Gender and Development

Statement to the President

President Chino,

Thank you for your welcoming remarks. On behalf of the External Forum on Gender and Development, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to meet. As you know, this is the first meeting of the External Forum, and therefore we have spent much of our time getting to know ADB, and its various strategies, policies and processes. We still have more to learn, but we thought it might be useful to share with you some preliminary impressions and recommendations.

First, we would like to commend ADB for its commitment to poverty reduction, which means a great deal to the women in our countries. We were especially pleased to see that the Bank has highlighted gender equity and empowerment as critical ingredients in its Poverty Reduction Strategy. As you are well aware, poverty in this region has a woman's face. Therefore, for your Poverty Reduction Strategy to succeed, gender must be a central component. This is wholly in tune with ADB's commitments toward achieving the International Development Goals.

We would also like to commend ADB for the work it has done so far to implement its Policy on Gender and Development, including the GAD Action Plan that is now being finalized. We realize that the challenge with any policy is in translating it into concrete actions. We also appreciate the commitments that ADB made on gender in connection with the last replenishment of the Asian Development Fund. We hope that this External Forum can play a constructive role in helping ADB meet these commitments, as well as its broader goals of poverty reduction, gender equity and women's empowerment.

We understand that ADB's Long-Term Strategic Framework is intended to support ADB's mission of poverty reduction. In this regard, we have some initial concerns relating to gender. Under the Long-Term Strategic Framework, it appears that improving the status of women is no longer an explicit strategic objective of ADB. Since poverty reduction depends on the achievement of gender equality, it is crucial that ADB make gender a priority in implementing each of the three pillars of its Long-Term Strategic Framework.

We are very pleased to see that gender analysis is now a standard part of the process of developing a Country Strategy and Program, and is also part of the country poverty assessments that are being done. This needs to be carried through to develop a lending pipeline that responds to women's real needs. We were very interested to learn about the recent ADB evaluation study of the treatment of gender in several projects. We look forward to hearing how the recommendations of this study will be implemented.

We have another concern relating to ADB's reorganization. We understand that there are a number of compelling reasons for restructuring ADB, and that many of the details of the reorganization are still being worked out. Considering that gender is central to ADB's Poverty Reduction Strategy, we were surprised and disappointed to see that gender does not appear explicitly in the new reorganization chart. This is in stark contrast to ADB's sister organizations, which have gender boards or units. We are worried about the loss of focus on gender issues under the reorganization. We commend ADB's efforts to mainstream gender, but from our collective experience, this will not be possible without having a highly visible, strategically located gender unit. We note that ADB recently created an NGO Center, which could be used as a model.

We also feel that the existing complement of gender specialists is insufficient to implement the Policy on Gender and Development and the GAD Action Plan. We encourage ADB to consider increasing the number of specialists dedicated to integrating gender in each of the new regional departments and in its resident missions. Since the regional departments will now be fully responsible for implementing the Policy on Gender and Development, and the ADF commitments on gender, we also strongly encourage the Management to make gender training a requirement for all staff in these departments. This is a special priority for the managers who will be directly accountable for mainstreaming gender in their respective sectors.

Looking at ADB's own staffing profile, we congratulate the Bank for substantially increasing the number of women professionals over a fairly short period of time, and for promoting more women to senior positions. We encourage ADB to continue on this course, which gives greater credibility to the Bank when it promotes gender equity in the public sector of its developing member countries.

As so many of us are working both in our countries and at the regional and international level on issues relevant to women, we are very pleased to see that ADB is expanding its role as a partner and catalyst for national machineries for women's affairs, other international organizations and civil society groups working on gender issues. For example, we support ADB's collaboration with UN agencies in addressing issues such as child labor, employment discrimination, health-and-safety standards, the regional trafficking in women and girls, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. We encourage ADB to expand its partnerships on these issues, which can make a real difference in the rights, dignity and lives of women and girls in our countries. This will also further ADB's own mission of poverty reduction, and its increased emphasis on regional cooperation. We also encourage ADB to use its leadership to help its developing member countries implement their international commitments under the Beijing Platform for Action and the Women's Convention.

We would like to offer a few thoughts on how the External Forum on Gender can support ADB's work on poverty reduction and gender equity. We envisage a two-way exchange. Our own work at national, regional and international levels will enable us to keep ADB informed - through appropriate mechanisms - on emerging issues, trends and concerns relevant to women in this region. As members of other organizations and networks addressing gender issues, we can also promote stronger links between ADB and these other actors.

At the same time, we will provide feedback on proposed policy changes relevant to gender, and act as a resource on gender for the ADB. Since many of us live in developing member countries, we will also provide in-country support to ADB's resident missions, and links to civil society groups working on gender issues within our countries.

In the near term, we will follow the progress of the reorganization, as well as the implementation of the Gender Action Plan. At our next session, it would be very useful to have a meeting with the directors of the new regional departments to discuss how we can assist them in their gender mainstreaming work under the reorganization. We would appreciate your support for this meeting. We also hope to be able to meet with you again at our next session, to give you an update on our activities and deliberations, and to discuss further with you how this Forum can most effectively assist ADB.

External Forum Members