by conflict. This Symposium Report concludes that effective NAPs-WPS are driven by strong leadership and must be accompanied by financing and localization strategies, and robust monitoring and evaluation systems. Most importantly, the development and effective implementation of NAPs-WPS must be inclusive and reflect civil society perspectives, especially women's groups, on women's peace and security...

This paper, discussed at the Asia Pacific Regional Symposium on National Action Plans for Women, Peace and Security, presents the findings of a critical review of the nine Asia-Pacific WPS NAPs: Afghanistan, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines and Timor-Leste. The review assesses the degree to which the needs, rights and well-being of women and girls in the region are central to these NAPs, as intended under resolution 1325.

This paper, presented at the Asia-Pacific Regional Symposium on National Action Plans on Women Peace and Security, explores the gender and security challenges with respect to preventing violent extremism and promoting a culture of peace and tolerance, and responding to the causes and effects of mass displacement and climate change. These emerging issues are having a visible and growing impact on peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular on the achievement of women and...