Managing the Complexities of Gender and Social Change
Welcome to the second issue of SeaGen Waves — a newsletter highlighting the gender and development initiatives and activities of the Southeast Asia Regional Department (SERD).
This issue of SeaGen Waves features articles from the agriculture, environment and natural resources, the governance and finance and social sectors divisions. The selected pieces showcase a sample of loans and technical assistance (TA) projects, research studies and regional TAs from the Southeast Asia Regional Department (SERD). Each article captures the essence of the project and the actions included to mainstream gender into program and project work.
In this issue of SeaGen Waves, we made a concerted effort to reveal the web of complexities women face within their environments: Women’s desire to enhance the quality of living in new housing programs in Aceh by including more privacy and proper kitchen space in housing designs; ethnic women’s dependence on livestock and fisheries, for subsistence and livelihoods in Cambodia and Lao PDR; the inter-relationship between social structure, cultural practices and ecological environment on the status of women; and ethnic women’s vulnerability to becoming entangled in the web of unsafe migration and human trafficking in Lao PDR and Cambodia; reaching the unreached in lower secondary education in the ethnic-populated highlands of Viet Nam; links between gender equality and women’s empowerment in accelerating MDG achievement in Indonesia; working with our partners to prepare a joint gender assessment in the Philippines; supporting income and employment opportunities for women in Cambodia and the Philippines; and empowering female commune councilors to effectively carry out their public responsibilities as council members.
We hope you enjoy this issue of SeaGen Waves and find it to be informative. We also hope it inspires you to do more for gender equality and women’s empowerment. We welcome your contributions, your ideas, and your feedback on improvements of future issues.
Anupma Jain
Social Sector Specialist
Social Sectors Division
SeaGen Waves would not have been possible without the support of the Project Team leaders and contributions from the following individuals: Shireen Lateef, Susan Kerr, Manoshi Mitra, Florian Steinberg, Mahfouz Ahmad, Januar Hakim, Karin Schelzig-Bloom, Kheng Samvada, Arlene de Guzman-Bacasmas and Fatima Bautista.
The Tsunami of 26 December 2004 left behind the greatest devastation we have seen in recent times. It left many women-headed households, widows, and orphans vulnerable in the face of reconstruction. Locating women's voices during the emergency phase and ensuring it is heard during the long-term reconstruction of the coastal communities in Aceh and Nias was challenging yet fulfilling. Read and learn more about how the Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support Project encouraged women's participation in the design of housing and the spatial planning of villages during reconstruction.
Having a field and a forest of one's own is becoming a fading reality for some ethnic women. Ethnic livelihoods and cultures are subject to innumerable pressures with the growing focus on market oriented agriculture and demands to end shifting cultivation. An ADB technical assistance supported an ethnographic study of women’s traditional rights and access to land, forest and water resources among the Mon-Khmer and Hmong-Mien ethnic communities. Understand how ecosystemic changes, particularly those related to swiddening and other social changes affect the status of ethnic women in Lao PDR. It is the difference between having a field and a forest of one's own and dreaming of them from the past.
Getting ethnic minority girls living in remote upland areas to schools is a challenge. ADB’s Lower Secondary Education for the Most Disadvantaged Regions project in Vietnam has taken up the challenge. It aims to promote secondary education for the hardest-to–reach groups. The project will provide girls and ethnic minorities’ access to lower secondary schools in 103 of the most disadvantaged districts across 17 provinces of the northern and central highlands, and the Mekong delta. This will be no easy task. Read more about how the project balances demand and supply side issues through providing boarding facilities, scholarships, school buildings, gender-inclusive and ethnically sensitive curriculum.
Commune councils are the lowest level of public administration in Cambodia. Article 9 of the Law on Commune/Sangkat Administration and Management, mandates that every council must appoint a woman councilor. This is the 1st step. The next steps require boosting women’s confidence to participate in commune councils and strengthening their capacity to carry out their public responsibilities. Read how ADB’s Strengthening and Capacity Building of Female Commune Councilors’ Network project has worked with a local women’s NGO to build women councilor’s knowledge, skills and confidence to navigate the male world of local level politics.
At least 20% of the total annual fisheries production in Cambodia is attributable to women. But their work remains undervalued and their roles neglected in the policies and programs for fisheries development. ADB’s “Enhancing the Role of Women in Inland Fisheries in Cambodia,” financed by the Gender and Development Cooperation Fund, is working with the Tonle Sap Livelihoods Project to analyze the constraints, opportunities, interventions and strategies required to support women’s participation in the inland fisheries sector. Learn more about fisher women and their need to access resources, technology, equipment and capital to enhance their productivity, increase their incomes and reduce household poverty.
Poverty in Indonesia is intrinsically linked to a lack of access to key social services such as health and education. Gender equality and the empowerment of women are central to accelerating achievement of all the MDGs. Without direct improvements in women’s health, education, access to formal employment and decision-making, the MDGs are unlikely to be met. A policy output for gender mainstreaming was included in the policy action matrix of ADB’s Poverty Reduction and MDG Acceleration Program. Read how gender equality and women’s empowerment influences achievement of the MDGs.
The livestock economy is now a mainstay of Lao ethnic communities. It contributes to subsistence, is a marketable asset, and serves as insurance in times of scarcity and a marker of wealth and status. Dependence on livestock among ethnic communities is increasing with reduced land for shifting cultivation. Yet, the livestock sector has languished due to disease, lack of proper feeding, care and management techniques, and limited access to information, capital and markets. Read more about an ADB project attempting to bridge the technology gap in the livestock sector in northern Lao PDR and providing ethnic women with new opportunities for earning incomes through livestock rearing.
Women make substantial, and often unrecognized contributions to Cambodia's economy—agriculture, garment industry, local markets, and the informal economy. Women in Cambodia have the highest labor force participation rate in Southeast Asia. But, more than 2/3 of women are employed in the informal sector. ADB’s Sustainable Employment Promotion for Poor Women project focused on promoting the socio-economic empowerment of Cambodian women through macro, meso and micro level interventions. This included policy dialogue at the national level, capacity development at the meso level and support for women’s entrepreneurship at the micro level. Read more.
Women’s entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. As a result of ADB’s Social Protection for Poor Women Vendors in Mindanao Project women now have their own women’s resource centers next to markets where they can store their produce, have their children taken care of and avail of skills training. From baking and jam making to t-shirt printing and candle-making, female vendors can now earn more money than they did before the project. Read more about the new ventures of women in Mindanao.
Roads and transport corridors facilitate cross border movement of goods and people. As a result of improved connectivity, Northern Lao PDR and Northeastern Cambodia are witnessing rapid development, exposure to urban lifestyles, market economy and media influences. This is leading to many cultural and social changes. Exposure to the outside world and the change processes are having significant impacts on women, girls, and men in isolated ethnic communities in the region. An ADB technical assistance project Promoting Safe Migration and Preventing Trafficking in Women and Children in the GMS is exploring and investigating the “push and pull” factors contributing to unsafe migration and human trafficking. Ethnicity was identified as a key variable in how social change affects migration and mobility. Read more.
Agriculture accounts for 39% of Cambodia’s gross domestic product. Agriculture employs more than 70% of the total labor force with women representing 56% of the primary work force in subsistence agriculture and 54% of the work force in market-oriented agriculture. Less than 1% of all farmers receive agricultural extension services of which 10% are women. This translates into hardly any women receiving extension services. ADB’s Agriculture Sector Development Program (ASDP) recognized this glaring gap. Read how the ASDP is supporting both policy and project initiatives to promote gender inclusion in the agriculture sector.
Joint CGAs prepared in partnership with government and other development partners supports alignment with country systems and promotes donor harmonization. ADB is preparing a multi-donor joint CGA in close consultation with the national bodies responsible for promoting gender equality. The Philippines 2008 multi-donor CGA is aligned with the country’s Framework Plan for Women. It focuses on women’s economic empowerment, social development, and gender-responsive governance. The CGA will feed into and inform ADB’s new Philippine country strategy and program currently under preparation. Read more.
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