"DPM: ASEAN policies should include gender perspective," 25 October 2018

Malaysia has called for the need of gender perspective in the formulation and implementation of all policies, plans and programmes in the three Asean Community Pillars.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said with a combined population of more than 640 million, with women and girls making up half of that number, it was crucial to ensure that Asean policies would enable all women and girls to reach their fullest potential.

She said implementing a gender perspective in policies means social protection systems must be assessed on its adequacy in meeting the specific needs of women and girls.

“The issues are wide-ranging, but we have a set of twin goals, to protect all women and girls from harmful gender discrimination and to empower women by ensuring equitable access to resources,”...

Dr Wan Azizah noted that the 31st Asean Summit had adopted the Declaration on Gender Responsive Implementation of the Asean Community Vision and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in November 2017.

She said the declaration set out nine key implementation methods, which should eliminate any shadow of doubt about what gender-mainstreaming policies mean for this region.

Sharing Malaysia’s efforts in ensuring equitable access to resources, Dr Wan Azizah said the government had consistently taken measures to increase the labour participation rate of women, as of the second quarter of 2018, the female labour participation stood at 55.3 per cent and targeted to reach 59 per cent by 2020.