Learnings from ASEAN: Achieving the SDGs for all and leaving no woman or girl behind

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Background and Rationale

In 2015 the Heads of State/Government representing the peoples of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), charted the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 of an integrated, peaceful, and stable community of Nations in full complementarity with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, both placing gender equality and women’s empowerment as a cornerstone of Sustainable Development.

ASEAN is a highly dynamic and diverse region. Over the past 50 years, Southeast Asia has gone through rapid economic transformation, urbanisation, and demographic shifts. This has brought remarkable gains on poverty reduction and improvements on the health and wellbeing of the ASEAN population, from increasing access to maternal care, to expanding the availability of basic water sources. Yet rising inequalities, including gender inequalities, and the adverse impacts of climate change, especially on women and girls, continue to be a major challenge for sustainable development in the region.

In this context, ASEAN’s commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 5 on Gender Equality, and the promise of leaving no one behind remains fervent. Their recognition of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls as both a catalyst and a pre-requisite to achieving the 2030 Agenda is at the heart of this commitment.

With its second iteration of the ASEAN Gender Outlook, produced in partnership with UN Women and the ASEAN Secretariat, Member States take stock of the progress made for women and girls across the SDGs, analysing data disaggregated at multiple levels to identify who the disadvantaged population groups are, where they live and the specific challenges they face. This new edition of the ASEAN Gender Outlook showcases key achievements on women’s participation in decision making, poverty reduction, and food security, among many other areas. It also highlights how climate change may derail recent gains, and the need to prioritize the empowerment of rural women and girls and those left further behind, to achieve the 2030 goals. New data showcases how digitalization may enable progress acceleration across the region, and the importance of investing in infrastructure, while emphasizing that prioritizing environmental sustainability is essential for achieving a prosperous and inclusive future.

With only six years left to achieve the SDGs, the region will accelerate targeted actions for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, leveraging existing evidence and expanding its outreach efforts. Building on the progress made, the Kingdom of Thailand, the ASEAN Secretariat and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), wish to highlight examples of the transformative actions taking place in the region with an aim to deliver on the Pact for the Future, accelerate progress towards gender equality, the rights and the empowerment of all women and girls, and, in doing so, catalyzing the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

The side event aims to inspire exchanges among Member States and key stakeholders, showcase good practices and lessons learned, and amplify the unified voice of the region for accelerating progress towards gender equality, and therefore the entire 2030 Agenda.

Format

• The Ministers/Senior Officials of Thailand, Lao PDR, Australia, ASEAN Secretariat, and UN Women executive leadership will provide welcoming remarks.
• The event will have two sections: the first highlighting the progress made through key findings of the ASEAN Gender Outlook, and the second showcasing forward looking actions of Member States
• UN Women will moderate the panel.
• The event will close with a short Q&A session, where other Member States may issue supporting statements.

Audience

• The event will be open to representatives of Member States and the United Nations system
• Accredited civil society representatives will be invited to attend
• Private Sector institutions will be invited to attend
• Social media coverage of the event will be supported by UN Women

Time and Duration

The event will take place at United Nations Headquarters, Conference Room 6 at 13:15 hrs. It will last 75 minutes.

See also

• Concept note and agenda

Click to watch the live streaming from UN Web TV. | The broadcast will start at 13:15 hrs. on 27 SEP 2024 NY time.