We need to continue challenging the Asian and Pacific governments' market-drawn development framework and persistently advocate for a human-centred path to development. This was the call made by the participants at the Women and Economy workshop in the on-going Regional NGO Symposium at the Kasetsart University in Thailand.
The over 500 women representing nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in Asia-Pacific continue their debates and discussions today on the various issues affecting women women.
In their discussion on the economy, the women spoke of the deterioration of working conditions and decreases in wages as a result of governments' responses to the regional financial crisis. They stressed that government priorities have been to attract foreign investors and stimulate local business activities. Along with decreases in wages, women workers are being incresingly forced into casual albour and have fewer opportunities for better employment.
Migrant women workers in the region have been especially affected by the increasingly restrictive policies on work and residence and the removal of minimum standard contracts.
Women who are living in extreme poverty are the most vulnerable with many being forced to migrate either within or outside their own countries. A big number of migrant women workers have fallen victim to syndicates and traffickers.
The Regional NGO Symposium is being held as part of the on-going global assessment of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), the major output document of the 1995 World Conference on Women that took place in Beijing, China. Signed by 189 governments, the BPFA aims to advance women's status around the world.