UN Women and UNDP Meet with Future Leaders of Malaysia
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Author: Montira Narkvichien
UN Women Regional Communications Unit for Asia and the Pacific together with our men and boys engagement and advocacy arm HeForShe introduced our global campaigns: "Planet 50-50 by 2030 Step It Up for Gender Equality”, “HeForShe” as well as a Public Service Announcement “Active Bystander” to end sexual harassment on public transport in support of HeForShe and the Secretary-General UNiTE Campaign to End Violence against Women. Eight young members of Malaysian Women Leaders from ASEAN Young Women Leadership Conference (AYWLC) joined our advocacy meeting on 11 April 2016 with great interest and pledged their individual commitment for gender equality in their fields. Two keen women youth leaders studying in science and technology with a Physics degree said that they aimed to help increase awareness of an equal ratio of women and men in their field of work and studies and in politics. They realised how important it is for the civil society and Malaysian individuals to monitor and hold the Government accountable for its committed actions in the Step It Up campaign to increase the female labour participation rate from 54 per cent as of last year (2014) to 59 per cent by 2020 by Prime Minister Najib Razak at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly. UN Women also introduced a video on Women and Sustainable Development Goals.
In this meeting, UNDP Thailand presented its work on democratic governance and social advocacy, particularly on the Southern Thailand Empowerment and Participation (STEP) Project, and the Being LGBTI in Asia Programme. The video "Stories of Transgender Healthcare Discrimination in Thailand” was showed, which showcased 16 transwomen and transmen across Thailand from all walks of life, recounting their personal struggle of being discriminated as a trans person and their demands to end discrimination against trans people in all forms. The video was produced by the Asia-Pacific Transgender Network, a regional partner of the Being LGBTI in Asia Programme.