IORA Conference on Women’s Economic Empowerment

Women’s Economic Empowerment: A Pre-requisite for Sustainable Development

26-27 February 2018

(1) BackgroundAt the dawn of a new era in advancing the agenda for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, the world has witnessed in September 2015, the adoption of the new global framework for Sustainable Development and its Goals, being commonly referred to as SDGs.

The Sustainable Development Goals seek to change the course of the 21st century, addressing key challenges such as poverty, inequality and violence against women. For this to become a reality, women’s economic empowerment is a pre-requisite.

Economic empowerment of women is the capacity for the latter to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth processes, in ways which recognise the value of their contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of growth.

There is a number of internationally agreed norms and standards relating to women’s economic empowerment, namely the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the ILO Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, all of them highlighting the importance for both men and women to have their equal rights and opportunities to economic independence and access to resources.

It is an undeniable fact that women make enormous contributions to economies, whether in businesses, on farms as entrepreneurs or employees or by doing unpaid care work at home.

Yet significant gender inequalities in economic participation and the distribution of economic resources persist globally. Women often end up in insecure low wage jobs and constitute a small minority of those in senior positions. Gender inequality entails an unequal access to economic assets such as land and bonus. Over-representation of women in the informal employment, enduring poor and sometimes dangerous working conditions,

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lack of social protection and the global gender pay gap also rob women of the ability to adequately support them and their families, to pull themselves out of poverty, enjoy an adequate standard of living and save for retirement. It also limits the participation of women in shaping economic and social policies. A woman is economically empowered when she has both the ability to succeed and advance economically and power to make and act on economic decisions.

(2) Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in the IORA Economies

The Indian Ocean Rim Association countries are diverse in their economies, as well as in the background of their peoples, and are committed to promoting women’s economic empowerment.

The role of women in the IORA countries is equally varied, reflecting the varying economic, political and cultural contexts.

Though women have made great strides in the IORA Member States, further advancement is required towards women’s equal participation and access to economic opportunities.

The UN Women and IORA Report of 2015 entitled “Enabling Women’s Contributions to the Indian Ocean Rim Economies “which provided the first-ever situational analysis on the role of women to the IORA Rim economies, revealed that women are contributing enormously in the services and agricultural sectors. Similarly, women entrepreneurs are on the rise in these countries. Women are also catching up with, and in some places have, surpassed men in years of completed schooling.

Yet, women’s economic participation across IORA member states is limited by several factors, such as disproportionate unpaid care work, unconducive environment, in terms of legislative frameworks and policies and programmes that may not be favourable to women entrepreneurs; inadequate access to financial services, credit and productive resources, including land.

(3) IORA’s Commitment to WEE

Recognising the fact that providing greater opportunities for the economic participation of women could stimulate increased growth, the IORA community has demonstrated its commitment to gender equality by establishing women’s economic empowerment as a cross-cutting issue at the 13th Council of Ministers Meeting in Perth, Australia on 1 November 2013. Several subsequent Ministerial and Thematic Ministerial Declarations have advocated for women’s empowerment such as the 2014 IORA Economic Declaration which stated that “the prosperity of the region will only be realised fully by investing in the empowerment of women” and the 2015 Padang Communique, which reaffirmed “commitment to the importance of women’s economic empowerment as an effective driver of economic growth and development”.

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Notably, on 27 October 2016 in Bali, Indonesia at the 16th Council of Ministers Meeting, the Declaration on Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment was adopted. This declaration upholds important principles which recognise the empowerment of women and girls as being essential to the economic and social prosperity of the IORA. Member States pledged to promote women’s human rights by affirming that the following:

Women’s economic empowerment is a foundational element of gender equality and the full and equal realisation of women’s human rights.

Women’s full and equal participation and leadership in the economy are vital for realising gender equality and empowerment of women that will make a crucial contribution to progress across all goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda.

Higher female earnings also lead to greater investment in children’s health and education, which likewise contribute to longer term economic growth.

Many women in IORA Member States are engaged in the informal economy, without adequate job or income security and inadequate social protection.

Women make a significant contribution to peace and security, which are key ingredients for advancing economic prosperity.

Women’s voice, participation in leadership and decision-making is important in our quest for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment and sustainable economic growth.

Moreover, another important and historical landmark was the adoption of the Jakarta Concord – Promoting Regional Cooperation for a Peaceful, Stable and Prosperous Indian Ocean at the Leaders’ Summit held in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the IORA in Jakarta, Indonesia on 7 March 2017. This document reflects the commitment of the IORA members at the highest level and re-affirms the principle of gender equality and empowerment as being central to realising inclusive sustainable economic growth.

Relevant excerpts are:

Reaffirming that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are central to realising inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

Enhancing Trade and Investment cooperation in the region by: Strengthening the involvement of the private sector, in particular SMEs, through

regular dialogues and interactions between Governments and businesses, including women owned businesses.

Harnessing and developing cross cutting issues and priority objectives by: Promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, ensure

women’s rights, access, and opportunities for participation and leadership in the economy and to eliminate violence and discrimination against women and girls in all its forms as the prosperity of the region will only be realised fully by investing in the empowerment of women and girls.

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Enhancing cooperation in promoting the culture of democracy, good governance, combating corruption, promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

IORA has also initiated key actions, in terms of organising meetings and workshops that have addressed the issue of women’s economic empowerment, namely the Workshop on Paths to Women’s Economic Empowerment with a focus on Tourism and Textiles in IORA countries in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia in August 2014; the Workshop on Women’s Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation in Hyderabad, India in September 2014; the IORA Women’s Economic Event: Mobilising Markets and Commitments to Gender Equality in the Indian Ocean Rim in Mahe, Seychelles in 2015 and the IORA Women in Business Symposium: Implementing Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in Jakarta, Indonesia in October 2016.

Looking to the future, the IORA Action Plan for 2017-2021 identifies WEE as a key priority area and sets forth a series of initiatives to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls:

Short-term: 1. Establish an IORA Working Group on Women’s Economic Empowerment. 2. Establish a Women’s Business Forum in the Indian Ocean Rim Business Forum (IORBF).

Medium-term: 3. Establish cooperation with UN-Women and relevant organisations for capacity building

and information exchange.4. Champion initiatives to increase women’s economic empowerment such as the

Women’s Empowerment Principles.5. Implement training and capacity building programs.

Long-term: 6. Organise activities and to strengthen women's economic capacity and participation in

business.

(4) Objectives and Expected Outcomes

The overall objective of the Conference is to provide a platform for IORA Member States to share experiences and best practices related to women’s economic empowerment; identify structural barriers that impede on women’s full participation in economic activities and strategies for future course of action.

Specifically, the conference will: foster information and knowledge sharing, amongst IORA Member States on

policies/programmes/initiatives that promote women’s economic empowerment; launch the Core Group for the preparation of the Working Group on Women’s

Economic Empowerment;

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develop a Roadmap that supports gender-responsive initiatives amongst IORA Member States with the ultimate objective of addressing prevailing gender gaps;

enable the support of private sector for IORA countries to adopt gender equality standards and responsive practices that promotes women’s economic empowerment;

create an enabling environment in which women and girls can reach their full economic potential through increased social awareness and providing economic opportunities, in order to address the nexus between poverty and unemployment; and

promote dialogue, the exchange of good practices and policies and programmes that provide support to women entrepreneurs, including the leveraging of existing programmes especially in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as regards access to capital, markets and mentoring, training, leadership and networking opportunities.

(5) Participants

The Conference will bring together approximately 100 participants from IORA Member States. All costs for two delegates comprising the Minister of Women’s Affairs/ Gender and a Senior Technical Expert in Gender will be met by the host country. Member States are encouraged to bring along up to three additional delegates representing women’s entrepreneurs, private sector and/ or civil society organisations working for women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Moreover, the meeting will also see the participation of Dialogue Partners of the IORA.

(6) Format of Meeting

The Conference will meet in plenary comprising of five (5) panel discussions on thematic that speak to WEE. Details of the thematic are at annex. It is proposed that the outcome i.e recommendations and resolutions emanating from the Panel Discussions be captured in a Declaration on WEE which will, thereafter, guide participants in charting out the Terms of Reference and formulate an Action Plan for the Working Group.

(7) Working Language

The meeting will be conducted in English Language

(8) Logistical arrangements

The Conference will be hosted by the Government of Mauritius and assistance provided by IORA Secretariat. All logistical arrangements will be worked out by the host country and circulated in due course. Other guest speakers will be sponsored by the host country with the support of co-sponsors and/Dialogue Partners.

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