Promoting Gender Equality in the Labor Market: RETA Publications Launch 31 March 2014, K-hub 10-11am Launch Remarks

(5 mins) James Nugent, Director General, Southeast Asia Department, ADB

Asia has made great strides over the last decade in narrowing gender gaps in education, health, employment and political participation. Today, we have more girls in schools, fewer women dying in childbirth, more women in national parliaments, decision-making bodies and in paid employment.

However, this increased participation has not translated into equal economic opportunities for men and women. Gender inequalities remain in womens access to wage employment outside agriculture, decent work, and access to productive resources such as land, credit, and financial services. Women continue to constitute the buffer workforce as low-paid flexible workers in the labor market, and within households as secondary earners. Today, only 30% of Asian women are in non-agriculture wage

employment, and in some countries even less than 20%.1 And women typically earn less - between 20%-50% less than the male wage.2

The recently released World Bank publication Gender at Work: A companion to the 2013 World Development Report on Jobs underscores the same issues. It revealed that by virtually every global measure, women are more economically excluded than men and that women's labor force participation rate worldwide over the last two

ESCAP, ADB, UNDP (2011). Paths to 2015: MDG Priorities in Asia and the Pacific. Asia Pacific. MDG Report 201/2011. ESCAP, ADB, UNDP (2011). pg.11

1
The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

decades has plateaued, despite cumulative evidence that jobs for women benefit families, businesses, and communities. Gender at Work is a birds eye macro view of gender equality in the global labor market. The Seven Gender Gaps in the Labor Market Let me turn now to the task at hand. The 5 publications that are being jointly launched today by ADB & ILO are a micro, fish eye view of gender equality in the labor market in 3 countries in the Asia and Pacific region, Cambodia, Philippines and Kazakhstan. Two of these countries are in my region - South East Asia.

The Asia reports highlight 7 major gender deficits in the labor market - gaps in labor force participation rates, employment rates, human capital, unpaid domestic and care work burden, share of vulnerable employment, decent work, and social protection.

What this means, is that despite impressive economic growth rates in Asia, it has not translated into sufficient employment growth, least of all, for women. In summary, the publications show that despite reducing gender disparities in human capital (in Cambodia) and labor force participation rates (the Philippines), the gender gaps in paid employment rates, wage parity, productive and decent work persists, and in some cases has actually increased.

What is ADB doing about generating jobs for women? ADB needs to walk the talk, or should I say work the talk?

ADB is supporting womens participation in the labor market in many different ways through our lending operations by providing (i) jobs and income-earning opportunities; (ii) technology transfer, skills training, market infrastructure to improve womens incomes, and; (iii) access to, financial services and credit for income generation and livelihood opportunities.

Our technical and vocational education projects are supporting greater alignment of womens skills to labour market needs, increasing the range of employment options for girls and in jobs that pay better. A good example is our TVET project in the Lao PDR that provides stipends to girls for training in traditional male trades and wage subsidies to enterprises for employing girls.

In the Philippines, ADB is supporting the Governments MyFirstJob pilot program, providing job search assistance and internship programs for young, out-of-school youth, targeting 1600 school leavers, of which 50% are females.

Similarly, the Greater Mekong Sub-region tourism development project, trained women to operate tourism-related micro-enterprises and constructed a night market in Lao PDR to support the livelihoods of rural women vendors and suppliers. In Cambodia, rural road projects have included quotas for womens employment in road construction and maintenance, providing valuable and immediate cash income opportunities for poor rural women.

The publications, together make the case that Cambodia, the Philippines and Kazakhstan need to expand employment and decent work opportunities for women in the agriculture, industrial, manufacturing, and services sectors, as well as in promoting womens entrepreneurship. The case can be made for the region as a whole. This requires gender sensitive macroeconomic policies and national employment plans and strategies with time bound targets. Progressive, broad-based, and coordinated policy actions are needed to close gender gaps in the labor market.

To achieve better employment outcomes for women, ADB, its member countries, the ILO and the Philippines Commission on Women need to work together to play our part in directly and indirectly generating decent jobs for women.

With these brief remarks I co-launch the 5 publications. Thank you .