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Topics Gender and Development News and Events SEAGEN Waves: Special Issue, December 2008
Coming of Age in the Mekong: Young Women Set Their Own Course
With one foot grounded in the region's age-old traditions and the other striding purposefully toward a dynamic future, these young women are driven, determined, and dutiful. The next generation of Mekong leaders and decision makers, SEAGen Waves spoke with a diverse group of twenty and young thirty-something women from six countries-participants and volunteers at the 2008 GMS Youth Forum-to find out how they perceive their roles as young women, what they hope to achieve, and who and what motivates them. We selected six of the twenty young women to profile in more detail.
Mina, 24, Lao PDR
There have been some tremendous changes in her home town in the last few years-Mina sees improved infrastructure, a country that has opened up to globalization, greater choices in terms of the variety of products on offer, and far more entrepreneurs. The status of women is improving, she believes, as women are able to play more important roles and become leaders. She feels to a certain extent that she has equal opportunities as a young woman, but that there are still some barriers, and sometimes women's voices just aren't strong enough in decisionmaking. But when it comes to female role models, Mina looks no further than her own mother: "She is my heroine. She is full of talents and problem solving abilities, no matter how difficult things get. She is kind and generous when it comes to helping people who have had less opportunity." Mina's interests are broad-she enjoys playing sports, painting, and gardening. Reflecting an international bent, she collects stamps and currencies. The achievement that makes her most proud is being selected as a representative from the National University of Laos to be part of a youth conference in Indonesia. Her dream job is to one day become an Ambassador. She is clearly well on her way.
Penwadee, 20, Thailand
Penwadee hopes to travel around the world one day. She is putting off marriage until her late 20s at least, as she'd like to see many countries, know different people, and learn about their culture. She'd like to work abroad as well, for an international company. But her hopes for the future are closer to home. Above all she wants her family to be healthy and happy. She plans to help build a house for her parents and take care of them. After working overseas she will move back to Thailand and build a house next to her parents, which is where she would like to raise her two children.
Sophal, 28, Cambodia
Major positive changes are visible in Phnom Penh, says Sophal, from bigger and better roads to beautiful buildings, more schools, and more bridges. The parks have gotten a facelift with beautiful flowers, benches, and good lighting. But there are many challenges. Many poor people do not have access to water, electricity, health care, or school. Security is an issue. Prices are increasing, and unemployment is a big concern, particularly for skilled graduates. But Sophal feels that as a woman she has equal opportunities in Cambodia, and women are encouraged to work. Sophal's current job is in the area of quality control and supervising examinations, but she would one day like to be a public servant and lecture part time at university. Her role model is Mrs. Bun Rany Hun Sen because she mixes the modern with the traditional by both working with government to help society and being a good housewife who has raised good children.
Rowena, 22, PRC
Kunming is a city that has changed rapidly in the last 5 to 10 years. Rowena thinks it is a more beautiful city with its tall buildings and new highways. The PRC is also changing, she notes, with strong economic growth. She has also noticed that people are starting to take much more care of the environment. Amidst these changes Rowena sees Chinese women playing more and more important roles. She feels that she generally has equal opportunities in her country, but sometimes there are inequities and she sees men dominating in certain kinds of fields of study or professions. She also sees a large and growing gap between rich and poor people, with a number of disadvantaged groups. Rowena would like to marry and have a child, ideally by age 28. Rowena's role model is a Chinese journalist, Ms. Yang Lan, who as a perfect journalist, TV reporter, hostess, wife, mother, and daughter "is full of grace and intelligence." Rowena aspires to be like her, recognizing that hard work will lead to a bright future.
Aye, 24, Myanmar
In Aye's hometown the roads have been improved, transportation is better, and people, in general, are more educated. Her own family has seen steady changes for the better as well, with a higher living standard. No doubt related to being a product of two academics, Aye finds that poverty can be simply traced back to a lack of access to education, which limits people's chances and choices. On the question of gender equality she finds that women in Myanmar are mostly able to keep abreast with men these days, and that women mostly have equal opportunities, but not in all fields. Aye has two role models. The first is Mother Teresa who sacrificed so much and represents strong ideals. The second is her mother, who was brave enough to raise Aye and her brother alone, as a widow. She is proud of her mother for being an active working woman. Aye's dreams for the future are simply to have a peaceful and healthy life with the people she loves, and a satisfying and fulfilling job.
Tram, 32, Viet Nam
Ambitious and career-minded, Tram is also a wife and mother. She married at 26 and has twin boys aged 2 years. She does not plan to expand her family and says two is the ideal number of children. Tram and her husband and their boys live with her extended family, including her grandmother, her parents, and her younger sister's family. With the built-in childcare that an extended family affords, Tram is also able to study toward a Ph.D. in World Economy and International Relations. Hanoi is changing very fast, says Tram, as the urbanization trend continues and the city becomes more crowded. But living standards are improving as well. Tram finds that women have equal opportunities in Viet Nam, especially with the recent passage of the Law on Gender Equality. She herself is an example of this, as one of the youngest female Deputy Directors at her institution. She also helps promote youth and gender issues in her work as the Permanent Deputy Secretary of the MPI Youth Union. Tram's role models include Hillary Clinton, "a highly educated woman with broad knowledge, self-confidence, and political talent." Tram herself has ambitions to become a high-ranking public servant, but her future goals also include raising good and smart boys and having a happy family life.
Empowering Women with Pro-Poor & Socially Responsible Tourism
Tourism-one of the fastest growing sectors in the GMS-presents great opportunities for women. Tourism is in fact one of the backbones of the GMS Program. At the 2nd GMS Summit in July 2005 in Kunming, PRC, the GMS leaders identified tourism as one of the key sectors for further cooperation among the GMS countries. This was based on recommendations presented in the GMS Tourism Sector Strategy Study which encouraged a more holistic and coordinated approach to tourism development in the subregion. The overall goal of the GMS Tourism Strategy is to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals of poverty reduction, gender equality and women's empowerment, and sustainable development. The primary objective is to develop and promote the GMS as a single tourist destination, offering a range of quality products that help to distribute the benefits of tourism more widely, while minimizing any adverse social risks. The strategy thus correctly recognizes that with opportunities come risks, particularly for women and girls. On the plus side, tourism offers women the chance to earn incomes from jobs in the hospitality industry and from handicraft production, home-stays, and sale of local food. Improved infrastructure for tourism makes life a little easier for local men and women as well. Employment opportunities contribute to reducing poverty and gender inequalities. On the negative side, however, tourism can also bring unwanted social influences that threaten traditional values, social organizations and networks, and which sometimes lead to the exploitation of women and girls. Socially responsible tourism protects culture and tradition, enhances women's rights and opportunities, and contributes to poverty reduction. Also called pro-poor tourism, one of the key tenets is participation and a sense of ownership by the local people.
For more information on gender-responsive and pro-poor tourism, please contact Alfredo Perdiguero, SEOD, or Anupma Jain, SESS.
Infrastructure and HIV Prevention: Mitigating Risk in the GMS
Women in the GMS stand to significantly benefit from improvements in infrastructure. Benefits to women include time savings (through, for example, reduced travel times), better access to services, increased job opportunities, easier migration, more tourists who spend money locally, and so on. Infrastructure brings enhanced connectivity-the first and most fundamental of the GMS's 3 Cs. With connectivity come both increased competitiveness and an increased sense of community as the movement of goods and people over GMS borders becomes freer and easier. But this first C is not without its risks. Past issues of SeaGen Waves reported on two ongoing regional technical assistance initiatives, one on combating trafficking and promoting safe migration in the GMS, the other on HIV/AIDS prevention in the GMS in the context of the infrastructure sector. Work on this latter issue will now be taken further with the approval in June 2008 of a $6 million regional technical assistance project, HIV Prevention and Infrastructure: Mitigating Risk in the GMS. Financed by the Government of Australia, one component of the project will support a set of distinct subprojects associated with ADB-financed infrastructure projects in the GMS. The subproject sites represent a range of HIV risk contexts in the pre-construction, construction, and post-construction phases in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam. This represents an innovative break with tradition. To date, HIV prevention actions have been largely confined to the construction period. Financing for pre- and post-construction initiatives has not been available, given the nature of ADB loan operations. Initiating actions in the pre-construction period, such as resilience-building measures in local communities, will strengthen risk mitigation efforts during construction. Similarly, HIV prevention programs should continue in a modified form in the post-construction period, when the risks and target groups change as roads come into use and migration and other economic opportunities grow.
Recognizing the need for a strong gender focus the project includes a comprehensive gender strategy and action plan with specific targets under each of the 7 major outputs. Gender analysis will be undertaken for each subproject, and gender-specific needs of target populations in HIV and infrastructure policy and plans will be addressed. Knowledge products will include special studies relating to women, HIV and infrastructure, such as studies on sex workers, female personnel at construction sites, and females in affected communities. For more information on Infrastructure and HIV, please contact Lisa Studdert, VRM. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Welcome to the 3rd issue of SeaGen Waves-a newsletter highlighting the gender and development initiatives and activities of the Southeast Asia Regional Department (SERD). In this special issue we feature the first-ever GMS Youth Forum with a focus on young women.
We constitute a rich pool of human resources. We are the future of the GMS. We hope that our governments, with the support and assistance of institutions such as the ADB and other development partners, will enhance the focus on the youth of the region and invest in our future with an emphasis on the 3 C's.
Mina was born in Vientiane, Lao PDR, in 1983, the youngest of 3 children. Her mother, an employee of the Lao Telecommunications Company, grew up in Louangphrabang. Her father, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, grew up in Saravan. Education was always emphasized in her family, and in July 2007 Mina graduated from the National University of Laos with a Bachelor's degree in economics. She found a job as Education Officer with Handicap International, Belgium. She took the position because she wanted to help people who have no education, and she wanted to gain experience working with an NGO. She intends to continue her studies to the Ph.D. level. She also envisions getting married one day, ideally around age 28-30, and having 2 children. 
Born in Udon Thani, Thailand, in 1987, Penwadee is the middle child of three. A full-time student of business administration at Assumption University of Thailand, her father is a government official, and her mother is a housewife who rents out part of the family home for additional income. Penwadee will graduate in 2009 and aims to get a job. She sees women taking on more and more responsibility in Thailand, as their roles have shifted toward working outside the home, allowing them to stand on their own feet. She thinks she has almost equal opportunities, but that there are still some people who believe that men should lead while women follow. But the number of these people is decreasing. 
Sophal was born in the province of Kampong Cham, Cambodia, in 1980. She is the second of 5 children of a police officer and a clothing vendor. She now lives with her parents in Phnom Penh, where she works at the Build Bright University. This is where she received her Bachelor's degree in English literature. She dreams of furthering her studies, ideally to the like Master's degree level, but faces resource constraints. 
Rowena is from the city of Kunming in Yunnan Province of the People's Republic of China. Like most of her contemporaries she is an only child. She is studying toward a degree at the Yunnan Nationalities University. She aims to one day be challenged in a job that involves helping people, such as working for an NGO, or bringing people information as a news reporter.
Originally from the state of Kachin, Myanmar, Aye and her younger brother live with their mother's extended family in Myitkyina. Her mother and father were both lecturers at the University of Myitkyina, but her father passed away in 1997, when Aye was 13 and her brother was just 4 years old. Her mother is now a professor in the Department of Botany at the University, which is also where Aye is studying for a degree in English Literature, which she hopes to complete in 2009. 
Tram and her younger sister were born and raised in Hanoi, where their mother, now retired, managed a restaurant and their father is a government official. Tram has a BA in economics and an MA in international law. Following in her father's footsteps she has worked at the Ministry of Planning and Investment for a number of years, recently getting a promotion.
The first ADB financed Mekong Tourism Development Project (2002-2008) worked to improve tourism related infrastructure in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam. It also supported pro-poor community based tourism projects in rural areas, facilitated private sector participation in tourism marketing and promotion, established mechanisms to increase subregional cooperation, and facilitated the movement of tourists across borders. Under the pro-poor and community-based tourism component, results in Lao PDR include:
