The brief has been developed under the ‘Enhancing Access to Justice for Women in Asia and the Pacific’ Regional Programme, jointly implemented by UN Women, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Commission of Jurists, with generous support from the Government of Sweden.

Globally, there is growing recognition that policy should be informed by indigenous knowledge systems. Indigenous knowledge frameworks and methodologies have been used productively to inform health policies, to support mental health and well-being, to foster sustainable development, and respond to climate change. These topics have some relevance for Filipino migrant workers, and we can therefore expect indigenous approaches to understanding their experiences and issues to be fruitful. Having a better understanding of context, culture, and patterns of communication can lead to improving our responses, their relevance, and their accessibility

Implementing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has long been recognised as essential to achieving sustainable peace and prosperity in the ASEAN region. ASEAN member states remain committed to gender equality and the full protection of women’s rights. They also remain steadfast in their aim to maintain regional peace, address shared security concerns and advance development and prosperity for all citizens. Member states consider the development of this Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security (RPA WPS) as a critical step to making progress on these commitments. The RPA WPS aims to mobilise the whole of ASEAN to advance implementation of the WPS agenda to promote sustainable peace and security for all citizens.

Framework: Prevention of Gender-Based Violence and Harassment Against Women Migrant Workers in South and Southeast Asia

As the new Plan comes together, UN Women and its #BRIDGEProgramme partners, with support from the #MigrationFund, drew on the Global Compact for Migration and other international instruments to imagine what programs and services the Plan might include to benefit Filipino migrant workers and their families.

UN Women's Office in India, based in New Delhi, works with the Government of India, other UN agencies, civil society, the private sector and influencers to achieve India's strategic priorities for women's advancement. Our programmes focus on upholding women's human rights and providing opportunities for women and girls to live up to their full potential.

This report was completed in the framework of the Joint Programme of the Government of Viet Nam and the United Nations on Promoting the Integrated National Financing Frameworks to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and it was supported by the Joint SDG Fund.

This edition of Gender Equality Update 37 features issues raised, and recommendations made by returnee migrant, Madhesi, Muslim, and single women in the ongoing context of COVID-19 in Nepal and how women are leading Community Safety Nets.

This study was conducted as part of the Safe and Fair Programme: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region (2018–2022). Safe and Fair is part of the multi-year EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls, funded by the European Union, and is implemented by ILO and UN Women in collaboration with UNODC.

The pandemic highlighted the immense challenges that women face in their health, safety and livelihoods. Many women, especially those in vulnerable communities, have lost a generation’s worth of economic gains. With the increase in gender-based violence and the reversal of decades of advancement for women in the workplace, we have reached an inflection point for gender equality.

This report has been conducted during the first year of the ‘Master Plan on Socio-economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas 2021-2030’ and compiled by the Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in Viet Nam (UN Women).

This brief will help stakeholders formulate workable strategies to develop gender-responsive plans, projects and programmes at the local or national level and to allocate the necessary budgets for the effective implementation of those strategies.

The Gender Marker Toolkit, under the National Resilience Program (NRP), has been designed to strengthen and develop the gender work of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) which already has a Gender Equity Strategy and Action Plan and an active Gender Forum. The Toolkit aims to raise awareness, understanding, and skills in ensuring gender responsiveness throughout all project stages and for all asset types that the Bangladesh Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) works on. It also aims to strengthen LGED’s influencer role with other Ministries and Departments.

This brief provides an overview of the Rights of Nature, how the global movement is being translated into regional action, and its connection with indigenous knowledge and systems of living in harmony with nature. 

This 10-year implementation of the National Target Programme on New Rural Development has resulted in significant improvements in the socio-economic development of rural Vietnam. By the end of 2020, 62.4 per cent of rural communes met the New Rural Development standard; the average attainment of the NRD criteria was 16.4 out of a total of 19 criteria. Despite such remarkable improvements, there are still sizable gender gaps in terms of employment, property ownership, and access to public services in rural areas, especially in poor districts and communes. The burden of unpaid care work hinders equal access for women to opportunities; gender-based violence remains high at places.

The two National Target Programs on New Rural Development and Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the period 2016-2020 have achieved important results. There have been more than 6 million people escaping poverty, approximately 2 million people escaping near poverty; 62.4 per cent of communes met the New Rural Development standard. However, there are still sizable gender gaps in terms of employment, property ownership, and access to public services in rural areas, especially in poor districts.

This guidance for Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is an essential tool to make sure a coordinated response to VAW, including women migrant workers, is put in place. Because of the multi-faceted nature of VAW and the specific challenges and needs of women migrant workers, coordinated approaches to addressing it are considered more effective than when different actors work in isolation to address the issue.

The study on the Operational Modality of Various Funds within Federal Governance assesses the status of 12 funds with mandates to respond to GBV and advance GE in Nepal. Funds related to GBV and GE are a central component of the GoN’s effort to advance women’s human rights and equality under law. The study reveals a serious gap between the rights and entitlements that are formally guaranteed to women under law in Nepal, and their ability to experience benefits from these funds.

The Government of Nepal has demonstrated through progressive policy measures a strong commitment to advance Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) issues and has centre staged GESI principles in public policies and budget processes. Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) was endorsed as an important strategy to promote GESI principles in national plans and budgets. On 29 May 2021 the Government of Nepal presented NPR 1.647 trillion budget for the Fiscal Year 2078/2079 (2021/2022).

This brief was developed with an aim to capture the experiences and lessons learned from piloting gender responsive budgeting (GRB) initiatives in Bac Giang in 2018 and 2019. It presents the positive changes made and challenges encountered during the processes of the implementation and make proposals on how to promote GRB practices in socio-economic development programmes in the community going forward.