Greetings,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Philippines and I extend my sincere appreciation to the ILO for holding here in Manila the Asian Regional Consultation on the Follow-up to the Beijing Platform for Action adopted during the Fourth World Conference on Women

I recall that in that historic conference, the Philippine delegation figured prominently and was given a key leadership role in recognition of the significant strides that the Philippines had already achieved in promoting the rights of women in general and gender equality at the workplace in particular.

We believe that we laid down a strong policy and legal foundation when, in 1989, we passed the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, followed in 1992 by the Women in Development and Nation-building Act. And right after the Beijing conference, we adopted the 30-year blueprint of gender mainstreaming – the Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive Development that served as the main vehicle for implementing our commitments to the Conference. With the subsequent passage of the General Appropriations Act for Gender and Development, at least five per cent of the annual total appropriations of all government agencies are being allotted annually for the implementation of women-specific gender-responsive programmes and projects. Within this framework, there is a free flow of ongoing interventions that the Government does by way of joint projects with the various women NGOs.

Friends, since then, the passion and the zeal of various women’s organizations in the country, both governmental and non-governmental, does not die down and has never been in vain.

Jointly, we have built a strong social partnership founded on clear and enabling policy and legal framework necessary to achieve a sure goal of harnessing to the fullest the potentials of women as advocates and active agents of change in nation-building.

Like many countries in the world, more and more Filipino women are entering the labour force and the increasing trend in their number alone can no longer be ignored. Their participation rate in the labour force is on the rise. And if the trend continues, there could be more women in the labour force than men in the near future. While in the past, they tended to be concentrated in the rural areas, there is now a growing urbanization of women in the workforce in the Philippines. We also note the faster growth of women in employment, less growth in unemployment and lower displacement among them.

On the other hand, we also note the need to overcome various problems like the persistent gender typing, by occupations and industries, by choice of careers and course, by class of workers, their marginalization as entrepreneurs, their growing informalization and flexibilization, their need for more social protection, particularly our migrant women workers, the problem of harmonizing family and work responsibilities, and the continuing discriminatory practices at the workplace. These, to my mind, remain serious concerns, which if not overcome, can pose serious obstacles to the full participation of women in development.

As the agenda of this conference also suggests, the problem of the girl-child worker is likewise a serious concern that needs to be looked into. We have 22.4 million Filipino children, 3.6 million of whom are working children, with 1.2 million as female child workers. While tradition tells us to help parents, we must ensure that children are not deprived of their rights to education and leisure, as part of their full development into mature human beings.

Lastly, lest we forget, we also need to highlight and document "best practices" or best affirmative actions that allow women to inch and break through the so-called glass ceiling. With these interesting topics in mind, I hope I was able to perk all of you up to participate actively in this consultation.

On this note, I welcome all of you!

Thank you and good day.


                                      

I am very pleased to greet you all, representatives of governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations of the Asia and Pacific Region, colleagues and friends.

Your presence in this Conference shows the commitment of the whole of the ILO community to move forward on gender equality. This objective is at the heart of the primary goal of the ILO: to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. This objective embraces all sectors of the economy. That means not only wage workers in formal enterprises, but also the self-employed, casual and informal workers, the hidden workers of the care economy or of the domestic scene. Women workers are all too often concentrated in such work, lying beyond the reach of labour legislation and social protection.

The ILO has committed itself to mobilize its budgetary resources, knowledge and influence to assist its Members in achieving this aim. Just a few days after I took office as Director-General of the ILO, I spoke on the occasion of International Women’s Day. I then pledged that this concern would be a priority for me both within the Organization, and in its actions and advocacy. I have already started to act, significantly increasing the resources for work on gender issues in our next programme and budget, both within our new Bureau for Gender Equality, and in the technical sectors of the Office. I will continue to defend and promote gender equality as a cross-cutting theme in the work of the ILO.

The ILO preparatory report to this meeting shows that over the past four years women have continued to suffer from discrimination in the labour market, particularly in South-East Asia where the financial crisis inflicted and continues to inflict serious economic pain and suffering on women in terms of unemployment and loss of pay. Since the Beijing Conference there has been some progress at the regional level towards greater economic empowerment: the high economic growth and high shares of labour-intensive production have resulted in a reduction of gender gaps. That is an encouraging step towards the realization of equality. But it is important to stress that more jobs for women should not compromise on quality and that in order to ensure gender equity, economic growth should go hand in hand with better jobs. This will be an important consideration in the UN Special Session on Beijing in June 2000.

I have made that theme, better jobs, the subject of my report to the ILO’s Conference this year, under the title of Decent Work. Decent work means work for all, but not any work: it means work which secures a decent income, with adequate social protection and conditions of work, with democratic representation and dialogue, jobs which preserve the dignity of workers and respect their basic rights at work. In all of these respects, women face disadvantage, often severe. Within the Decent Work agenda, gender inequality is a central concern.

The foundation of decent work lies in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. In adopting this Declaration in 1998, the ILO provided its Members with a practical tool to respect, promote and realize in good faith basic rights at work for all workers regardless of sex. These rights are: the absence of forced labour and child labour, freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, equal remuneration for work of equal value, and the elimination of discrimination in employment. As part of the promotion of the Declaration I would like to draw particular attention to the worldwide issue of child labour and appeal for your active involvement in the ratification and the implementation of Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, unanimously adopted this year by the International Labour Conference. Women’s rights cannot be achieved if their children are not freed from intolerable exploitation. Particular attention needs to be paid to the situation of girls, frequently more vulnerable both in visible situations such as prostitution and trafficking, and in invisible exploitation as domestic workers.

Let us all pledge on this occasion that we will give our full attention to effective action in this essential dimension of social progress. In that you may count on my support.


                                   

The Honourable Bienvenido Laguesma
The Honourable Karina David
The Hon. Ms Rosalinda Baldoz
Participants, resource persons,
Distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you to this important Asian Regional Consultation on Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women. At the very outset I would like to thank His Excellency the President of the Republic of the Philippines Joseph Ejercito Estrada who has requested the Secretary on Housing and Chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council the Honourable Ms Karina David to deliver the keynote speech for this conference. My very particular thanks also go to the Secretary of Labor the Honourable Mr Laguesma and the Under-Secretary Ms Baldoz and their staff for cooperating so well with the ILO to host this meeting. I am very honoured that the Government of the Philippines is represented by two Ministers here today and one top official at this opening session.

I am both professionally and personally pleased to organize this meeting. Professionally because I was twice involved in United Nations world women's conferences – in Nairobi and in Beijing, once as a member of the United Nations secretariat, and once as a member of the government delegation. When I began to consider organizing this meeting, Manila seemed an ideal venue, particularly in view of the role played by the Philippines. The Government was the spokesperson for the G-77 to the Beijing Conference, an organization which was one of the key negotiators. A number of eminent women from the Philippines also contributed significantly. Here I particularly mention Dr Patricia Licuanan, the chairperson of the preparatory committee for the Beijing Conference and architect of its success. Even more importantly, the Philippines is a leading country in Asia in promoting gender equality.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Asian region and the ILO both share a long-term commitment to gender equality. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to recognize women's rights to vote in national elections. It was a milestone for the women's suffrage movement, which nevertheless had many hard years of struggle ahead. The New Zealand decision gave added inspiration to the women's suffrage movement globally, as it pushed on with its campaign well beyond the turn of the century.

In 1919, some quarter of a century after the New Zealand decision, the ILO was created. It was born in the wake of one of the greatest tragedies the world had ever seen – the First World War. Social justice and gender equality were both at the heart of the principles set out in the Treaty of Versailles that established our Organization. Gender equality has remained one of the Organization's core principles, a guiding light for all its work. It is a tradition of which the Organization is justly proud, dating back well before the birth of the United Nations in 1945. As the message from the Director-General has just reminded us, it is just as strong a commitment today.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As recently as four years ago, the People’s Republic of China hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women. It was an historic occasion, and was the first of these women's conferences to be held in Asia. This Conference played an important part in increasing awareness of gender equality all over the world - and, of course, in Asia.

In our region, women are moving slowly but surely towards greater empowerment. Our goal of an egalitarian society is still a long way off, but we are making progress. In our region, for example, there is increased awareness of sexual harassment as a violation of the human rights of women in the workplace and this has become a new legislative area. Over the past five years or so, a number of governments have provided or updated a legal framework to address sexual harassment. These include Australia, Fiji, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam and Hong Kong, China. A landmark judgement from the Supreme Court of India in 1997 and the resulting guidelines represents another notable development. Other countries are considering formulating codes of practice or legal frameworks, such as Malaysia and Nepal.

Even so, we sometimes find ourselves sliding backward, and particularly when society faces difficulties such as the Asian financial crisis. Such events remind us that achieving gender equality calls for continuous effort. Political will and public support are essential to promote the kinds of measures required to tackle the social and cultural barriers that still confront women in our region. Gender equality must become a fundamental part of our societies – it must be woven so tightly into the fabric of day-to-day life, that outside events cannot tear it away. This is a responsibility that all of us must bear, it cannot be left to women alone.

In today's world, society faces an Herculean but essential task – achieving equal access to decent work for women and men, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Indeed this is the primary goal of the ILO today. This consultation is intended to help achieve this goal by reviewing progress, and taking stock of the constraints that remain. We pause for a moment on the side of a mountain, and look back down at the obstacles we have overcome. Looking at the distance we have climbed, not just in the past four years, but beyond, will help give us the confidence we need to press on toward our goal. Not so very many years ago, women faced a host of legal restrictions that limited their access to training, to jobs, and even to basic education. Now, many of those restrictions have been lifted, and new horizons are opening up. Women are moving into new areas, where they do more than just succeed – they excel. Women political leaders are becoming increasingly common – among them the former President of the Republic of the Philippines Her Excellency Corazon Aquino, and currently, the President of Sri Lanka Her Excellency Chandrika Kumaratunga, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh H.E. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand the Right Honourable Jenny Shipley. More and more women are appearing among the ranks of business leaders and within the labour movement. Still, compared to men, their numbers are few, and we have a long road to tread before we achieve equality. The Asian financial crisis showed once again that traditional concepts of gender roles – that is, men at work and women at home – are still deeply rooted in Asian society.

The Asian financial crisis showed the dark side of globalization. Although globalization has brought us jobs in some sectors, it also carries risks, such as the crisis, and women are particularly vulnerable. Women’s employment declined, their incomes declined, and they struggled with the increasingly heavy burden of ensuring that their families’ basic needs were met. Too often, this is a burden they carry alone. Yet, as the financial crisis eases, millions of women still suffer from discrimination and poverty. Across Asia and the Pacific, millions of women remain under paid, under valued and under employed. Millions more perform work for no pay at all.

A recent United Nations study shows that two thirds of the wage gap between women and men cannot be explained or justified by differences in education, work experience and other variables related to qualifications.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Fundamental difficulties remain. Among them is the lack of accurate data and information, in particular about the informal sector, where the majority of the women of this region work. Without this information, it is difficult to make an accurate assessment of where we stand.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The ILO's work includes addressing the gender dimension of poverty, protecting and promoting women's rights at work, and power-sharing and partnerships. Its work is a unique combination of the normative – in the form of its international labour standards – and the operational – in the form of technical cooperation that helps countries put those standards into practice. It helps provide a legal framework and an enabling environment for both women and men. Gender equality is a central theme of those standards. Perhaps the best-known is the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100). When it was adopted in 1951, it was at the forefront of thinking on gender equality at work. It did not call for equal pay for equal work – but for equal pay for work of equal value. Almost half a century later, it is just as relevant. Its fundamental importance was recognized at the World Summit for Social Development in 1995, and it was last year included in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work as one of the Seven Fundamental Conventions. The ILO's most recent Convention, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), also has special relevance for women and the girl-child. Its provisions deal with, among other things, slavery, trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and use of a child for illicit activities.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Beijing Platform for Action agreed upon 12 critical areas of concern, most of which are highly relevant to the work of the ILO. They include: protecting and promoting the human rights of women and the girl child; eradicating women's poverty; eliminating all forms of violence against women; removing the obstacles that prevent women from taking part in public life and decision making; promoting the economic autonomy of women; and promoting equitable sharing of resources.

To me, the Platform for Action is a compass that points us in the direction of a fairer, more equitable society that will bring better lives for all. I hope that this consultation will help us all to form a clearer picture of our common goals, and of the measures and strategies needed to reach them. I hope that over the course of these three days we will forge a broader alliance between governments, employers’ and workers; organizations – and I must add, between women’s NGOs and civil society – that will help us work together as one.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In conclusion I would remind you that gender equality is really only another way of saying "justice". Discrimination on the basis of sex is unfair, it is unjust, and it is discrimination for no other reason than we are born women. When discrimination prevents women playing an equal part in society, society loses half of its potential. Society becomes infinitely poorer. To face the challenges of today’s world, every society needs to ensure that all its members reach their fullest potential.

I wish you well with your deliberations, and I look forward to all of your valuable contributions to our discussions.

Thank you

                               

Introduction

It is my honour and privilege on behalf of His Excellency President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, the Philippines Government and my fellow Filipinos to welcome you all to the Philippines. We are indeed especially privileged to serve as your host for this very important event.

May I also articulate our collective appreciation to the International Labour Organization for bringing us together in this Asian Regional Consultation on Follow-up to the Beijing Platform for Action. Truly, the ILO has put upon its shoulder the serious responsibility of ensuring that the Beijing Platform for Action is implemented and its objectives of equality, development and peace for women are realized.

Bringing about gender equality for women is not a novel task for the ILO. Certainly this goal has been in its agenda long before the Beijing Conference. Gender inequality, after all, is one issue that cuts across all of the ILO’s four strategic objectives: the promotion and realization of the fundamental principles and rights at work; the creation of employment; the enhancement of coverage and the effectiveness of social protection; and the strengthening of tripartism and socal dialogue, all of which are adequately captured and interwoven in the notion of decent work.

Revisiting Beijing

It seems quire recent, but four years have already passed since the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing. In my case it does seem just like a year ago when we were shuttling back and forth between the NGO conference and Beijing, linking up with women and men in and out of government, finding common bonds and strengthening linkages for the future. While four years may be a relatively short period to be able to fully reckon with the concrete and significant steps, or at least, abiding faithfully to the roadmap that we laid down in Beijing four years ago. We need to do a thorough accounting of what has been done to enable us to truly guage our accomplishments vis-a-vis our goals. This occasion also gives us the opportunity to review the approaches and strategies adopted to carry out the Beijing Platform for Action, with a view to strengthening or recasting them, as necessary, especially in light of new global changes taking place in our midst.

Hoping to accelerate the international process of empowering all women that was launched during the International Women’s Year in 1975, the Beijing Conference was a defining moment of unity for the women of the world. It was meant to finally achieve for women a truly equal status with men. It was meant to force rightful recognition of women’s contribution to national, regional and world development. It was meant to conclude efforts to liberate women from social, economic and political subjugation.

Of course, these aspirations should have been achieved long before the Beijing Conference, or even before the First World Conference on Women in Mexico held more than 20 years ago. Unfortunately the stubborn fact persists that women’s concerns are still often forgotten, ignored or downplayed, even ridiculed.

I agree with the former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that the Beijing Platform for Action is a call to make a difference. It is a call to change the conditions of women who, for one unjustified reason or another, have been put in generally disadvantageous positions. As has been set out in Beijing, we can realize the aspirations for women, if we:

• eradicate the persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women;
• remove the obstacles to women’s full participation in public life and decision-making at all levels;
• promote economic autonomy for women, and ensure their access to production resources.

A glance at the situation – looking through Beijing

We know the basis for this call. In all countries in the world, inequality, discrimination and marginalization of women exist. Four years ago, we spoke of women as constituting the overwhelming majority of the world’s more than 1 billion poor. Today we note the feminization of poverty and the increasing unemployment of women, exacerbated by ill-designed structural adjustment measures that were necessitated by the globalization of economies.

We observe that women remain in the backseat of decision-making and governance, both in public and private spheres. And this, to a large extent, is due to society’s lack of recognition of, and belief in, women’s competencies and potentials. We still feel the gripping reality that women are being compelled to accept jobs without the benefit of regularity of employment and social protection. Worse, a great number of them are under-remunerated and exposed to dangerous working conditions.

Indeed, many women workers still do not enjoy the same opportunities as men. Generally, their career options are limited. More men occupy higher and more responsible positions, with just a few women breaking the glass ceiling. Thus, women are paid lower wages, are less secure in their jobs, and are often discriminated against in employment and promotions.

The most important message of the Beijing experience, therefore, is that women can and should stand equal with men – that there is no superior sex. For both sexes have their respective competencies – at times overlapping and at times complementing.

A glance at the situation after Beijing

Gender inequality is at the root cause of many a woman’s woe. It may have been borne not long after men and women started sharing the same planet. Yet culture and tradition have kept the problem in the closet. It was only in the recent decades that we have brought this issue out in the open. The Beijing Platform for Action is a moving testimony to this assertion. But more than this fact. Beijing is an earnest resolve to do away with the manifestations and conditions of inequality.

It is now time to ask: Are women today better off than they were four years ago?

To this, we may not have ready answers. But at least we know that today more and more women are asking the question and are asserting their rightful places at all levels of the economic, political and social spheres. As rightfully noted by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), an international advocacy network for the empowerment of women, "women are now daring to cross political, religious, cultural and ethnic borders in solidarity against violence, oppression and injustice. They are moving into uncharted territory of gender-balanced governance. And while they are bearing the burden of economic globalization, they now refuse to be broken by its cruel deprivations."

Sparked by the Beijing process, more and more countries are now experiencing the entry of their women in politics. Countries in Europe, Asia and Africa are increasingly electing or appointing women in their parliament or official cabinet, indicating that women are really breaking the barriers to a gender-balanced and gender-responsive political representation.

Laws and policies to curb domestic violence against women, sexual trafficking and sexual harassment have also been formulated in many countries like Mexico, Germany the United Kingdom, Thailand and Japan to name a few. While we do not have solid information on how these measures have uplifted the conditions of women, there is reason to believe that these measures are promoting prevention of violation of women’s rights.

To ensure the direct involvement of women in the development process, several countries have gone ahead by instituting policy interventions to promote women’s equal opportunity in employment. The principle of non-discrimination in employment or occupation has been translated into specific employment-related laws in many industrialized and developing countries in Europe and Asia.

But despite some progress made, we have yet to make a strong, positive impact on the lives of women. This means we are still way behind our purported goals. The general indication is that women remain marginalized and discriminated against in almost every part of the world.

Four years after the Beijing Conference, more women than men are still languishing in poverty. No less than the International Labour Organization has confirmed the veracity of this observation. In as much as women are over-represented in agriculture where poverty is most pronounced, it goes without saying that women are disproportionately affected by poverty. This is particularly true in the developing countries where dominance of agricultural activities exists. It is estimated that 65 to 90 per cent of the women in the developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region are engaged in agricultural work.

The fast pace of change in the global economy, rather than yielding positive results, may be creating instead an increasingly worsening employment situation for many women. Though I would like to believe that this is only temporary, it is nevertheless hurting the women sector.

Because of the changing world economic relations, women are increasingly being relegated outside the mainstream of development activities. Globalization is demanding high efficiency, which in turn is concerning those in the formal sector. As a result, more and more women are being eased out of the formal sector and are trooping to informal work, despite their already being over-represented in that sector. In Asia, only 16 per cent of women participate in the formal labour market, the rest are in the informal sector. And as we know too well, the informal sector is generally characterized by low-income, low-productivity jobs, offering no social protection and poor working conditions.

Furthermore, women continue to manifest more vulnerability to flexible work arrangements. For instance, available statistics in some countries in the Asia Pacific region such as Australia, Japan and Korea show an upward trend in the number of women participating in part-time employment. In these countries, women account for more than two-thirds of the total employed in this type of work arrangement.

Moreover, women, as always, dominate the world of unpaid work which consists largely of household and voluntary work. While there is a dearth of information on the extent of unremunerated work, we cannot deny that a very high percentage of this work is performed by women.

In addition, the trend in overseas employment remains biased against women. It is saddening to note that the international labour market is relegating women migrants, particularly Asians, to vulnerable occupations.

As if their situation were not bad enough, the Asian crisis has made the overall plight of Asian women more alarming. According to the ILO, the impact of the Asian crisis on women’s situation clearly indicates a worsening picture in some countries and more mixed results in others. In the Republic of Korea, women’s employment has drastically dropped by 20 per cent while that for men has dropped by only 6 per cent. Here in the Philippines, women’s unemployment rate has gone up to 9.8 per cent, which is slightly higher than the 9.5 per cent figure for men.

In Thailand, although women’s employment levels suffered higher decline compared to that of the men – 3.8 per cent as against 2.5 per cent – their incomes have been noted to have dropped by less than those for men. In Indonesia the reverse trend has been noted. The women’s unemployment rate there declined by 14 per cent compared to the men’s 27 per cent. However, the Indonesian women’s incomes went down more than men’s, with 6 per cent and 4 per cent differentials, respectively.

Likewise, the Asian crisis is believed to have also increased the number of children out of school and into work. In some countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea, there are indications that the impact has been worse for girls than boys. Studies have shown that in these countries, the incidence of school dropouts is higher among girls compared to that of the boys. This is a disturbing picture. In the short term we will see these girls being dragged to work under highly exploitative conditions and in the longer term an army of women whose options are severely limited.

On top of these, the women today are still facing the same problems that have saddled the women in the past – the problems of sexual harassment in the workplace, violence at home and the burden of multiple roles. Clearly all these are but manifestations of gender inequality.

Closing in on the Beijing goals

But what is positive and partially reassuring about the situation is that there are concrete actions being put in place to improve their conditions. In fact I would like to think that we have done our fair share. More than 70 per cent of the world’s 187 governments that adopted the Beijing Platform for Action have already formulated their own national action plans to address the needs and priorities of their women.

At least 77 countries have established national offices to follow up on commitments they made in Beijing, 36 of them are empowered to initiate legislative actions. At least 64 countries have enacted laws and adopted policy measures to address women’s rights and almost one third have increased their budgets for women’s programmes since the Beijing Conference.

The distinguishing mark of these accomplishments is that they were realized with the efforts of various sectors, particularly women’s movements. Had it not for their spirited involvement we could not have covered so much ground. And yet plans and long documents are only as good as the concerns they instill, the determination with which they are pursued, and the results they actually achieve.

In the Philippines, some favourable results are being realized out of the efforts we have made. For instance, our women today are increasingly showing a stronger hold in traditionally male-dominated bastions. A case in point is the faster rise in the number of women executives compared to that of men executives. On the average, women executives are increasing by 38 per cent per year as against 19 per cent for men. A slight increase in the Filipino women’s participation in governance in elected and appointed positions has also been realized. In last year’s national election we have elected a woman vice-president and 25 congresswomen compared to an earlier record of 24. Likewise, in the present Congress, we have four women senators as compared to 3 in the previous Congress.

Filipino women have even surpassed Filipino men in terms of educational achievements. Based on the 1995 Census of Population, women account for the majority, 55.9 per cent of the total academic degree holders. In the high school educational level, the number of women is slightly higher than that of men. In this level, women and men account for 28.0 per cent and 27.6 per cent of their respective total population. And yet we must also note that despite their accomplishments, women are still last to be hired and first to be fired.

On this note I wish that you will realize the objectives you have set upon yourselves in this consultation. May you have a pleasant stay in the Philippines.

Maraming salamat at mabuhay kayong lahat!

Updated by TN. Approved by BKL. Last update: 5 June 2000.

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