I speak on behalf of the women of the Asia Pacific region; a region comprising 60 percent of the world’s women and representing the greatest diversity of women.

I speak on behalf of the women of the Asia Pacific region; a region comprising 60 percent of the world’s women and representing the greatest diversity of women.

State commitments to financing for gender equality, at the international, regional and national level, have not gone far enough. The gap between commitments and full implementation on the ground remains. Practical implementation has been challenged by non-effective financing of programmes aimed at advancing the status of women. Millions of women in Asia and the Pacific lack sustainable livelihoods, full health care, and live in fear of violence and abuse. Lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, physical and psychological services, and effective education of women and girls further impedes on the well being of women in our region. Global warming and climate change have had a disproportionate impact on women. Trafficking of women and girls is a growing and severe problem and HIV/AIDS is increasing at a rapid rate across the region.

Policy initiatives often disproportionately affect women. The achievement of full gender equality requires more effective widespread implementation and monitoring of gender-responsive budgeting with gender impact statements included in national budgets. Gender mainstreaming does not replace the need for targeted, women-specific policies and programmes, positive legislation, corresponding budget allocations, and operational programmes for women at the national, regional and international level. Access to funds for effective programmes for women is a problem for women’s NGOs region wide.

A critical and key issue for Asia Pacific women is the impact of conflict and post conflict trauma. In conflict situations, women, girls, men, and boys participate in and experience conflict, peace processes and post-conflict recovery differently. All post-conflict reconstruction programmes should support initial gender impact assessments, gender budget analyses, and advocacy to improve spending patterns so that donor funding benefits women and men equally. National Action Plans for Security Council Resolution 1325 must be developed. Peace-building must be a participatory process that does not reconstruct what has failed, but develops a new paradigm based on gender equality and the protection of women’s social, economic, and political rights.

We, the women of the Asia Pacific Region call for measurable gender benchmarks across the diversity of women’s experiences; gender disaggregated statistical data collection, and analysis increased research into measuring gender outcomes; and funding for concrete commitments to targeted gender architecture at the national, regional and international levels. We call for national and regional action plans on gender equality which incorporate benchmarking. We call for an increase in specialized funding by States for programmes for women.

We call for the recognition of women’s contribution to the presently invisible informal sectors of the economy and the tearing down of structural barriers to women’s participation in decision making. We call for concrete commitments to the UN Violence Against Women Campaign and want to see funding and resources committed at the national level to address the endemic violence in the region.

We ask States to recognise the fundamentals of the principles of justice and unity, and the centrality of gender equality in poverty reduction and social justice in development aid. Only then will ongoing barriers for women begin to be overcome, obstacles which universally hinder women’s development and full attainment of their human rights.

(Presented at CSW by Carole Shaw, who is from the Center for Refugee Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. She is on the Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific Women Watch and a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.)