Catalog

	Table of Contents
p. 12 of 20 BACK | NEXT Executive summary Introduction Gender and development issues in the Asian and Pacific region Overview of Bank policy and operations on WID (1985-1996) The need for a revised policy on gender and development From WID to GAD Experience of the World Bank and other agencies Experience of DMC governments International agenda for women The Bank’s revised policy on gender and development

Policy on Gender and Development : The need for a revised policy on gender and development

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D. International agenda for women

69. A series of world conferences on women organized by the UN in 1975, 1980, 1985, and 1995 have produced an international agenda for women accompanied by recommendations for action. At the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, the largest UN conference ever held, approximately 189 states were represented along with UN bodies, aid agencies, and multilateral development finance institutions, including ADB.

70. The conference unanimously endorsed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as a global blueprint for women’s advancement. Both documents, while not binding on governments, give new prominence, force, and commitment to advancing the status of women by the year 2000. The Platform for Action lists 12 critical areas of concern for women (Box 6). Corresponding strategic objectives and actions to be taken by governments, the international community, NGOs, and the private sector for the removal of these obstacles are identified and offered in the platform.

71. Most of the 12 critical areas of concern reinforce and give renewed emphasis to previously identified concerns. However, the platform also acknowledges and emphasizes some new concerns requiring attention that have particular significance for the Asia and Pacific region. The platform affirms the rights of the girl child as an inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms; domestic violence is recognized as a public issue and is transferred from the private into the public domain; migrant women workers are recognized as a vulnerable group; and women’s unremunerated work is officially acknowledged with a call for its inclusion in the national accounts.

72. The Platform for Action recommends that international development finance institutions

1. increase resources allocated to eliminating absolute poverty;

2. review the impact of structural adjustment programs on social development through gender-sensitive social impact assessments and safety nets;

3. support financial institutions that serve low-income, small-scale, and microscale enterprises run by women entrepreneurs and producers, in both the formal and informal sectors, through the provision of capital and/or resources;

4. increase funding for the education and training needs of girls and women;

5. give higher priority to women’s health;

6. revise policies, procedures, and staffing to ensure that investments and programs benefit women; and

7. allocate loans and grants to programs for implementing the Platform for Action in developing countries.

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