Table of Contents APEC WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY 2015 FORA ...... 3 Key Results of the APEC WE 2015 Fora ...... 4 Individual Summary Report ...... 7 Annex A: APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement ...... 8 Women as Prime Movers of Inclusive Growth ...... 8 Annex A.2: APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement ...... 14 Annex B: Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy 2 Meeting ...... 16 Annex C: Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy ...... 25 Annex C.1: APEC WE 2015 Fora – Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy Program of Activities ...... 50 Annex C.2: Profiles of Speakers and Moderators ...... 53 Annex D: High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy...... 61 Annex E: PPWE Management Council Meeting ...... 92 Annex F: APEC Multi-Year Project: Seminar on Empowering Women through ICT for Inclusive Growth ...... 97 Annex G: APEC Women’s Business and Smart Technology Seminar: Including & Leveraging Smart Technology for Empowering APEC Women Entrepreneurs ...... 104
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APEC WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY 2015 FORA Summary Reports
The APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora was held on 15 to 18 September 2015 at the Philippine International Convention Center. The overall chair of the event was the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado. Nineteen APEC member economies were represented: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, and Viet Nam. Each delegation was headed by Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Ambassadors, and Senior Officials level.
About eighteen (18) official activities took place during the four-day events which are as follows:
15 September 2015
1) WE-APEC Workshop: Setting the Agenda for Action 2) APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard: Developing an Implementation Plan 3) APEC Women’s Business and Smart Technology Seminar 4) Hosted dinner by Asia Pacific Women’s Information Network Center (APWINC) 16 September 2015 5) Seminar on Empowering Women through ICT for Inclusive Growth 6) Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) 2 Meeting 7) Launching of the Healthy Women, Healthy Economy Policy Toolkit 8) Opening Ceremonies of ICONOGRAPH and Luxe Philippines 9) Hosted dinner for Speakers by the Filipina Women CEOs Circle 10) Hosted dinner for Heads of Delegations by DTI 17 September 2015 11) APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Opening Ceremony 12) Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy (PPDWE) 13) Launching of the WE-APEC Network Online Portal 14) Welcome Dinner for all 18 September 2015 15) High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy 16) Press Conference 17) PPWE Management Council Meeting 18) Hosted technical visit The three major components of APEC WE 2015 Fora – PPWE (including PPWE MCM), PPDWE, and HLPD on WE – were headed by the following: 1) The PPWE, the working group arm of APEC WE, as well as the PPWE MCM, was chaired by the Philippine Commission on Women Executive Director Ms. Emmeline L. Verzosa;
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2) The PPDWE, where private sector’s participation was heightened, was led by the Women’s Business Council Philippines Chair Ms. Ma. Aurora “Boots” Geotina- Garcia; and 3) The HLPD on WE, the culminating activity of APEC WE, was chaired by DTI Undersecretary Terrado as well.
Key Results of the APEC WE 2015 Fora
APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement The Statement was adopted at the High Level Policy Dialogue which serves as a major contribution to the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in November. This outlines concrete and actionable recommendations following the theme Women as Prime Movers of Inclusive Growthand categorized along the three sub-themes: 1) Women and Inclusive Business; 2) Women in the International Markets and Global Value Chains; and 3) Women and Sustainable Development. Full copy of the APEC WE 2015 Fora Statement is found at Annex A and is also available at the APEC website. Finalization of the PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018 To further strengthen the mainstreaming efforts done on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the APEC work stream, the PPWE collaborated with nine (9) working groups, in varying degrees (as of 2015): 1) Emergency Preparedness Working Group; 2) Transportation Working Group; 3) Health Working Group; 4) Human Resource Development Working Group; 5) Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group; 6) Telecommunications Working Group; 7) Economic Committee; 8) Energy Working Group; and 9) Anti-Corruption Working Group;
Updated Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals This document serves as a tool used to assess the gender-responsiveness or gender elements of project proposals being submitted to the APEC Secretariat.
Out of a total of 42 project proposals assessed by the APEC Secretariat for Project Session 1 in 2015, 21 satisfactorily addressed the gender criteria in their first submission.
Finalization of APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard This initiative seeks to provide a snapshot of the status of women in APEC, by looking at a set of indicators to measure progress of women’s participation in economic-related activities and women’s inclusion in several aspects of life.
With almost 80 indicators, these are classified along five pillars in advancing women’s economic empowerment: 1) Access to capital and assets; 2) Access to markets;
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3) Skills, capacity building, and health; 4) Leadership, voice and agency; and 5) Innovation and technology.
The final version of the APEC WE Dashboard is available online at the APEC website.
Launching of the APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economy Policy Toolkit The toolkit offers a user-friendly one stop menu of policy options that can be used to pilot, implement, and scale up actions appropriate to local economic and social conditions.It serves as a guide to APEC member economies in implementing actions on a voluntary basis and choosing actions appropriate for their economy. The Philippines has volunteered to apply the toolkit in several of its companies within the export processing zones and other member companies of the Management Association of the Philippines. Chile also expressed interest in applying the toolkit.
Launching of Women’s Entrepreneurship in APEC (WE-APEC) Online Platform Accessible at www.we-apec.com, the platform provides a detailed view of the landscape for women entrepreneurs in APEC region. It offers a dynamic directory of service providers for women-owned businesses across APEC and provides a way for governments, the private sector, business networks and entrepreneurs to connect to each other.
Heightened participation to APEC WE 2015 Fora events One of the APEC WE 2015 Fora, the Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy, gathered around 800 registered delegates and guests composed of: o In total: 82% women, 19% men; o Official delegates: 54% public, 44% private, 2% academe o Guests (Non-Member Participants): 58% private, 37% public, 5% academe o Private sector: majority are CEOs, Founders, and Managing Directors; o Public sector: 2/3 are Ministers/Secretaries, Ambassadors, Deputy Ministers/Undersecretaries, and Directors; and o 30 student observers, majority from the Philippine Women’s University.
The PPDWE was honored by the presence of the APEC Leader, no less than the President of the Republic of the Philippines H.E. Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, who delivered the Keynote Address. This further strengthened the call to continue advancing the focus on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in APEC discussions. It also concretized our call for a sustained collaboration among the government, business sector, and civil society in designing and implementing programs for women. The relevance of the participation of the youth was also highlighted in PPDWE as well as harnessing their innate potential for the future of inclusive growth.
Sixteen extraordinary Women Icons nominated at the ICONOGRAPH: APEC Women Icons Exhibit ICONOGRAPH, a special exhibition organized by DTI and its export promotions arm, the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), recognized and highlighted the stories of sixteen Women Icons from the 21 APEC economies. The exhibition appeals to a contemporary sense of pride in leadership in sustainable growth and
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The following APEC Women Icons are:
1) Australia: Carol Margaret Hanlon Founding Manager / Chief Executive Officer Belmont Business Enterprise Centre Inc. (BEC) BPW Business Incubator & BEC Global Textile Clothing Footwear Resource Centre of WA Inc. (TCFWA) 2) Canada: Victoria Lennox Chief Executive Officer Start Up Canada 3) People’s Republic of China: Jie Shao Founder, Lin’an City Tianyue Food Co. Ltd Director, Bainiu Village Women’s Committee 4) Indonesia: Reny Feby Founder Reny Feby Jewelry and Indonesia Festival (INAfest) 5) Japan: Lin Kobayashi Co-founder and Chair of the Board International School of Asia, Karuizawa 6) Republic of Korea: Minjai Lee Chief Executive Officer M Son Co., Ltd. Korean Women Entrepreneurs Association Korea Trade Association Korea Importers Association 7) New Zealand: Dame Wendy Pye Managing Director Wendy Pye Publishing Limited 8) Malaysia: Dato' Hazimah Zainuddin Group Managing Director Hyrax Oil Sdn. Bhd. 9) Philippines: Leonarda Capuyan Founder Narda's Handwoven Arts & Crafts 10) Papua New Guinea: Janet Sape Founder & Executive Director Papua New Guinea Women in Business Ltd. 11) Peru: Rosario Bazan de Aranguri Foundress and General Manager DANPER, Sustainable Agroindustry 12) Russia: Anna Vladimirovna Nesterova Chief Executive Officer and Partner Investment Company Center Capital 13) Chinese Taipei: Mei-Ping Hsiao General Manager Han-Chao Logistics Co., Ltd.
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14) Thailand: Suwana Jiwattanapaiboon Managing Director Xongdur Thai Organic Food Co., Ltd. 15) Chile: Andrea Pilar Irarrazaval Founder and Chief Executive Officer Clean Energy E.S.B. S.A. 16) USA: Ms. Julie Hanna Founder Kiva
Copy of the brochure can be accessed at: http://apec2015.ph/women/iconograph/Iconograph_Brochure_for_web.pdf
Individual Summary Report
Summary Reports on the following meetings are annexed in this document: 1) Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy 2 Meeting – Annex B; 2) Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy – Annex C; 3) High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy – Annex D; 4) PPWE Management Council Meeting – Annex E; 5) Seminar on Empowering Women through ICT for Inclusive Growth – Annex F; and 6) APEC Women’s Business and Smart Technology Seminar – Annex G.
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Annex A: APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement Women as Prime Movers of Inclusive Growth
1 We, APEC Ministers, Heads of Delegations, Senior Officials, private sector leaders, and representatives from non-governmental organizations, met inManila, the Philippines, from15 to 18 September 2015 for the High-Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy within the APEC Women and the Economy (WE) 2015 Fora.
2 We acknowledge the APEC host theme of “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World” focusing on four priorities: 1) enhancing the regional economic integration agenda; 2) fostering small and medium enterprises (SMEs) participation in regional and global markets; 3) investing in human capital development; and 4) building resilient and sustainable communities.
3 This meeting builds on the foundation of the first APEC Ministerial Meeting on Women, also held in Manila in 1998, which paved the way for the drafting of the Framework for the Integration of Women in the APEC agenda. The Framework has guided all APEC fora in mainstreaming women in APEC processes and activities.
4 We welcome the recognition by the APEC Leaders of the vital contribution of women to economic development and prosperity of the Asia Pacific and beyond, as well as their commitment to take forward concrete policies and innovative measures to further enhance women’s economic empowerment, and greater inclusion of women in the regional economy, in particular, through improved access to capital and assets; access to markets; skills, capacity building, and health; women’s leadership, voice and agency; and innovation and technology. We will work to ensure women’s equal opportunities, participation, and benefits in innovative development, economic reform, and growth.
5 We recognize that 2015 is a landmark year as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) agreed by 189 United Nations (UN) Member States during the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, where investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment was acknowledged. The BPfA recognizes that women make significant contributions to the economy and calls for the promotion of women’s economic rights and independence, including access to employment, appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources, and equal pay for equal work and work of equal value.
6 We encourage APEC economies to take concrete steps towards addressing gender disparities in women’s labor force participation. We recognize the commitments of G20 leaders in 2014 to reduce the gender gap by 25 percent by 2025.
7 Recognizing that APEC presents an opportunity for international collaboration between policy makers and industry leaders, including those in the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), the Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) will work closely with ABAC to further advance women’s economic participation and develop programsthat will train and promotediverse pipelines of women leaders.
8 We commend economy-led efforts under the PPWE to enhance women’s entrepreneurship, including in disaster reconstruction, to encourage women’s participation in the economy using smart technology and other ICT tools, and to empower women through leadership as described in Annex A.
Women as Prime Movers of Inclusive Growth 9 The main theme of the APEC WE 2015 Fora, “Women as Prime Movers of Inclusive Growth,” reaffirms women’s crucial role in achieving economic prosperity and women’s leadership roles as
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imperative for competitiveness and success in the private, and public sectors. Inclusive growth is seen as growth that provides opportunities for all, including women as both drivers and beneficiaries of this development, which in turn can promote greater gender equality.
10 The APEC WE 2015 Fora also tackled three sub-themes: Women and Inclusive Business, which highlighted how women from the base-of-the-pyramid are empowered as producers, suppliers, distributors, workers, and/or consumers; Women in the International Markets and Global Value Chains, which discussed how women leaders use innovation as a means to breaking barriers and effectively competing in global value chainsand regional economies; Women and Sustainable Development, which highlighted success stories and case studies on women’s resilience, including health and wellness linked to productivity, family management and human capital development, and disaster preparedness and business continuity planning in the context of the changing climate and environment.
11 We recognize that to address issues within these sub-themes more efficiently, Senior Officials approved the holding of two PPWE meetings this year; the first of which was graciously hosted by Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby from 03 to 05 May 2015. This is to provide ample time for economies leading projects under the PPWE and across other APEC fora to ensure that gender equality and women’s economic empowerment is being pushed forward for consideration by Senior Officials, Ministers, and APEC Leaders.
12 We welcome the outcomes of the Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy (PPDWE), which highlighted inspiring stories and the unique role of women as prime movers of inclusive growth. It also provided an educational and interactive forum for sharing good practices and insights into tapping women’s potential through, for example, leveraging technology and e- commerce. It also emphasized that women are more than just a niche market but rather a driving force for economic change. The PPDWE called on all stakeholders to continue pursuing a women’s economic empowerment agenda to create new opportunities for women, highlighting in particular the need for collaboration between the public and private sectors.
Empowered: Women and Inclusive Business 13 We remain committed to realizing the full potential of women as economic actors in the global economy and will continue to promote access to education, training and capacity-building programs, particularly for developing economies, and mentoring services to enable women to widen their awareness and gain access to labor markets, quality employment, and business opportunities. We commit to strengthen social protection as it impacts women’s ability to fully participate in the economy.
14 We shall continue to foster the increase in the number of female entrepreneurs year by year by developing policies and services to assist women’s business start-up and business development.
15 Bearing in mind the importance of enhancing women’s participation in the economy particularly focusing on leadership, decision-making and management, we encourage each economy to establish and pursue measurable and aspirational voluntary goals, includingwomen’s representation in leadership and decision-making roles.
16 We also encourage companies, employers, and entrepreneurs, along with governments, to invest in human capital to ensure the physical and mental health, safety, and well-being of all workers, including working to address the unique health and safety challenges faced by women in the workplace.
17 We recognize the importance of inclusive growth and the contribution of vulnerable groups to the growth and stability of the global economy. Youth, persons with disabilities and indigenous
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peoples experience increased levels of poverty and social exclusion, with women and girls in each of these categories experiencing even greater challenges.
18 We call on public and private sector stakeholders to promote and respect gender diversity at all levels of employment, and encourage both sectors to develop mechanisms to collect sex- disaggregated data, formulate policies to ensure the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment, and provide public transparency regarding actions taken.
19 We acknowledge that building a gender-responsive world requires a social transformation of all members of society. We encourage women and girls and men and boys to take an active stand in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and advocating for mutual respect and shared responsibility. We recognize that promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment will bring benefits not only for women and girls but also men and boys through inclusive growth.
20 We encourage exploring the possibility of promoting fair trade programs to support more women in rural-based economies to participate in cross-border trading. We recognize that this will provide more women with access to markets for their products and generate income to sustain their livelihood.
Innovative: Women in the International Market and Global Value Chains 21 We emphasize that gender is an important aspect in international markets and global value chains. Therefore, it is important to integrate gender into the overall business operations and analytical frameworks, including production, sourcing, marketing, and consumption, to ensure gender is accounted for. Taking proactive measures will enable women as employees, leaders, and entrepreneurs to become more competitive and improve their ability to participate in global value chains. This will facilitate the development of competitive advantage for women’s enterprises and improve their functional position in the value chain as well as coordinate the support of various enablers and service providers.
22 We listened to success stories of role models who exemplified the transformation of women and provided a mentoring and networking opportunity for dynamic women trailblazers. These provided lessons and recommendations for women to take ownership and propel the development process by harnessing their motivation, leadership, and decision-making skills.
23 We recognize the importance of innovation for women and economic development and, therefore, encourage APEC economies to work towards creating an enabling environment for women to fully and equally get access to economic resources and equal opportunities to participate in business in the global markets.
Resilient: Women and Sustainable Development 24 We acknowledge the strength and exceptional spirit of resilience of women and girls in the Asia Pacific and emphasize their important role in adapting to climate change, reducing and managing disaster risks, spurring economic development, and further strengthening the ties of communities.
25 We recognize the “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030” adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in March 2015, which stipulated “Women and their participation are critical to effectively managing disaster risk and designing, resourcing and implementing gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction policies, plans and programmes; and adequate capacity building measures need to be taken to empower women for preparedness as well as build their capacity for alternate livelihood means in post-disaster situations.”
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26 We encourage economies to provide women with equal opportunities to participate in decision- making roles at all levels of disaster risk reduction, response, and recovery and to enhance women’s leadership capabilities and representation across the board. We also encourage women as integral members of our community, company workers, and entrepreneurs to be equipped in disaster risk mitigation and climate change adaption. During times of disasters, women have been known to take on tasks related to survival, such as administering provisions for their families and seeing to their safety and good health. Empowering women such as through entrepreneurship reinforces their roles as champions of community resilience in the face of disaster.
27 Women entrepreneurs should also be provided with capacity building, technical support, and access to capital to enable them to run resilient enterprises. This will ensure that devastations brought about by disasters will not permanently rob them of their income and livelihood.
28 We encourage efforts towards promoting business continuity programmes to support women- owned enterprises to get up on their feet after disasters and carry on re-building their lives and businesses.Reducing barriers to accessing financial capital and technical assistance as part ofbusiness continuity planning would help to ensure recovery of loss of businesses.
29 We welcome industries and sectors’ efforts to promote sustainable development as they embrace inclusive growth and support the livelihoods of many women, in particular in those sectors where the proportion of women is increasing.
30 We advocate for public and private investments on “green infrastructure” and for women to be consulted on gender-inclusive spatial designs. Disaster recovery centers should also set up women-friendly spaces to ensure the safety and specific needs of women.
Integration of Gender Perspectives across APEC 31 We commend efforts by APEC sub-fora to integrate gender in their work, including ongoing collaborations with the PPWE (See Annex B). We call on all APEC sub-fora to continue integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment in their work planning and annual reports.
32 We recognizethe updated Guide on Gender Criteria and the APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard as useful tools to ensure mainstreaming of gender perspectives across APEC. Assessing projects using the Gender Criteria enables a conscious effort in engaging women in all aspects of APEC’s work and in increasing women’s participation in the region. The APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard is a tool to track, measure, and communicate progress in reducing barriers to women’s economic participation across our five key priorities. We call on APEC economies to leverage the Dashboard as a tool to inform policymaking and capacity building across all APEC work streams, and to improve and expand data collection to strengthen the utility of the Dashboard.
Towards achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women 33 We, APEC ministers, heads of delegations, senior officials, representatives of non-governmental organizations and private sector leaders, affirm Women as Prime Movers for Inclusive Growth and commit to work towards achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women, and building a better world.
APEC Women and the Economy Fora 2016 34 We look forward to our next meeting in Peru for the APEC Women and the Economy Fora and other related activities in 2016.
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Toward APEC Philippines 2015 Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Manila 35 We agree to present this APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement as our contribution to the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November in Manila, the Philippines.
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Annex A.1: APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement Annex A: Current PPWE Initiatives
Women’s Entrepreneurship 1 The Women's Entrepreneurship in APEC (WE-APEC) initiative, which was launched in 2014, examined each economy's efforts across government, private sector, and business network services to promote and support women's entrepreneurship. The findings of the WE-APEC gap analysis under this initiative offered a detailed view of the landscape for women entrepreneurs in the APEC region. The economy assessments can be utilized to strengthen eco-systems that support women's entrepreneurship. The WE-APEC online platform, www.we-apec.com offers a dynamic directory of service providers for women-owned businesses across APEC and provides a way for governments, the private sector, business networks and entrepreneurs to connect to each other.
2 The survey on “Good Practices of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Local Communities in the Process of Disaster Reconstruction” as well as the workshop held in March 2015 in Sendai, Japan, on the occasion of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction highlighted the important perspectives for women’s economic empowerment. These include the need for technical skills and knowledge support; the provision of gender-sensitive services to meet individual needs; the importance of strategic partnership, access to finance and local ownership; fostering management skills including human resource management; and increasing profits, innovation and access to the market.
Women’s Leadership 3 The “50 Leading Companies for Women in APEC” project aimed to demonstrate practices in improving women’s leadership by showcasing efforts of about 50 companies in the APEC region to empower women in their workplaces. The project can inspire other companies to learn and enhance women’s leadership and representation in their own respective workplaces.
4 The “Individual Action Plan (IAP) for the Enhancement of the Ratio of Women’s Representation in Leadership” project was launched to promote women's participation in the economy at all levels, particularly on leadership, decision-making and management. The IAPs will serve as mechanisms for measurable and aspirational voluntary goals which economies could work toward by the end of 2020, with a view to assessing progress of ratio of women's representation in leadership.
Women and Innovation and Technology 5 The PPWE Multi-year Project “Innovation for Women and Economic Development: Facilitating Women’s Livelihood Development and Resilience with ICTs” provides women entrepreneurs an opportunity to exchange views on policies and practices of using information and communications technology (ICT) tools and assist them in establishing and expanding their enterprises.
6 The Women’s Business Smart Technology Seminar reaffirmed the potential and importance of women’s active participation in the economy through smart technology and promoted the building of knowledge partnerships and formulating regional strategies on the use of smart technology.
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Annex A.2: APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement Annex B: Partnerships with other APEC Working Groups
1 The PPWE has partnered with other APEC working groups to incorporate gender equality and women’s empowerment into their sector-specific public-private dialogues, ministerial meetings, and projects and programs to ensure that barriers to women’s economic empowerment are addressed across sectors.
Human Resource Development Working Group (HRDWG) 2 The PPWE is collaborating with the HRDWG to implement training programs for developing the skills of women, fostering an enabling environment to create better quality jobs for women, and establishing capacity building centers to help women achieve competencies to meet the demands of industry, as well as enhance educational opportunities for women and girls.
HRDWG and Health Working Group (HWG) 3 Full participation of women in the economy is essential to achieve inclusive economic growth; however, women’s ability to access economic opportunities is sometimes hindered by health concerns. Thus, the PPWE is collaborating with the HRDWG and HWG on the “Healthy Women, Healthy Economies” initiative. A Policy Toolkit was developed to address health-related barriers specific to women so they can join, remain and rise in the work force. The Policy Toolkit includes policy recommendations and practices on: workplace health and safety; health access and awareness; gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health; and work/life balance. The Policy Toolkit can serve as a guide to APEC member economies in implementing actions on a voluntary basis and choosing actions appropriate for their economy.
Transportation Working Group (TPTWG) 4 Women’s inclusion in transportation, both as employees and users, is crucial to achieving full economic potential. In line with the directive of the Transportation Ministers, we will work with the Transportation Working Group (TPTWG) to develop and implement a framework for the collection of data and implementation of best practices that will enhance opportunities and measure progress for women in transportation. The Women in Transportation (WiT) Task Force will work with the PPWE to establish a “network of champions” from each economy to shape, coordinate, plan, and execute the proposed framework across its five pillars: education, recruitment, retention, leadership and safe use, and access to transportation systems.
Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG) 5 Recognizing that the Asia-Pacific is the most natural disaster-affected region, the PPWE collaborated with the EPWG to identify and address the needs and concerns of women and girls in emergency preparedness and post-disaster recovery and resilience.
6 The outcome of the PPWE project “Good Practices of Women Entrepreneurship in Local Communities in the Process of Local Reconstruction” has been shared with the EPWG as a valuable reference for achieving inclusive and sustainable recovery in the post-disaster phase, which can also contribute to the enhanced linkage between the two working groups.
Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG) 7 The case for increased participation of women-led SMEs in export and global markets is compelling from both a developmental and economic perspective. Recognizing that APEC economies can grow and create jobs by offering gender-responsive trade promotion services, the project “Promoting SME Development: Assisting Women-Owned SMEs Access the Global Markets” focused on strengthening trade promotion agencies to better serve women-led SMEs.
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Economic Committee (EC) 8 The project “Capacity Building for the Reduction of Educational Gender Gaps through Structural Reforms” was launched to enhance education with equal opportunities for women in APEC economies. With this purpose, the project focuses on improving the capacity of civil servants to adapt, design, implement and evaluate gender gap reduction policies. The project is directly related to the APEC New Strategy for Structural Reform (ANSSR), as well as the SME and Women Development pillar, which has driven the recent activities of the Economic Committee.
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Annex B: Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy 2 Meeting
Summary Report Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) 2 Meeting 16 September 2015 | 08:30 AM – 04:30 PM Summit Halls C and D, Philippine International Convention Center Metro Manila, Philippines
As approved by the APEC SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE), the Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy or PPWE held two meetings this year (as necessary). Both meetings were chaired by Ms. Emmeline L. Verzosa of the Philippine Commission on Women. Ten member economies were represented in the first meeting held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG). PPWE 1 provided an avenue for economies to report on the completed and on-going projects and initiatives; to discuss the 2015 PPWE Work Plan; and to update the PPWE Terms of Reference and Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals. Members approved the PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018 in principle and also came up with the draft APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement.
The PPWE met for the second time in the Philippines. Eighteen member economies from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, and Viet Nam participated actively in the meeting.
Welcome Remarks and Opening Message Department of Trade and Industry Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado, Chair of the APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora, warmly welcomed the delegates to the Philippines. Having hosted APEC for the second time since 1996, she shared how the women’s agenda has always been vital for the Philippines. In 1996, the Women Leaders’ Network was founded. Though this network was an informal one and not event part of the official APEC structure, it has called on the attention of APEC officials to discuss women’s issues in the Asia Pacific region. Hence in 1998, the first APEC Ministerial Meeting on Women was held in Makati, Philippines which led to the publication of the Framework for the Integration of Women in APEC. As time went by, the APEC WE Chair stated that the focus shifted on concretizing and strategizing on how to advance women’s economic empowerment.
The APEC WE Chair congratulated PPWE for its initiative to hold two PPWE Meetings annually, if necessary, as it has demonstrated strong will to sustain meaningful efforts in pushing forward the women’s economic agenda. As she concluded her speech, the APEC WE Chair laid out the objectives of the PPWE, which aims to draw up a cutting-edge policy Statement on Women and the Economy and highlight the possible avenues for women and development by considering the five (5) key pillars impacting women’s economic empowerment — 1) access to capital and assets; 2) access to markets; 3) skills, capacity building, and health; 4) leadership, voice and agency; and 5) innovation and technology.
Adoption of the PPWE 1 Meeting Summary
Upon the call of the PPWE Chair Ms. Verzosa, member economies formally adopted the Summary of the PPWE 1 Meeting, which was held in Port Moresby, PNG on 3-5 May 2015.
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Adoption of the Agenda The Agenda is outlined as follows: 1) Update on the utilization of the Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposal; 2) Update on the use of the Women and the Economy Dashboard; 3) Discussion on the implementation of the PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018; 4) Report on the projects of other APEC fora with PPWE participation or infusion of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment provisions; and 5) Finalize the Statement of the Women and the Economy 2015 Fora.
The PPWE Chair invited the Economies to endorse the Agenda, which was done accordingly.
Update on the Utilization of Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals
The Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals is a tool used to assess the gender- responsiveness or gender elements of project proposals being submitted to the APEC Secretariat. It provides a range of approaches to addressing gender issues, from basic to more complex, depending on the type of project.
Following the abolition of the Project Assessment Steering Committee (PASC), a Gender Focal Point has been appointed in the APEC Secretariat in the person of Ms. Penelope Howarth. Ms. Howarth reviews concept notes and project proposals submitted to the APEC Secretariat to determine if this complies with the Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals.
On behalf of Ms. Howarth and the Project Management Unit, the PPWE Program Director Ms. Romy Tincopa delivered the report. Recognizing gender as a cross cutting issue, Ms. Tincopa updated the body that the APEC Secretariat undertook two different activities to support gender mainstreaming.
The first one was through information sharing by reporting on the outcomes of PPWE 1 Meeting, APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard, and Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals. For instance in the last SOM 3 in Cebu, Ms. Tincopa shared that several Program Directors integrated gender presentations in their respective fora.
On the other hand, out of a total of forty two (42) project proposals assessed by the APEC Secretariat for Project Session 1 this year, twenty one (21) satisfactorily addressed the gender criteria in their first submission. Proposals that did not satisfactorily address the gender criteria were returned with feedback and constructive suggestions about how the project could be improved and become gender responsive. Through this iterative process between the APEC Secretariat and the project overseers, all project proposals in Project Session 1 were ultimately assessed as satisfactorily addressing the gender criteria, although in most cases there was not a high level of ambition to go beyond the basic level. For comments and suggestions, member economies could send this to the APEC Secretariat Program Director.
Ms. Tincopa also shared a draft Cross-cutting Issues Map prepared by the APEC Secretariat which maps the structure of various APEC fora that are undertaking work on gender-related issues.
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Update on the use of the APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard
To further mainstream gender perspective across APEC fora and to track its progress, Mr. Carlos Kuriyama of the APEC Secretariat Policy Support Unit (PSU) reported that the APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard has been finalized and will soon be available online.
The APEC WE Dashboard is an initiative that seeks to provide a snapshot of the status of women in APEC, by looking at a set of indicators to measure progress of women’s participation in economicrelated activities and women’s inclusion in several aspects of life. The Dashboard has almost eighty (80) indicators, classified along the five PPWE pillars.
Mr. Kuriyama thanked economies for sending through additional inputs and data for the APEC WE Dashboard. Although he noted that the new data did not change the conclusions or any trend based on the report presented in May 2015.
In the recently conducted APEC WE Dashboard Workshop on 15 September 2015, participating economies were able to develop a short list of indicators on health and safety, financial services, literacy, outreach and learning, competitive access for entrepreneurs, among others. The active participation of member economies and the national data they have provided made the Dashboard a robust tool for tracking, measuring, and communicating progress in reducing barriers to women’s economic participation. Economies were encouraged to implement elements of the Dashboard.
Discussion on the Implementation of the PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018
The PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018 was approved in principle by the Economies based on the agreements made during the PPWE 1 Meeting in PNG.
The Strategic Plan envisions a “Strong sustainable, balanced economic growth in the APEC region that is more inclusive and enabling for women to succeed and advance.” The PPWE mission is to mainstream, elevate and integrate gender responsive policies and programs focused on women’s economic empowerment into APEC activities to advance gender equality. It has three objectives: 1) Strengthen the integration of gender responsive policies and program across APEC fora; 2) Advance women’s economic participation through the five priority pillars –access to capital and assets; access to markets; skills, capacity building and health; leadership, voice and agency; and innovation and technology; and 3) Strengthen the foundation and operating structures of the PPWE and the Women and the Economy Forum.
During the discussion on how to move forward the implementation of the Strategic Plan, economies suggested to develop Guidelines on gender mainstreaming into the APEC fora in 2017. The PPWE Chair commented that this might be timely to update the 1998 Framework for the Integration of Women in the APEC agenda. This is to ensure that gender mainstreaming really works. However, the discussion was not able to define who among the Economies will work on developing the Guidelines.
The PPWE being part of the APEC SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE), the PPWE Chair shared that she personally reported on the completed, on-going, and proposed
Page 18 of 108 projects under the PPWE as well as provided updates on the upcoming APEC WE 2015 Fora on 4 September 2015 in Cebu, Philippines.
Completed On-going Proposed APEC Women's Business The Individual Action Plan Successful Cases of and Smart Technology for the Enhancement of the Women-Owned SMEs in Seminar – Empowering Ratio of Women’s Foreign Trade (Chile) APEC Women's Economic Representation in Performance using Smart Leadership (Japan) Technology: Supporting Policies and Training (Republic of Korea) 50 Leading Companies for Innovation for Women and Women’s Business and Women in APEC (Japan) Economic Development – Smart Technology Facilitating Women’s Seminar and Smart Start- Livelihood Development up Support System – and Resilience with ICTs Leveraging Smart (Chinese Taipei) Technologies & Global Best Practices for APEC Women Entrepreneurs (Republic of Korea) Good Practices of Healthy Women, Healthy Guidelines for Women’s Women’s Economies (USA) Involvement in Science, Entrepreneurship in the Technology and Process of Disaster Innovations (Russia) Reconstruction (Japan) Women’s Women’s Access to Entrepreneurship in APEC Financial Services Data in (WE-APEC) Network the APEC Region (Papua (USA) New Guinea)
Minor revisions made on the PPWE Strategic Plan were the following: 1) The first two paragraphs under Objective 1 was moved to the beginning of the document to act as an Introduction; and 2) The Economies agreed to change the title “Key Performance Indicators” to “Targets.”
The following were discussed during the rundown of programs and activities indicated in the Strategic Plan Implementation Schedule: 1) The trade facilitation under the GREAT Women Project was moved to 2016 as the Philippine Government has to continue the consultation with the private sector for this project; 2) New Zealand proposed that the project with the working title “Women and Renewable Energy” be removed from the document; 3) “Women in Corporate Boards,” which was proposed by the Philippines, is still subject to discussion with Japan. It was pointed out that the Women’s Business Council Philippines (WBCP) and the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) are also involved in this project; 4) The Healthy Women, Healthy Economies toolkit was launched on September 16, 2015 in Manila. The toolkit contains “strategies and practices that Economies may pursue to unleash the economic power of women through better health;”
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5) The project called “Innovation for Women and Economic Development – Facilitating Women’s Livelihood Development and Resilience with ICTs” by Chinese Taipei was noted as an ongoing project; 6) Chile clarified that its project on capacity building for the reduction of education gender gaps through structural reform is under the outcome on capacity building and not on ICT; and 7) It was clarified that the implementation of the annual private sector forum/meeting to incorporate private sector, academia, entrepreneurs, and civil society’s voice and expertise into policy discussion is on a voluntary basis.
The Economies proceeded to report on their Individual Action Plan (IAP) aligned to the Strategic Plan and 5 Priority Pillars, on a voluntary basis:
JAPAN
Japan reported that it already received fourteen (14) IAPs for its project on the “Individual Action Plan for the Enhancement of the Ratio of Women’s Representation in Leadership” and that those IAPs have already been uploaded at the APEC website. Other Economies that have not yet submitted their IAPs were encouraged to do so. The delegation also reported about the project on “Good Practices of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Local Communities in the Process of Disaster Reconstruction.”
A presentation was also made by the President of the Colabolabo Company, Ms. Kyoko Yokota, on “Female Entrepreneurs and Support for Market Access in Japan.” Her company provides business support for female entrepreneurs and manages a website called womanpresident.net, which is a platform for networking, marketing, and sales opportunities.
More detailed report shall be presented by the Head of Delegation to the High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy (HLPD on WE).
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The delegation from Papua New Guinea thanked the Host Economy for its compliments for PNG’s hosting of the PPWE 1 Meeting in May 2015. The delegation also shared that it plans to formulate policies and legislations in relation to the PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018 and to address gender equality and women’s empowerment in PNG. A full report on these plans will be presented during the HLPD on WE on 18 September 2015.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)
The USA delegation gave an update on the project “Women’s Entrepreneurship in APEC (WE-APEC) Network”, which identifies existing networks of women-owned businesses in the APEC economies.A workshop was held in June 2015 in Singapore to share information on a minimum of six hundred fifty (650) women entrepreneurs’ network in the region and talk about the next steps, which include: 1) Creating a platform / tool for women entrepreneurs to connect in the region; 2) Bringing women entrepreneurs in the PPWE; and 3) Establishing a steering committee with a representative from each Economy.
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The delegation reported that the Women’s Entrepreneurship Portal will be launched on 17 September 2015.
The USA delegation also reported the launch of the initiative called “Women’s Entrepreneurial Centers of Resources, Education, Access, and Training for Economic Empowerment (WECREATE),” which is a safe place for women to access information services, childcare services, programs to minimize the risk of exposure of women to gender- based violence, and other services.
There is also the Spark Global Coalition, which is a call for action to generate investments from private sector for emerging entrepreneurs. A public private partnership competition called “InnovateHER,” where entrepreneurs pitch products and services to empower women and their families.The Alliance for Artisan Enterprise was also launched to support artisan products. The US government is also encouraging more states to pass state-wide family leave programs to increase labor force participation of women and participation of women in non-traditional occupations. An Executive Order to federal contractors on pay transparency was released, which encourages workers to discuss their pays without discrimination.
CHINESE TAIPEI
The Chinese Taipei delegation reported on its multi-year project called “Innovation for Women and Economic Development – Facilitating Women’s Livelihood Development and Resilience with ICTs,” which illustrates how women use ICT for business in the digital area.
The delegations from Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia, and Singapore also reported on their initiatives to advance women’s economic empowerment.
AUSTRALIA
The delegation from Australia shared updates on the following: 1) Women’s increased financial literacy; 2) Raising women’s representation in the Board room; 3) Reducing gender participation gap; 4) Providing affordable childcare system, a tax system for working women and families, and economic security and retirement benefits for women; 5) Encouraging female force participation in non-traditional fields; 6) Addressing discrimination related to pregnancy; and 7) Availability of a website catering to working parents.
INDONESIA
The delegation from Indonesia provided updates on the following: 1) Gender mainstreaming in planning, budgeting, etc.; 2) Capacitating women in SMEs through training and financing; 3) Establishment of the Academy of Entrepreneurship for capacity and skills building on marketing, product packaging, financial literacy, business mentoring, and others; and 4) Statistics on women in decision-making positions.
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PHILIPPINES
The Philippine delegation reported that the GREAT Women Project (GWP) has now become its own brand and platform. With funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, a second phase of the GWP will run from 2015 to 2021, which will continue to strengthen convergence between economic agencies and assist twelve thousand (12,000) women Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to be more competitive and sustainable.It was also shared that the private sector partners of the GWP were tapped by US ATARI to bring the brand and platform to ASEAN countries like Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia. The Philippines will also conduct the pilot testing of the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Toolkit. With regard to the Women and the Economy Dashboard, the Philippines committed to take part in SME trainings and incubation.
RUSSIA
The delegation from Russia shared statistics on loans and grants given to women and women entrepreneurs. Non-governmental organizations are also active in skills and capacity building of women.
SINGAPORE
The delegation from Singapore shared that what it lacks from natural resources, it makes it up by providing an enabling environment and investing and maximizing the potential of its people regardless of gender, race, or creed. Singapore stressed that its women have equal opportunities and access to fundamental resources like education and healthcare. Singapore’s statistics of women participation in the civil service and Supreme Court were also reported as well as its need to increase the number of women in the Board rooms and private sectors. Singapore also shared that it has already set up twelve (12) Small and Medium Enterprises centers to provide assistance to capital and markets, as well as other in other areas of concern.
There were also presentations made by Papua New Guinea and Canada on its Project Proposal and Initiative to further infuse gender equality and women’s economic empowerment across APEC work streams, respectively.
Presentation of the Concept Note on “Women’s Access to Financial Services Data in the APEC Region” by Papua New Guinea
The project recognizes APEC’s lack of data on women accessing financial services and aims to collect data on women’s access to financial services and identify barriers to such services, and provide key recommendations to contribute to policy development on financial services. The Philippines, Peru, United States of America, and Indonesia have agreed to co-sponsor the project. Indonesia also recommended for this project to also provide sex-disaggregated data.
The Papua New Guinea delegation shared that the project will begin is data collection in the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2016 and will hold a workshop on sharing best practices on women’s access to financial services and promoting inclusive growth sometime in 1st quarter 2017. By the end of 2017, a documentation based on the outcome of the workshop is expected to be released.
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Report on “Dedicated MSME Sub-fund and Policy Support Facility” by Canada
The Canada delegation explained that this is still a project proposal that stemmed from the lack of a dedicated funding facility for MSME-related projects within APEC. The approval of this project will increase direct support for MSMEs and enhance Canada’s policy and research leadership on MSMEs. By the end of the presentation, the United States of America expressed its positive outlook on the approval of the project.
One of the targets set by PPWE is to collaborate with and influence at least ten (10) APEC fora by 2018. The Meeting reported that there are already nine (9) APEC cross-fora collaboration (in various degrees) which are the following:
1) Emergency Preparedness Working Group – recognizes the impact of disasters on women, children, elderly and PWDs; 2) Transportation Working Group – has produced a framework for benchmarking and tracking the participation and influence of women as transportation workers, entrepreneurs, leaders and travellers and will be holding a conference on Women in Transportation in October in Cebu; 3) Health Working Group – together with the HRDWG and PPWE has launched the Healthy Women, Healthy Economy Tool Kit which provides a guide to eliminate health-related barriers specific to women so they can join, remain, and rise in the work force. It contains policy recommendations and practices on five (5) areas: workplace health and safety; health access and awareness; gender-based violence; sexual and reproductive health; and work/life balance; 4) Human Resource Development Working Group – implements training programs for women to create better quality jobs and increase their competitiveness; 5) Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group – has included a focus on microenterprises majority of whom are women so they can grow and create jobs and have better access to markets through gender-responsive trade promotion services; 6) Telecommunications Working Group – with a couple of ICT related projects in PPWE, this cross-cuts with the work of the TWG; 7) Economic Committee – a project on capacity building for the reduction of educational gender gaps through structural reforms was launched to enhance education with equal opportunities for women in APEC economies. With this purpose, the project focuses on improving the capacity of civil servants to adapt, design, implement and evaluate gender gap reduction policies. The project is directly related to the ANSSR, as well as the SME and Women Development pillar, which has driven the recent activities of the Economic Committee; 8) Energy Working Group – there was an information provided that women’s involvement in renewable sources of energy were being discussed in this fora; and 9) Anti-Corruption Working Group – includes discussion on trafficking in persons, most of whom are women and children.
The PPWE recognized the efforts of all nine working groups to integrate gender in their projects and policy statements. PPWE looked forward to stronger collaborations to achieve concrete and sustainable results that will impact the lives of women in the Asia-Pacific.
After the discussions and reporting, the PPWE Chair then called for the formal adoption of the PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018.
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APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement
The PPWE worked on the APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement which contains concrete and actionable recommendations categorized along the three sub-themes of the APEC WE 2015 Fora: 1) Women and Inclusive Business; 2) Women in the International Markets and Global Value Chains; and 3) Women and Sustainable Development. The APEC WE 2015 Fora Statement was deemed endorsed by the body for adoption to the High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy.
Chair’s Closing Remarks
The Peru delegation expressed its gratitude to the host of the APEC WE Fora 2015 and invited all Economies to Peru for APEC 2016.
The PPWE Chair delivered her closing remarks by highlighting the next steps to be done: 1) Submission of the Strategic Plan 2015-2018 to the SCE; 2) Filling in of projects in the Strategic Plan 2015-2018 Implementation Schedule; and 3) Conduct of the PPWE Management Council Meeting that will be co-chaired by the Philippines, China, and Peru, and attended by two delegates per economy and ABAC representatives.
Finally, the PPWE Chair acknowledged the hard work of all the delegation on the finalization of the APEC WE 2015 Fora Statement and encouraged men’s active engagement for the achievement of gender equality.
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Annex C: Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy
Summary Report Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) 2 Meeting 17 September 2015 | 08:30 AM – 06:00 PM Reception Hall, Philippine International Convention Center Metro Manila, Philippines
Executive Summary
The Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy (PPDWE) was held in Manila on 17 September 2015 and served as a platform for a highly informative, inspiring, and insightful exchange of information and insights on women empowerment and integration in global trade and business.
Over 800 individuals from 19 member economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) attended the event. Of this number, 82% were women, 19% were men; 58% came from the private sector while the rest came from the public sector.
H.E. President Benigno S. Aquino III graced the forum as keynote speaker. In his speech, President Aquino assured the PPWDE participants of the Philippines’ commitment in expanding opportunities for women, adding that the “issue of gender equality calls for continuous reflection and corresponding action.” He shared that the Philippines was cited in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Gender Gap Report 2014 as the top-ranking Asian economy in terms of closing gender gaps. The Philippines ranked 9th out of 142 economies and was the only Asian economy in the top 10 ranked economies.
The WEF Gender Gap Report 2014 reveals that gender gaps remain although there has been progress in closing these across the world. At the Forum, the speakers discussed global developments seen to impact on efforts to empower women and engage them in economic activities. These include the following: . Rise of technology and digital economy . Increasing number of the millennial workforce . Changing work landscape allowing more virtual / off-site / work-from-home arrangements . Improved awareness and discussions on inclusive business as an emerging field . Greater opportunities for young women compared to previous years
Recommendations for women empowerment and gender equality that were gathered at the PPDWE were as follows: 1) Increase gender diversity in boards starting with government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), government financial institutions, and publicly listed companies. Establish a quota for women seats on Corporate Boards and incorporate gender diversity language into corporate governance codes of each country. 2) Adopt the gender lens in establishing financial support and training for businesses. Funnel investments in private sector companies with innovative gender policies that extend across their supply chains. Provide direct capital to companies and social enterprises that offer products and services benefiting women and girls.
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3) Establish ICT infrastructure that will connect women in businesses into customers and markets, value chain support, mentoring and networking initiatives, as well as e- commerce programs. 4) Invest on the youth, particularly on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Develop women STEM professionals and increase the number of women in the fields of information technology, research, and innovation. 5) Invest in talent management and development. Conduct mentoring programs for women, grant scholarships, and conduct skills training and capability building for women, including leadership training for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and women-owned enterprises. 6) Initiate programs for those who are at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Increase engagement and participation of low-income women in order to create and develop policies, laws, and programs that are more responsive to their needs and in alignment with on-ground realities. Support more inclusive businesses particularly those with explicit women empowerment in their business strategy. 7) Start gender equality advocacies and technology discussions at home. Increase awareness and appreciation on gender advocacies and women empowerment among children, spouses, relatives, and friends. Find ways to allow more young girls to learn technology so that they may harness it in future efforts for inclusive growth and women empowerment. 8) Continue collaboration among the government, business sector, and civil society in designing and implementing programs for women. 9) Develop policies that will call on government offices to dedicate a percentage of their procurement for MSMEs and women-owned enterprises. 10) Identify role models who can serve as inspiration for young women in pursuing their goals and objectives whether it is in the field of entrepreneurship, technology, education, or social development.
About the APEC Women and Economy 2015 Fora and the Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy
On 15-18 September 2015, the Philippines hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Women and the Economy (APEC WE) 2015 Fora, guided by the theme “Women as Prime Movers of Inclusive Growth.” The Fora aimed to develop a set of actionable, measurable and concrete policy recommendations for presentation to the APEC Leaders during their meeting in November 2015.
One of the components of APEC WE 2015 is the Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy (PPDWE), which was held on 17 September 2015 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila. The PPDWE was organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which serves as Chair of the APEC WE. Together with the DTI are the Women’s Business Council of the Philippines (WomenBizPh) and the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW).
WomenBizPh is the premier advocate and resource of APEC on issues faced by business women in the Philippine private sector, while PCW is the country’s primary policy-making and coordinating body on women and gender equality concerns.
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Over 800 attendees from the government, business, academe, and civil society organizations across 19 APEC economies joined the event. H. E. President Benigno S. Aquino III graced the PPDWE as Keynote Speaker.
Attendance Data
19 economies Delegations headed by: represented 6 Ministers 7 Deputy Ministers 2 Ambassadors 1 Minister Counsellor 3 Senior Director, Managing Director, Deputy Director level Over 800 people Official delegates: registered 54% public, 44% private, 2% academe Guests (Non-Member Participants): 58% private sector Majority are CEOs, Founders, Managing Directors 37% public sector 2 of 3 are Ministers/ Secretaries, Ambassadors, Deputy Ministers/ Undersecretaries/ Directors 5% academe Around 30 student observers; Majority are from the Philippine Women’s University (PWU), Asia’s first women college established in 1919 by seven women from the Philippines Total: 82% women; 19% men
APEC WE 2015 Fora Website and Mobile Application
On 15 July 2015, the APEC WE 2015 Fora launched the satellite website under APEC 2015 Philippines for the meeting period, accessible at http://apec2015.ph/women/. All delegates and guests were encouraged to check for updates and announcements on the website prior to and during the event.
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Allowing each session in PPDWE to be more interactive in nature by engaging the audience, the APEC WE 2015 Fora has launched its mobile application which are available both in iOS and Android platforms.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teamasia.apec iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apec-we-2015-fora/id1024041301?ls=1&mt=8
How to download the mobile app: 1. From your mobile phone, click PlayStore or App Store. 2. Search the app “APEC WE 2015 Fora.” 3. It should show the app in the first result. 4. Click install.
Usec. Terrado showing the APEC WE 2015 Fora Mobile Application to Hon. Joyce Yen Feng, Head of the Chinese Taipei delegation.
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Plenary Presentations and Panel Discussions
The PPDWE featured six plenary sessions and five panel discussions. See Annex C.1 for the APEC Women and Economy 2015 Fora: PPDWE Agenda.
PLENARY SESSIONS
• Welcome Remarks, Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado • Opening Speech, Ms. Doris Magsaysay Ho • Harnessing the Power of the Crowd, Maria Ressa • World’s Economic Forum Gender Gap Report 2014, Saadia Zahidi • Keynote Speech, H.E. President Benigno S. Aquino III • Closing Remarks o Kathy Xiaosi Gong (People’s Republic of China) o Ana Maria Choquehuanca (Peru) o Ma. Aurora “Boots” Geotina-Garcia (Philippines)
PANEL SESSIONS
• 5 Pillars of Women’s Economic Empowerment • Young Women Leaders as Powerful Drivers of Change • Women in the International Markets and Global Value Chains • Women and Inclusive Business • Women and Sustainable Development
The succeeding pages provide the highlights of these sessions.
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1 WELCOME REMARKS NORA K. TERRADO
Chair, APEC WE 2015 Fora Undersecretary, Department of Trade and Industry
Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado officially welcomed the delegates and guests to the APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Public-Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy. She started her remarks with a video which highlighted the three (3) pillars of APEC in advancing free trade for Asia Pacific prosperity: (1) Trade and investment, (2) Business Facilitation, and (3) Economic and technical cooperation.
Usec. Terrado discussed the historical background of APEC WE 2015 Fora citing it as a platform that supports integration of women across APEC work streams through collaboration and gender equality. She expressed optimism that through the efforts of the working group of the APEC WE 2015 Fora and the results of the PPDWE discussions during the day, a set of concrete and actionable policy recommendations would be adopted at the High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy.
The Undersecretary cited some trends for the PPDWE’s consideration as APEC moves forward in its agenda. 1) Increase of global economy participants from 500 million in 1995 to 7 billion today; 2) Growth in business to consumer ecommerce to 1.5 trillion sales; 3) Women influencing the greater majority of purchasing decisions; 4) Women in western economies using technology more than their male counterparts; 5) Cloud, social media, big data, and mobility creating major disruptions and impacting women; 6) Virtualization of work, allowing more women to work from home; and 7) Rise of the millennials, many of whom are women.
Usec. Terrado explained gender gaps still exist and more work is required. She is optimistic however that the line-up of speakers in the PPDWE will provide delegates with insights and key learnings on women issues and realities. She encouraged everyone to be engaged in the discussions and to put forward their views and opinions on how women empowerment and integration in business could be pursued.
“The overall theme of APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora “Women as Prime Movers of
Inclusive Growth” reflects our growing recognition of the role and power of women to spur business and economic growth.”
Supplemental Information: Copy of Usec. Terrado’s speech can be accessed here: APEC WE Chair Speech
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2 OPENING SPEECH DORIS MAGSAYSAY-HO
Chair, APEC Business Advisory Council President and CEO, Magsaysay Maritime Corporation
Ms. Magsaysay-Ho emphasized PPDWE’s role in continuing the dialogue on women participation in trade and the economy. She cited the Forum as an opportunity for women to share their own experiences and insights with regard to pushing gender equality and women empowerment.
Ms. Magsaysay-Ho shared two lessons she learned in her life and cited her own experiences in managing their family’s maritime business. The first lesson refers to being true to one’s self. She learned that women should harness their unique character as women, and should not try to be like men, if they wish to succeed.
The second lesson is her realization that women’s success in business must also allow success at home. Knowing women’s stress in balancing challenges at work and at home, Ms. Magsaysay-Ho said there should be increased opportunities for women to do their jobs without sacrificing their personal responsibilities to their families.
Today’s landscape helps bridge the gaps and barriers to include women’s participation in the economy. Ms. Magsaysay-Ho cited some opportunities for women to better balance work and family amid this landscape: technology driving virtual work, rise of e-commerce and online selling, increasing number of companies offering part-time jobs or work-at-home arrangements, among others.
Supplemental Information: Copy of Ms. Magsaysay-Ho’s speech can be accessed here: ABAC Chair Speech
3 HARNESSING THE POWER OF THE CROWD MARIA RESSA
Chief Executive Officer Rappler
“Every business today is an internet business,” Maria Ressa said as she opened her presentation. Ressa showed how technology has changed the business landscape. According to her, technology has given rise to new business models and has Technology + Women resulted into exponential growth of many organizations. = Magic
She talked about the rise of technology-driven businesses, social Combination media as businesses’ direct connection to consumers, big data for collaborative business, and online crowdsourcing – all of which spell opportunities for organizations, including women.
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Ressa shared their experience in Rappler, an online-based media platform, as a case study of how organizations can leverage on technology. The pace of information flow has become exponentially faster today that it has dictated changes in the way a media organization like Rappler does business. Because of technology, Rappler is able to deliver news at a faster pace without need for infrastructure typically used by traditional broadcast stations. One of its initiatives, “Project Agos,” harnesses technology to maximize the flow of critical data before, during, and after disasters. Through data shared by the public, Project Agos proved “help can come from the crowd”.
4 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM’S GLOBAL GENDER GAP REPORT SAADIA ZAHIDI
Senior Director, Gender Parity, Human Capital and Constituents World Economic Forum
The Gender Gap Report 2014 seeks to understand gaps between men and women in the areas of health, education, economic participation, and political empowerment. It aims to know if women and men in both developed and less developed economies have the same rights and opportunities.
The study reveals gender gaps remain although there is progress in closing these across the world. Of the 142 economies covered by the study, those in Northern Europe such as Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark made it to the list’s top five (5), closing over 80% of the gender gaps. Chad (140), Pakistan (141) and Yemen (142) were ranked at the bottom. The Philippines (rank 9) is the only Asian economy included in the top 10. Kuwait (113) ranked the best among Middle East economies, followed by the United Arab Emirates (115). Data shows that 105 of the 111 countries originally tracked since 2006 are making progress in closing these gaps. Saudi Arabia, for example, has made most progress (relative to itself) in terms of closing gaps in women’s economic participation.
The Gender Gap Report highlights people and talents are key resources driving economies. It underscores gender equality as vital part of humanity’s progress.
Note: highest possible score is 1 (equality) and lowest possible score is 0 (inequality).
Supplemental Information: Global Gender Gap Report Rankings can be accessed here: Rankings
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5 KEYNOTE SPEECH H.E. BENIGNO SIMEON AQUINO III
President of the Republic of the Philippines
President Aquino assured PPWDE delegates and guests of the Philippines’ commitment to expanding opportunities for women, adding that the “issue of gender equality calls for continuous reflection and corresponding action”.
He recognized the roles of Filipino women in history from the Spanish era to the modern times, citing among others, women heroes like Gabriela Silang and Tandang Sora, as well as former President Corazon Aquino. He described women as strong-willed and superior in many areas. He is confident of women’s roles and contribution in achieving inclusive growth.
The President spoke of the number of women appointees in various positions in the Philippine government. Over the years, according to him, women government leaders have become pillars of the government’s reform agenda. He assured future public servants that “they would not be defined by their gender” but by their integrity and work ethic.
Women have also proven their roles in driving the Philippines’ economic growth. President Aquino cited data on women economic participation: 54% of registered trade names are owned by women while 63% of business owners and managers are women.
He talked about some of government’s initiatives to empower women. These include TESDA-STAR (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority – Sari Sari Store Training and Access to Resources), which helps women sari sari storeowners become more professional in doing business. The program has produced over 30,000 graduates since it started in 2011. In the area of legislation, the Congress has repealed provisions of the Labor Law prohibiting women from working on evening shifts.
Supplemental Information: Copy of the President’s speech can be accessed here: PNoy Speech
“The issue of gender equality calls for continuous reflection and corresponding action.”
- H.E. President Benigno S. Aquino III
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Photo Opportunity with the President of the Republic of the Philippines, H.E. Benigno S. Aquino III
President Benigno S. Aquino III and Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo together with the Heads of Delegation to the APEC PPDWE held on 17 September 2015 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Reception Hall, Manila.
APEC WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY 2015 FORA Heads of Delegation
H.E. Bill Tweddell Hon. Anna Solomon Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Secretary Embassy of Australia Department of Religion, Youth and AUSTRALIA Community Development PAPUA NEW GUINEA Datin Paduka Hajah Adina Binti Othman Hon. Marcela Huaita Deputy Minister Minister Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Peoples BRUNEI DARUSSALAM PERU H.E. Neil Reeder Hon. Lilia B. De Lima Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Director General Embassy of Canada Philippine Economic Zone Authority CANADA PHILIPPINES Mrs. Alicia Frohmann Ms. Natalia Strigunova Minister Counsellor Deputy Director National Women’s Service Asia, Africa and Latin America Department CHILE Ministry of Economic Development RUSSIAN FEDERATION
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Mme. Meng Xiaosi Mrs. Tan Hwee Seh Vice President and Member of the Secretariat Senior Director All-China Women’s Federation Office for Women’s Development PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Ministry of Social and Family Development SINGAPORE Hon. Yohana Susana Yembise Dr. Joyce Yen Feng Minister Minister without Portfolio Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child CHINESE TAIPEI Protection INDONESIA Mr. Kazuhiko Ishihara Pol. Gen. Suwat Chanitthikul Vice-Minister for Special Missions Vice Minister Cabinet Office Ministry of Social Development and Human JAPAN Security THAILAND Hon. Heejung Kim H.E. Catherine Russell Minister Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Issues REPUBLIC OF KOREA U.S. Department of State UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Senator Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun Mr. Nguyen Trong Dam Deputy Minister Deputy Minister Ministry of Women, Family and Community Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Development VIET NAM MALAYSIA Dame Wendy Pye Managing Director Wendy Pye Publishing Limited NEW ZEALAND
6 PANEL SESSION: THE GLOBAL GENDER PICTURE 5 PILLARS OF WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
The panelists discussed the importance of creating avenues for women to effectively access capital and assets, the international markets, as well as technology. They agreed on the need to improve women’s skills, capacity, health, and leadership. They called for efforts that will allow women to have a bigger share of the voice in countries and organizations.
Heather Cox stressed the need to maximize opportunities arising from developments in the technology space. Cox advocated for increased number of women joining digital / technology workforce, citing that in the United States alone, there are one million gaps in technology jobs.
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She believes women should be equipped to work in the new world. She pointed out the need to ensure that society overcomes misperceptions regarding women’s participation in technology. She noted that by the 12th grade, boys are four (4) times likely to be placed in advance computer science programs than girls.
For Cox, diversity helps organizations come up with the best PANELISTS solutions to issues and problems. Closing the gender gap impacts on every aspect of the economy. Cox cited a Citibank study HEATHER CARROLL COX showing that achieving gender equality for millions of people Chief Client Experience Digital and Marketing can generate US$12 trillion worth of growth. Head, Citi
Hafimi bte Abdul Haadii pointed out that any economy, HAFIMI BTE ABDUL regardless of size, could create positive impact on women HAADII provided stakeholders work together. She talked about three Director/ Shareholder, LVK Group of Companies initiatives that proved women could access markets better given relevant support. BELÉN GARIJO 1. Cross E-Commerce Training (CBET). An initiative of CEO and President, the APEC Business Advisory Council, CBET provides Merck Healthcare women training and e-commerce tools to help them reach the IRENE NATIVIDAD global marketplace. President, 2. Cherie Blair Foundation. By combining technology and Global Summit of Women mentoring, the Foundation provides women with cross- and Chair, Corporate border support in increasing their market access. Women Directors 3. The Collective. A group of young women in Brunei International joined forces to do business with social aspect. Relying CHAO-CHIA HUANG heavily on social media, they create pop-up events with great Managing Director, impact and buzz. LoFTechnology, Inc. 4. Yasmin. An Indie film about a girl who wants to become a silat (Brunei’s combat sport) champion. The film is MODERATOR produced through public-private cooperation and will be marketed internationally. MARIA RESSA CEO, Rappler
Belén Garijo recommended investing in health and education, with focus on women, in order to realize economic growth and competitiveness. She encouraged women to continue to take action, adding that effective public-private collaboration and strong leadership are imperative to achieve gender equality goals.
Cancer is more prevalent among women and women suffer 60% more deaths from certain communicable diseases. Dr. Garijo explained there is need to obtain data on prevalence factors and indicators on women’s health in order for medical practitioners to improve clinical outcomes.
In education, Dr. Garijo noted women’s under-representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) – this despite the fact that females outperform males on science scores and that they are at par in mathematics performance. She called on delegates to move faster in creating the right incentives in the area of capacity building for women in order for women to integrate themselves better into STEM. By 2012, there will be an opening of 1.2 million jobs in STEM fields.
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Chao-Chia Huang talked about technology and innovation inspired by his experience in his own start-up company. Huang’s start-up had sprung from a government program aiming to introduce technology to the countryside. He has a female partner whom he said gives a different point of view and attitude, motivates people, and provides warmth in the company. For Huang, start-ups must be willing to create “disruptions” by embracing risks, going beyond status quo, and making their own rules.
He encouraged innovation and use of technology. In his presentation deck, he wrote that data is the foundation of the information age. He quoted David Buckingham who said, “data is the new oil.” He encouraged teaching programming to schoolchildren and suggested to integrate basic language curriculum in education system. This curriculum includes logic (language of machines) together with Arts (language of the soul), English (language of people), and Math (language of physics).
Huang believes gender equality / diversity must start from the home. For him, parents should help children prepare to act and live in the digital and tech world of the future.
Irene Natividad challenged women to be the key to finding gender equality solutions. She advocated for increased representation of women in corporate boards globally. She stressed that while women CEOs exist, women continue to be under-represented in top corporations in many industries in the United States. In fact, she said, only 27 of the CEOs of the top 500 companies are women. Women remain as outsiders in the economy.
Natividad stressed that the women sector is not a market niche but THE market of the 21st century. Currently, women occupy 40%-50% of the workforce and have a 30%-40% consumer clout. There is a business case for why women should be in each part of the value chain strategy, including the corporate board setting.
According to Natividad, putting women on corporate boards is a top-down strategy to integrate more women into the managerial world. She pushed for setting quotas on women board participation and incorporating gender diversity into corporate governance codes. She shared that Malaysia’s women board seats improved from 6% to 12% when it applied the quota strategy while Australia saw an increase of 11% in women board seats (9% to 20%) after making gender diversity language in corporate governance codes a listing requirement. She called on members of APEC, particularly US, China and Japan, to adopt a national strategy to improve corporate leadership roles.
During the Open Forum, panelists stressed the importance of the following in closing gender gaps: . Having fast and affordable internet access . Re-wiring the education system to give priority to coding and STEM . Increasing public-private partnerships . Continuing forum and dialogue on women . Innovation – doing something different
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7 PANEL SESSION: YOUNG WOMEN LEADERS AS POWERFUL DRIVERS OF CHANGE
Young speakers shared their experiences in starting PANELISTS and pursuing their respective enterprises. They were one in saying that having role models and mentors KATHY XIAOSI GONG are important to help young women succeed in their Founder & CEO, Pinpoint chosen fields. One of them encouraged the audience Founder & Chair, KG Inc. and Seeway to “invest in the millennial”. Group
ANNA NESTEROVA Kathy Xiaosi Gong shared her views and insights as Chief Executive Officer, founder and CEO of a business consulting firm and a Investment Company Center Capital logical and data driven company. MARITA CHENG Founder and CEO, She highlighted the importance of creating products that 2Mar Robotics would make business dealings across borders easier amid today’s landscape characterized by frequent VICTORIA LENNOX movements and changes. It is critical for young women Co-Founder and CEO, to understand how businesses can compete in a world Start Up Canada where there are multiple and similar products. Gong MARIA MAY-I FABROS said business ideas and functions of companies should Board Member for the Youth, reflect the values of the entrepreneurs and the people Philippine Commission on Women behind it. She is confident that values and commitment can change the world. MODERATOR
BOY ABUNDA Anna Nesterova founded and led her investment TV Host, Celebrity Management and company, Center Capital, to growth. The company Marketing Consultant survived the financial crisis in 2008 to 2009 and the Russian securities market recession in 2014.
Nesterova talked about some key projects of Center Capital, including an SME Internet Portal and a funding program for children. Fully aware of the opportunities that free trade among developing economies brings, Nesterova and her company created a special BRICS, Latin America, and Southeast Asia SME Internet Portal. Launched only this year, the portal helps businessmen from different economies look for best partners in selling goods and services abroad.
Another major project is “Children’s Future” which provides opportunity for parents to save and preserve investments for their children. It guarantees parents’ income equal to the inflation score plus interest.
Marita Cheng shared her story in starting and growing 2Mar Robotics, a company based in Australia that builds robots to help people in their everyday lives. 2Mar is developing Jeva, a mobile phone-controlled robotic arm that seeks to help people with limited upper mobility in their daily tasks. This robotic arm is functional and could help people with disabilities feed themselves, take medicines, brush their teeth, pick-up hard to reach objects, open doors, etc.
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In an economy where only 10% of engineers are women, Marita’s passion in robotics stood out. She did have her share of disappointments in building 2Mar, but she remained steadfast in achieving her goals. Two years after it was founded, 2Mar has now gained the support of different groups in Australia, including the government. It has also reaped national and international awards.
Marita’s story inspired young women leaders to believe in their dreams. It encouraged entrepreneurs to embrace and adapt to changes. It also stressed the importance of having role models.
Victoria Lennox is a young social entrepreneur who hopes to influence policy making for entrepreneurships. Her company runs initiatives to help create an environment and culture for entrepreneurial growth and success.
Lennox underscored the value of having strong female role models in helping young women succeed, as she cited her own case. Despite being sickly as a child and having been diagnosed with cancer, Lennox succeeded as an entrepreneur. She advised women to invest in entrepreneurship on a policy level. She suggested consultation with entrepreneurs would help policy makers craft measures on gender equality in business.
Canada was named one of the top places in the world for women entrepreneurs. Lennox shared that in 2011; majority female owned SMEs were slightly more engaged in innovation activities than majority male owned SMEs. These enterprises were engaged in product innovation.
Maria May-I Fabros advocated for increased investments in the millennial / youth. She spoke about the character of today’s young people and how it impacts on what they do. According to Fabros, people often perceive young people as irreverent or lacking respect for things that are generally taken seriously. This perceived “irreverence”, however, could be seen in a positive note. Fabros said this irreverence is what drives the youth to innovate and move out of their comfort zones. It is the youth’s innovative essence that spurs change. To translate this youthful character into positive results, young people only need to have role models and be guided by capable women mentors.
Fabros also discussed concerns confronting young women, such as sex, women’s health, and teenage pregnancies. She cited how legislative measures like the Sin Tax Law have helped generate increased resources to address some of these issues.
During the Open Forum, the panelists agreed that while financial success is important, they also described success as having the ability to create positive impact on people and creating opportunities to assist them. Many attributed their success to their parents, especially their mothers who did not enjoy as much opportunities as today’s women.
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8 PANEL SESSION: WOMEN IN THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETS AND GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS
The panelists discussed how the changing face of international markets and global value chains result to opportunities and challenges for women-led enterprises and for women, in general. Presentations zoomed in on the digital economy, including e-commerce, as a key driver for gender equality. The strong business case for women was also highlighted in this panel session.
Adaire Fox-Martin’s presentation key points focused on the role of technology / digital in enabling women businesses to access markets beyond their borders. She stressed the importance of education and training in helping women-owned businesses maximize technology and move up the value chain.
Martin remarked that the digital economy resulted into better PANELISTS communication platforms that made today’s business networks smarter, faster, and more global. For Martin, a ADAIRE FOX-MARTIN hyper-connected world means greater opportunities for President, women. Through digital marketplaces, women entrepreneurs SAP Asia Pacific Japan who used to have limited chances to influence business ÜMRAN BEBA networks are now able to do so. Start-ups are not as costly as Senior Vice President and Chief it used to; risk-averse women entrepreneurs are able to tap HR Officer, cloud based tools, web-based services, and e-commerce. PepsiCo Asia/ Middle East/ Africa Working arrangements / set-ups are evolving as more women JANETTE TORAL get the opportunity to work from off-site / anywhere so long Site Owner, as they have Internet connections. DigitalFilipino.com
Ümran Beba talked about the strong business case for MODERATOR women integration in workplaces. At Pepsi, women’s agenda MITZI BORROMEO is not only a talent sustainability priority; it is a business News Correspondent, imperative, given women’s market size worldwide. CNN Philippines
Beba explained that women workforce reflects the profile of a large percentage of their consumers – shoppers, mothers, etc. Diversity in workplace enables PepsiCo to push innovation as women bring in “outside in” perspective. Women leadership also provides different approaches and styles that have been proven to work. Thus, Beba shared, PepsiCo takes effort to create the right work environment to allow their women employees to be their true selves and to succeed.
Beba also shared some of PepsiCo’s social initiatives that seek to create positive impact on women and the communities where they operate. These include “Liter of Light “ , which repurposes PET bottles as light bulbs and “WaterHope” , a social enterprise that promotes resource conservation and provides clean water access to thousands of people.
Janette Toral described e-commerce as the gender equalizer of the global economy. Data shared by Toral showed that by 2020, the global Internet market would be worth US$9.9 trillion, or 12% of total GDP. Asia Pacific countries are expected to have more e-commerce
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purchases compared to North America by 2015. This year alone, e-commerce purchases in the region reached US$525.2 billion compared with North America’s US$482.6 billion.
Zooming in on the Philippines, Toral expressed optimism on e-commerce’s growth given the support of the government and other stakeholders. Part of the efforts is to incorporate e- commerce into the national strategy and to develop an e-commerce roadmap. A challenge in improving ecommerce in the Philippines is ensuring gender balance, which, Toral said, should also cover the rights of the LGBT community. Other key deliverables are bandwidth improvement, anti-cybercrime improvement, customs modernization, tariff/ tax system simplification, e-commerce education, etc.
During the Open Forum, the discussions continued on the challenges women face. The panelists talked about women as role models and leaders. They discussed the need to increase women presence on corporate boards and talked about its positive impact on companies. They also discussed setting quotas on women participation in the public and private sector. Policy-wise, there are challenges in creating e-commerce legislations. Other challenges are cultural prejudices in global work setting and integration of personal and professional lives (due to connectivity).
9 PANEL SESSION: WOMEN AND INCLUSIVE BUSINESS
The session explored options in trickling business and economic growth to communities and the lower income population. Increasing inclusive business, having women as key company workforce, supporting women capability building through CSR, and encouraging STEM education are some of the recommendations cited by the panelists.
Sonomi Tanaka encouraged support for more inclusive businesses (IB) particularly those with explicit women empowerment in their business strategy. She described companies involved in inclusive business as commercially viable enterprises, which, through their core business operations, create positive social impact on the base of the pyramid population (BoP) or the poor / low-income people. Tanaka explained that IB is not similar to the concepts of social enterprise, corporate social responsibility (CSR), micro-enterprises, or even labor.
Tanaka shared the preliminary findings of an ADB study on IB. The report shows the need to gather more case studies to help generate better understanding on IB given that it is an emerging field prone to misunderstanding. It confirms the great potential of IB to help the BoP population. IB has two types of women empowering impact: (1) creation of job opportunities for women BoPs in agribusiness; and (2) meeting BoP’s direct needs / wants as a sales & marketing opportunity. The second type applies to finance, water, education, energy and health.
Tanaka suggested the adoption of an APEC accreditation and recognition system for gender- responsive IBs. She also proposed the conduct of information campaign to increase businesses’ IB awareness.
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Nilesh Patel shared Avon’s commitment to women PANELISTS empowerment. For Avon, an independent woman is a beautiful woman. Beauty is about having strength and SONOMI TANAKA self-confidence. Patel showed videos that highlighted Technical Advisor, Social Development, Governance, and Avon’s positioning as a company for women – from Gender Division, Asian Development Bank hiring millions of Avon ladies (direct marketing agents), producing beauty products for women, aiming NILESH PATEL to make women financially independent, and SVP and President, establishing a foundation for women causes. Asia Pacific Avon Products, Inc.
ADEL TAMANO Adel Tamano discussed Coca Cola’s 3Ws in Vice President for Public Affairs and creating shared value that impact communities and Communications, contribute to inclusive growth: (1) Well-Being, (2) Coca Cola Philippines
Women, and (3) Water. He pointed out that women’s MALATHI DAS empowerment is an indispensable requirement for the President, company to reach its business goals. Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations Tamano discussed the company’s point of view on MODERATOR women empowerment and closing gender gaps. Women do 66% of the world’s work but they earn only KAREN DAVILA 10% of the world’s income. And yet, women reinvest Broadcast Journalist, ABS-CBN 90% of their income into their family and community. Young Global Leader, Women Economic To help empower women, Coca Cola launched the Forum “5by20 Program “in the Philippines. Today, the Program has helped women sari-sari storeowners become better entrepreneurs through training in bookkeeping, business management, etc. A beneficiary testified that by applying what she learned from the training, her monthly revenues more than doubled from PHP6,000 to PhP15,000. Tamano attributed the success of the program to the collaboration among the government, the business sector, and civil society, which he called as the Golden Triangle approach.
Malathi Das highlighted the role of science, technology, engineering , and mathematics (STEM) education for women and girls in pushing gender equality. She suggested to have a strong policy and to increase investments in order to develop women STEM professionals. She also encouraged increase in number of STEM role models and mentors. Advocates believe that role models and mentors reinforce the idea that a future in STEM is achievable.
She talked about two programs that seek to encourage student education on STEM. Girls2Pioneers program organizes and offers technology day camps for 10-15 year old girls. The experience allows the girls to cultivate their technological skills in design and construction, research, planning, improvisation, and engineering. It is followed by field trips and mentoring sessions with the project’s corporate partners. Another project is Fuel Your School, a program designed to enhance STEM capabilities of lower secondary school students in Singapore. It also encourages students to major in STEM-related fields in the future.
During the Open Forum, the discussions included women’s challenges in moving themselves out of poverty. Most Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) are women, forced to live away from families to earn better income. More often, the loss of female income has greater impact on the welfare of the family. And yet, most employers are said to more likely Page 42 of 108
lay off a woman than a man. Most women also continue to face barriers in entering the business sector. The panelists agreed on the need for various sectors of societies – public, private, non-profit, academe – to invest more on women. In return, women are called to take advantage of the opportunities given to them. They are advised not to fear leadership.
10 PANEL SESSION: WOMEN AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The panel session looked at possible roles of women in sustainable development initiatives in relation to disaster risk planning and management, climate change, environment, supply chain management, and access to energy. Each panelist agrees that women’s involvement in these areas result to positive outcomes and should therefore be continued and increased.
Maria Leni Robredo pointed out the need to economically empower women and suggested to give women the power of the purse by educating them on savings, investment, and livelihood opportunities.
The Congresswoman opened her presentation by sharing her on-ground learning on disaster response and management from impoverished communities and her constituents in Camarines Sur. She described women in these areas as vulnerable and suffering mostly in silence because they have no more strength to fight. Women’s role in disaster planning is limited, Robredo said. Most of them only take action when disaster strikes.
Robredo proposed involving women on the ground in PANELISTS disaster preparedness and vulnerability assessment. She also suggested developing home-based livelihood MARIA LEONOR ROBREDO programs so women need not leave their homes and miss 3RD District Représentative, on their household responsibilities in order to earn. She Camarines Sur, Philippines emphasized the need to create markets to help women sell JEREMY PREPSCIUS their goods. Vice President, Asia Pacific, Business for Social Responsibility For Robredo, the “best solutions to poverty are not found in the Board Rooms”. She encouraged sustainable ANDREA IRARRÁZAVAL development advocates and stakeholders to find the time OLAVARRÍA Founder and CEO, to consult, understand, and fuel the fire of poor Clean Energy communities and individuals. “Poor people are broke but are not broken,” she said. LESIELI TAVIRI General Manager, Origin Energy Jeremy Prepscius discussed the positive impact of healthy and financially literate women workers on MODERATOR companies. He cited as a case study HERproject, a program that engages and empowers women in supply CHECHE LAZARO chains (particularly those in factories) through health and President, Probe Productions Inc. Editor-at-Large, Rappler financial education.
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HERproject has two components: HERhealth and HERfinance. Both are grounded on peer- to-peer education, which means that 3% to 5% of workforces are selected as peer educators. The health component runs for 12 to 16 months while HERfinance runs for 9 to 12 months. Overtime, companies running the program observed workers’ improved attitudes towards health, increased willingness to seek formal health services, increased knowledge on ATM usage, among others.
Business-wise, the companies noted several positive outcomes such as reduced health-related absenteeism, reduced error rates, increased worker responsibility for overall safety in the company, etc. There is also a noted improved relationship between the workers and middle management.
Andrea Irarrázaval Olavarría shared the story of Clean Energy, a company that develops “integrated biological systems” for capturing and/or reducing industrial gases. Its system also sustainably produces bio-composts with high commercial value such as food, biomass, biodiesel, and fertilizers. The company also generates alternative electrical energy at controlled costs.
Clean Energy promises various potentials for industrial development, including reduction of carbon dioxide emissions per year, strengthening environmental practices, etc. Starting with only 2 people, the company now has 18 employees in Chile and another 18 in Mexico. Ninety percent (90%) of them are single and single mothers. The Chilean Government has granted Clean Energy US$1 million in financial support.
Clean Energy is a case study for sustainable development, innovation, and public-private collaboration.
Lesieli Taviri talked about the linkage between women and sustainable energy through the Smart Energy Pilot Project, which aims to expand Origin Energy’s LPG distribution network by providing energy solutions to off-grid communities.
Taviri explained that the electricity grid in Papua New Guinea has only 12% reach. Firewood and kerosene continue to be the energy source due to accessibility. Her company, Origin Energy, saw the opportunity to deliver energy sources to communities across their distribution supply chain. They targeted mothers in off-grid communities who are starting to look for alternative energy sources as they increasingly realized the health impact of using traditional firewood.
Taviri shared that after 3 months, the project has resulted into Origin Energy’s widened distribution network (many dealers are women) and increased LPG sales. In terms of community impact, Origin Energy saw increased opportunities for women to generate informal income (e.g., income from mobile phone charging, selling cooked food) because they now have access to energy.
Today, Origin Energy looks forward to maximizing opportunities to further widen their reach and make energy more accessible to women. They are looking at possible partnerships with micro banks. They are also planning to organize environmental awareness campaigns on the negative impact of using firewood.
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During the Open Forum, the panelists shared their views on the difficulties in pushing women empowerment. Congresswoman Leni Robredo stressed the need for local government officials to have a change in mindset / perspective on implementing gender- responsive laws. She explained that while there are several laws on gender equality, some are not in alignment with the realities faced by women on the ground, making these ineffective. She suggested engaging women in communities in legislative development and program planning stage.
For Taviri, the most difficult challenge is the lack of skilled women in Papua New Guinea. Women in their economy would certainly benefit from skills training program and capability building. Irarrazaval meanwhile said that access to capital is one of the key concerns for women empowerment in Chile.
11 CLOSING REMARKS
Kathy Xiaosi Gong expressed her gratefulness for the opportunity to represent China in the APEC Women and Economy Fora. She shared her belief that women economic empowerment lies in the heart of every women. She advised women to choose to live life; for women to seize the moment, to create, to impact, and to love.
She described women as better dreamers than men and natural in creating generous things. For her, women’s emotional characteristic is at the core of women’s innovative side. Women-led businesses are not cold, only calculated. Entrepreneurs, in fact, are romantic.
She shared her own story as an entrepreneur and as a SPEAKERS woman. Her own experience showed her that women entrepreneurs need to create new things: products, CHINA strategies, customers, in order for them to turn their ideas KATHY XIAOSI GONG into realities. She also discovered that what matters is Founder & CEO, PinPoint not the acceptance of others but loving ones’ self. Founder and Chair, KG Inc. & Seeway Group Ana María Choquehuanca talked about integrating PERU women into the global economy and removing the ANA MARÍA obstacles that hinder women from empowering CHOQUEHUANCA themselves. She reported that the multi-stakeholder President, round table in Peru has led to public-private partnerships Peruvian Association Industrial across Peruvian Departments and that work with private Women – PERU MISUR sector women entrepreneurs in Peru has started. PHILIPPINES Choquehuanca said Peru looks forward to advancing the MA. AURORA “BOOTS” women’s agenda in the APEC Region as it prepares to GEOTINA-GARCIA host next year’s APEC Meetings. She closed her Chair, presentation with a video on Peru which described their Women’s Business Council of the economy as land of hidden treasures. Philippines
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Ma. Aurora “Boots” Geotina-Garcia called on PPDWE participants to commit to pursuing APEC’s women and inclusive growth agenda. She encouraged everyone to keep the momentum gained in creating new economic opportunities for women going forward.
As Chair of the Women Business Council of the Philippines, Geotina-Garcia outlined the women private sector’s recommendations to strengthen women empowerment and integration efforts. These recommendations included the following: 1) Funneling investments to private sector companies with innovative gender policies that extend across their supply chains and providing direct capital to companies and social enterprises that offer products and services benefiting women and girls. 2) Establishing ICT infrastructure that will connect women in businesses into value chain support, mentoring, and e-commerce programs. 3) Developing policies that will call on government offices to dedicate a percentage of their procurement for MSMEs and women-owned enterprises. 4) Creating an APEC-wide exchange platform for women-owned enterprises and women suppliers in the region. 5) Increasing gender diversity in boards starting with government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), government financial institutions, and publicly listed companies.
Geotina-Garcia officially closed the PPDWE as she thanked everyone who was involved in organizing the event. She also thanked the delegates, resource persons, and guests for their interest and active participation.
12 FEEDBACK
Delegates and guests from different economies sent their congratulatory greetings and showed their appreciation to the Philippine organizers for the successful conduct of the PPDWE. Positive feedback centered on the following: . Filipino hospitality . Great line-up of speakers . Content / program / sessions . Dedication of the team behind the event
Participants shared how they were inspired by the discussions in the forum. Marita, one of the young entrepreneur speakers, felt privileged sharing the stage with other inspiring women. A guest from De La Salle College of Saint Benilde commented that she hopes to see more young people in forums such as the PPDWE. Many are looking forward to attending / being part of succeeding APEC Women and Economy Fora.
Below are the feedback / messages sent by the delegates and guests.
Australia, Ms. Carol Hanlon “Congratulations to all on ICONOGRAPH, it was a very impressive exhibition. Thanks also for the wonderful hospitality during my time at APEC WEF. All the best.” Australia, Ms. Caroline Martell-Hill “I wanted to extend a big thank you and also congratulations on such a fantastic and successful event Page 46 of 108
yesterday! Thank you for looking after Marita so well. She was truly grateful and felt so privileged to share the stage with so many inspiring women.
I really enjoyed the opportunity so thank you very much. I thought the event was so well organized and the variety of speakers amazing. All the best!” Chile, Mrs. Alicia Frohmann “I want to thank you for the excellent APEC WE 2015 meeting. You set a high standard, regarding both substantive content and organization.
Thank you also for assigning me excellent escorts, who took good care of me and taught me a bit about the Philippines: Ana Buenafe (escort), Aldrin Labis (driver), Joylene Bulan and Vangie Escultura (security officers). I felt very much at home. The Philippines clearly shares an important cultural heritage with Latin America. I hope to see you soon on either side of the Pacific.” Japan, Mr. Yazawa Toshikazu “...Congratulations on great success of the WE fora! You have done great job. I would also like to express my sincere appreciations on all of your supports for Japan and Yokohama... Again thank you very much and congratulations!” Japan, Mr. Tamai Takeshi “I also express my great thanks to your arrangement and hospitality. It was truly helpful for us and we had fruitful time in Manila.” Japan, Ms. Aya Tamura “...We would like to thank for all of your great arrangement for APEC WE last week!! We all truly had a great week in Manila.” Papua New Guinea, Mr. Aro Davis “Thank you for looking after our women in Manila...” Papua New Guinea, Ms. Julie Wapo “...The meetings were a great success and I congratulate Philippines for all your efforts and wonderful experience that our delegation experienced the hospitality of Philippines. I would also like to express our sincere appreciation for allowing PNG to host the PPWE 1 in Port Moresby.
It certainly gave us experience in preparation for 2018. Our appreciation is also extended for the support of the Concept Note on Financial Access-Data in APEC Region. We will continue to work together to embrace and promote Women’s Economic Empowerment in APEC.” Papua New Guinea, Ms. Mataria Rupa-Tau “...I look forward to work in close partnership with APEC organized events to empower women towards financial prosperity through entrepreneurship and trade within APEC economies.” People’s Republic of China, Mme. Meng Xiaosi “I have come back to Beijing safe and sound after the APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora, and I wish you can have some rest after the Fora.
Here, on behalf of the Chinese Delegation and the All-China Women’s Federation, and in my own name, I’d like to congratulate you on the successful completion of the Fora and thank you for your strong leadership and the hard efforts of the APEC WE Secretariat as well as all the staff. Finally, thank you again for your hospitality and the thoughtful arrangement of our Philippine sisters!” People’s Republic of China, Mr. Paul Lee and Ms. Kathy Gong “Thanks for the awesome assistance, much appreciated!” Peru, Ms. Ana Maria Choquehuanca “Muchas gracias a ustedes por la cordial invitacion, espero haber cubierto sus expectativas.” (Thank you very much for your cordial invitation. I hope I have met all your expectations.) Philippines, Ms. Irene de Padua Bencito “...I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation for inviting me and very honored for being part of very successful [APEC PPDWE]. The forum was indeed a great help for my advocacy for women
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empowerment and helping women sector for business and economic development. Rest assured for my support and cooperation for your future endeavors for women advancement. Thank you and more power.” Philippines, Ms. Linda O. Boniao “In fairness, that was the best APEC meeting I have attended! Everything from the small tokens to the seminar kit to the Great Speakers, they were well thought of and planned. Thank you for that Excellent and Fantastic Hosting, great women leaders!” Philippines, Ms. Susan Z. Prado “It was my pleasure and honor to participate in the forum. I hope I can still participate in other forums and activities to continue to work. Thanks and regards.” Philippines, Ms. Lorelei Astrera “...I thought the program was thoughtfully developed and the speakers and moderators excellently selected. I did take away a lot of learning and a big measure of inspiration which I believe will have lasting impact on my personal as well as professional life as an academic, a women empowerment / gender equality advocate and development practitioner. If there is anything I could ask for, in general, I wish there were more people in the audience, the youths in particular.
It is my hope that more women can partake of the good that a highly integrated world economy brings. I hope that the academe can better prepare them for what is ahead, and that together with the civil society and public and private sectors, we can all contribute to that collective goal of moving everyone forward and building this nation.
I do look forward to more fora and conferences of the same caliber in the future. Congratulations to everyone – the women and men – behind this successful event.” Philippines, Ms. Myrna Pablo “Thanks for the opportunity of having been a part of the APEC WE 2015. CONGRATULATIONS for the excellent forum/fora. Indeed it was world-class event. We are proud to have been part of it.” Philippines, Ms. Cherise Nicole Rosales “...We owe the greatest thanks to the minds behind the APEC fora and for the warm welcome you’ve given to us.” Philippines, Ms. Cheche Lazaro “It was a pleasure to have been a part of the APEC Forum. With all good wishes!” Philippines, Ms. Mitzi Borromeo “…It was a pleasure and honor to have been part of the APEC PPDWE. Wonderful to hear that the recommendations from that will be considered in the APEC economic leaders’ meeting next month. Congratulations on putting an amazing and very important initiative together, and all the best for more success in all your endeavors. Cheers.” Russia, Mrs. Eugenia Babakhina “Thank you for such warm assistance for Mrs. Nesterova! She was very glad to be at the WE fora.” Chinese Taipei, Ms. Francesca I-Ku Chen “It is really my pleasure to attend WEF and all activities that you all made every arrangement with great efficiency and profession. I look forward to meeting you in near future.” US-APEC Technical Assistance to Advance Regional Trade and Integration (ATAARI), Ms. Victoria Waite “Congratulations on the successes of the PPWE, WEF and associated meetings. I’ve been following the news releases, reports from delegates, and the media attention garnered from the suite of meetings and outcomes. It’s been so inspirational and proof positive of what APEC can achieve, particularly on these important issues...” United States of America, Ms. Margareta Schettler “...We would like to commend you and the whole Philippines APEC Women and the Economy team for absolutely wonderful meetings. The dedication and enthusiasm that the whole team showed throughout the whole process was amazing and it has been an absolute pleasure to work with the Page 48 of 108
team. We look forward to collaborating with you to continue the momentum throughout the rest of the year and into 2016.” APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), Ms. Roxanne Lu “...Congratulations to the success of the Women and the Economy meetings and events!!!” APEC Secretariat, Mr. Carlos Kuriyama “It was a pleasure for me and my unit to contribute to the Women and the Economy and related meetings this year.”
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Annex C.1: APEC WE 2015 Fora – Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy Program of Activities
APEC WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY 2015 OPENING CEREMONY 08:30H – 08:35H Preliminaries / Short Safety Briefing (5 min.) 08:35H – 09:05H Welcome Remarks and APEC Overview Video Presentation (20 min.) . Ms. Nora K. TERRADO CHAIR, APEC WE 2015 Fora Undersecretary, Department of Trade and Industry Opening Speech (10 min.) . Ms. Doris Magsaysay-Ho Chair, APEC Business Advisory Council President and CEO, Magsaysay Maritime Corporation 09:05H – 09:15H Harnessing the Power of the Crowd (10 min.) . Ms. Maria Ressa Chief Executive Officer Rappler 09:15H – 09:30H Facilitated Audience Participation (with Q&A and Polling) (15min.) . Ms. Maria Ressa Chief Executive Officer Rappler 09:30H – 09:45H World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report (15 min.) . Ms. Saadia Zahidi Senior Director Gender Parity, Human Capital and Constituents World Economic Forum 09:45H – 10:00H Break to prepare for the President’s arrival PUBLIC PRIVATE DIALOGUE ON WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY (PPDWE) 10:00H – 10:15H Protocols, Preliminaries and Introduction of VIP Keynote Speaker (10-15 min.) . Hon. Gregory L. Domingo Chair, Ministers Responsible for Trade Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry 10:15H – 10:30H Keynote Speaker (15 min.) . H.E. Benigno Simeon Aquino III President of the Republic of the Philippines 10:30H – 10:45H Photo Opportunity with the President 10:45H – 11:00H Coffee / Tea break 11:00H – 12:00H Panel Session on the 5 Pillars of Women’s Economic Empowerment On access to capital and assets . Ms. Heather Carroll Cox Chief Client Experience Digital and Marketing Head, Citi
On access to markets . Ms. Hafimi bte Abdul Haadii Director/Shareholder LVK Group of Companies
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On skills, capacity building, and health . Dr. Belén Garijo CEO and President Merck Healthcare
On leadership, voice, and agency . Ms. Irene Natividad President, Global Summit of Women Chair, Corporate Women Directors International
On innovation and technology . Mr. Chao-Chia Huang Managing Director LoFTechnology, Inc.
Facilitated Audience Participation (with Q&A and Polling) . Moderator: Ms. Maria Ressa Chief Executive Officer Rappler 12:00H – 12:50H Lunch break 12:50H – 13:50H PPDWE Session on Young Women Leaders as Powerful Drivers of Change
Moderator: . Mr. Boy Abunda TV Host, Celebrity Management and Marketing Consultant
Speakers: . Ms. Kathy Xiaosi Gong Founder & CEO, PinPoint Founder & Chairwoman, KG Inc. & Seeway Group . Ms. Anna Nesterova Chief Executive Officer Investment Company Center Capital . Ms. Marita Cheng Founder and CEO 2Mar Robotics . Ms. Victoria Lennox Co-Founder and CEO Start Up Canada . Ms. Maria May-I Fabros Board Member for the Youth Philippine Commission on Women 14:00H – 15:00H WOMEN IN THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETS AND GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS Innovation . Ms. Adaire Fox-Martin Moderator: Women in the President Ms. Mitzi International SAP Asia Pacific Japan Borromeo Markets and . Ms. Ümran Beba News Global Value Senior Vice President and Chief HR Officer Correspondent Chains PepsiCo Asia/Middle East /Africa CNN Philippines . Ms. Janette Toral Site Owner, DigitalFilipino.com
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15:10H – 16:10H WOMEN AND INCLUSIVE BUSINESS Empowerment . Ms. Sonomi Tanaka Moderator: Women and Technical Advisor (Gender Equity) Ms. Karen Davila Inclusive Social Development, Governance, and Gender Broadcast Business Division Journalist, Asian Development Bank ABS-CBN . Mr. Nilesh Patel Young Global Senior Vice President & President, Asia Pacific Leader, World Avon Products Inc. Economic Forum . Atty. Adel Tamano Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications Coca-Cola Philippines . Ms. Malathi Das President Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations 16:10H – 16:20H Coffee / Tea break 16:20H – 17:20H WOMEN AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Resiliency . Ms. Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo Moderator: Women and 3rd District Representative, Ms. Cheche Sustainable Camarines Sur, Philippines Lazaro Development . Mr. Jeremy Prepscius President, Probe Vice President, Asia Pacific Productions Inc. Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Editor-at-Large, . Ms. Andrea Irarrázaval Olavarría Rappler Founder and Chief Executive Officer Clean Energy . Ms. Lesieli Taviri General Manager Origin Energy 17:20H – 17:45H Integration and Synthesis (10 min.) . Ms. Cheche Lazaro President, Probe Productions Inc. Editor-at-Large, Rappler 17:45H – 18:00H Closing Remarks (5 min. each) Past, Future, and Present Host Economy Private sector Lead representative . CHINA Ms. Kathy Xiaosi Gong Founder & CEO, PinPoint Founder & Chairwoman, KG Inc & Seeway Group . PERU Ms. Ana María Choquehuanca President Peruvian Association Industrial Women – PERU MISUR . PHILIPPINES Ms. Ma. Aurora “Boots” Geotina-Garcia Chair, Women’s Business Council Philippines 19:00H – 21:00H Welcome dinner with cultural show
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Annex C.2: Profiles of Speakers and Moderators Arranged by Order of Speaking Appearance
Nora K. Terrado is the Undersecretary for Management Services and Chief of Staff of the Department of Trade and Industry. Before entering the civil service, Usec. Terrado was the Country Manager of Headstrong Philippines and Vice President for IT Services and Capital Markets of Genpact Philippines. She is this year’s Chair for the APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora. The Undersecretary is an alumnus of the University of Asia and the Pacific for her graduate studies in business economics and the University of Saint La Salle for her degree in Commerce. She is a Certified Public Accountant.
Doris Magsaysay-Ho is the Chief Executive Officer of the Magsaysay Group of Companies which is involved in shipping, logistics, human resources, marine travel and tourism. She is also the President and CEO of Magsaysay Transport & Logistics Group. Ms. Ho was recognized as the Global Filipino Executive of the Year at the Asia CEO Awards in 2012. In 2011, she received the Lloyd’s List Asia 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding contribution in the shipping industry. In 2010, she ranked 94th in the Lloyd’s List of 100 Most Influential People in the Shipping Industry. Ms. Ho is the Chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council.
Maria Ressa is the CEO and Executive Editor of Rappler, a social news network which uses a hearts and minds approach to news through a unique mood navigator. Prior to establishing Rappler, she headed ABS-CBN News and Current affairs, for six years, since 2005, determining strategic direction and managing more than 1,000 journalists for the largest multi-platform news operation in the Philippines. She has been a journalist in Asia for more than 25 years, most of them as CNN’s bureau chief in Manila (1987-1995) then Jakarta (1995-2005).
Saadia Zahidi is the Senior Director for Gender Parity, Human Capital and Constituents at the World Economic Forum. Her former post at WEF is as Economist, Global Competitiveness Programme. Ms. Zahidi finished International Economics at the Graduate Institute of International Studies and her Master's in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Heather Carroll Cox has been the Chief Client Experience, Digital and Marketing Officer for Global Consumer Banking at Citigroup since April 2014, She is responsible for developing and implementing the vision, strategy and execution of common client experience, driving global customer satisfaction efforts and leading Digital, Marketing and Decision Management across Global Consumer Banking. Prior to joining Citi, Ms. Cox served as the Head of Card Operation at Capital One Financial Corporation. She also served as the Head of North America Operations at E*TRADE.
Hafimi bte Abdul Haadii is the Director/ Shareholder of LVK Group of Companies. She is a third generation entrepreneur who took over the company started by her paternal grandfather over 30 years ago. She sits as a director/shareholder on the boards of the following companies: LO International Sdn Bhd, Syarikat Perusahaan Gunong Intan Sdn Bhd, Mas Sugara Travel Services Sdn Bhd, The Jag Shop and Syarikat Bintang Berjaya. Ms. Hafimi finished her tertiary education at Deakin University where she attained a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a Bachelor of Architecture with First Class Honours.
Belén Garijo is a Member of the Executive Board of Merck since January 2015. She is responsible for the Healthcare segment, comprising the businesses of Merck Serono, Consumer Health, Allergopharma and Biosimilars. Before joining Merck, Dr. Garijo was employed by Sanofi-Aventis as Senior Vice President Global Operations Europe. Pre-2006, Dr. Garijo worked for Aventis Spain, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, and in Abott Laboratories / R&D. Dr. Garijo is a medical doctor. She worked as a practicing physician for six years, before moving to the pharmaceutical industry.
Irene Natividad is President of the Global Summit of Women, a 25-year old annual gathering of women leaders who aim to accelerate women’s economic progress globally. She also serves as Chair of Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI) which conducts research on women on boards globally and brings together women corporate directors from around the world on issues of corporate governance. Her commitment to promoting women, nationally and internationally, stems from her decade-long involvement with the National Women's Political Caucus, a bipartisan organization dedicated to electing and appointing women to public office.
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Paul Chao Chia Huang is the Managing Director of LoFTechnology, Inc. He holds a PHD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokyo while he obtained his MS and BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science both from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Boy Abunda is a TV host and a celebrity management and marketing consultant at ABS-CBN. While he has often been called the Philippines's King of Talk, Boy credits his mastery of the Art of Listening as one of the key attributes that has allowed him to become one of Asia's best hosts and interviewers. Outside of his work in television, Boy dreams of writing his first book, “13 Things I Know That You May Want To Know About Public Figures/Celebrities In The Philippines." Mr. Abunda has a Master’s Degree in Communication Arts from the Philippine Women's University, and is currently in the process of completing his final dissertation for his PHD in Social Development also at the PWU. He studied Business Management at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Kathy Xiaosi Gong is the Founder & CEO of PinPoint and Founder & Chairwoman, KG Inc & Seeway Group. As a serial entrepreneur, in 2015, she decided to develop PinPoint, an internet company allowing users to conduct smart business negotiation (B2B2C). In 2012, she founded KG a business event management company. The year before that, she founded Seeway Group which offers innovative portfolios to both investors and partners worldwide. She was awarded as one of the Top Ten Entrepreneur Representatives of China’s Economic Innovation in 2011 and 2013. Ms. Xiaosi Gong was the youngest national chess champion at the age of 10 in 1996 and again at 12 in 1998. She holds a B.A. Degrees in Economics and in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University.
Anna Nesterova is the Chief Executive Officer of Investment Company Center Capital. She is finance and banking professional, with over 15 years of experience, specializing in financial markets, macroeconomics, and investments. Ms. Nesterova is a recognized participant of the financial market. She is also active in public activities. She regularly publishes articles on professional issues in the media.
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Marita Cheng is the Founder and CEO of 2Mar Robotics. In 2012, she was names as the Young Australian of the Year and was included in the 100 Women of Influence List by the Australian Financial Review and Westpac. Ms. Cheng has demonstrated vision and leadership well beyond her years and is dedicated to encouraging young women to pursue careers in engineering. A former panelist on ABC TV's New Inventors, Marita serves as a Board Member for the Foundation for Young Australians.
Victoria Lennox is a 30-year-old Canadian social entrepreneur, commentator, program architect and policy advisor who has a track record of creating meaningful political and policy inroads to advance entrepreneurship. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of grassroots non-profit organization, Start-Up Canada, and the founder and President Emeritus of UK-based Charity NACUE. Ms. Lennox is the first Canadian and one of the youngest recipients of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion on the recommendation of the British Prime Minister. She completed her MSc. Global Governance & Diplomacy at Oxford University in 2008 and completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science and Governance & Public Policy at the University of Ottawa in 2006.
Maria May-I Fabros is a Board Member for the Youth Philippine Commission on Women. Ms. May-I Fabros likes to take risks, build and break things. She has embarked on multiple business ventures, beginning at the age of eight (8) when she made stationaries to sell to her classmates and family. Currently, May-i is in the service industry – capacitating and empowering people, particularly young women, to actively participate in ensuring accountable and transparent governance.
Mitzi Borromeo is a News Anchor and Correspondent at CNN Philippines. She anchors the daily week night news program "Nightly News" broadcast and is host, writer and co-producer of the weekly current affairs program "Profiles." She cut her teeth in Philippine broadcast media as a news anchor on the Sarimanok News Network (SNN) which eventually became the ABS-CBN News Channel. She went on to become segment producer and presenter for the daily morning show "Breakfast."
Mitzi went on to work as Communications Officer at WWF-Philippines, then as Press Officer at WWF International in Switzerland, and later as Communications Associate at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies in Japan. She has worked extensively on environment, conservation, and sustainability issues, including gender equality. Mitzi earned a BA Political Science degree from Ateneo de Manila University.
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Adaire Fox-Martin is the President of the SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ). She is responsible for all activities spanning APJ sales and operations, as well as SAP's expansion and growth in APJ. Ms. Fox Martin’s career spans over 23 years’ experience in the IT sector, including leadership positions in sales, business development, consulting and education, across APJ and Europe. She is a respected thought leader and a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences including the World Economic Forum. She is regularly featured and quoted in numerous publications throughout the region. Fox-Martin’s media appearances include CNBC, BBC, Bloomberg TV, Channel NewsAsia, Nikkei Asian Review, and many others.
Janette Toral is the site owner of DigitalFilipino.com and a staunch advocate of e-commerce in the Philippines since 1997. She serves her community in the DigitalFilipino Club and the public at large through training and consulting in the area of e-commerce, digital marketing, blog campaign, and the likes. She is a Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner. Ms. Toral, as technical consultant / executive director of the Congressional Oversight Committee for the E-Commerce Law, was instrumental in the creation of policies in the area of consumer protection, data privacy for the private sector, and acceptance of electronic payment in government. As founding president of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society, she was instrumental in the passage of the Y2K Law and E-Commerce Law.
Ümran Beba is the Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of PepsiCo AMEA (Asia, Middle East and Africa) which covers 90 markets and 30,000 direct employees. Ms. Beba has held a wide range of roles since joining the company in 1994. She served as President of PepsiCo’s Asia- Pacific region, President of PepsiCo's South East Europe Region, Business Unit General Manager for East Mediterranean. She started her PepsiCo career at Frito-Lay in Turkey, where she held positions including Marketing Director, HR Director and ultimately General Manager. Ms. Beba finished her MBA and BSc in Industrial Engineering from Bogaziçi University in Turkey.
Karen Davila is a multi-awarded broadcast journalist in ABSCBN having won the much coveted The Outstanding Young Men or TOYM Award for Broadcast in 2008 and The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service of TOWNS Award in 2014. She is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, having moderated international televised sessions on ASEAN for the East Asia Summit in Manila and Jakarta. She anchors three live daily programs - a daily talk show, Headstart shown on ANC or the ABSCBN News Channel, a daily political commentary radio program on DZMM 630 and Bandila, ABSCBN's late night newscast.
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Sonomi Tanaka is the Technical Advisor (Gender Equity) for Social Development, Governance, and Gender Division at the Asian Development Bank. She is responsible for overseeing and providing advice on ADB-wide operations in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Ms. Sonomi has worked on gender and development, poverty reduction, social analysis, social protection, and community participation issues in Asia and the Pacific for nearly 20 years. Prior to working with ADB, she worked in World Bank’s South Asia Department and in development institutions in Japan. She holds a Master of Arts on Gender and Development from Sussex University. She has a bachelor’s degree on International Relations from the University of Tokyo. Nilesh Patel is the Senior Vice President & President, Asia Pacific at Avon Products, Inc. Mr. Patel joined Avon following a 26-year career with the Heinz Company, where he acquired deep experience across multiple functions and built a solid record of success in emerging Asian markets. Prior to joining Heinz, Mr. Patel was a Process Development Engineer for Grand Metropolitan in the food retailer's Research and Development department. He spent his early professional career at a pharmaceutical company. Mr. Patel holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Glamorgan in South Wales (now the University of South Wales).
Adel Tamano is the Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications of Coca-Cola Philippines. He was previously University President of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and the Association of Local Colleges and Universities. He was a Trustee of the Harvard Law Alumni Association and served as Dean of the College of Law of Liceo de Cagayan University in Cagayan de Oro. Atty. Tamano is a known media practitioner, a columnist, legal analyst, and TV personality in Philippine media. He obtained his Master of Laws, with Honors, from the Harvard Law School. He obtained his Master of Public Administration from the University of the Philippines.
Malathi Das is the President of the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations. She is a commercial litigation lawyer, who has a special interest in family, gender and child issues. She graduated with LLB Honours from the National University of Singapore and currently heads the litigation and dispute resolution department of Messrs Joyce A Tan & Partners. From 2011 to 2013, Malathi served as President of regional law organisation, LAWASIA. At present, she is a Board Member on the Law Society’s Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee and serves on the Board of Governors of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). She is a Teaching Fellow for the postgraduate Family Practice course at the Singapore Institute of Legal Education (SILE).
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Cheche Lazaro is the President of Probe Productions, Inc. and the Editor-at- Large of Rappler. She graduated from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Drama. Ms. Lazaro obtained here MA in Radio-Television from the University of Michigan.
Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo is the Representative of the Third District of Camarines Sur, Philippines. Prior to being elected in the Congress, she was a public attorney and lawyer committed to non-governmental organization (NGO) work where her legal services to the poor were pro bono. At present, part of her responsibilities as Congresswomen is serving as Senior Vice Chair of the Committee on Revision of Laws and Vice Chair of the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability. Congresswoman Robredo graduated from the University of the Philippines School of Economics.
Jeremy Prepscius is the Vice President for Asia Pacific Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). Mr. Prepscius has extensive experience in supply chain management, business integration, external communications, government relations, and compliance operations. Prior to joining BSR in 2006, he spent more than 10 years on equipment sourcing, footwear production and corporate responsibility for Nike, Inc. He also worked in China for five years as the North Asia Regional Compliance Director. He holds an M.S. in Economic Development from the Patterson School of Diplomacy, and an M.S. in International Commerce from the University of Kentucky.
Andrea Irarrázaval Olavarría is a social entrepreneur and the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Clean Energy in Chile. Clean Energy is a project- based company dedicated to reduction of CO2 and greenhouse emissions. Prior to founding Clean Energy, Ms. Irarrázaval served as advisor to several banking institutions such as Banco Santander and Banco de Chile. She has over 20 years of experienced in advocating and promoting women entrepreneurship in Chile. She has a Bachelor Degree in Social Sciences from the Santo Tomas University in Chile, a graduate degree in Social Work also from the Santo Tomas University, and a Master Degree in Human Resources from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Lesieli Taviri is the General Manager of Origin LPG in Papua New Guinea, one of the largest providers of LPG in the Pacific Region. Ms. Taviri is one of the most prominent business leaders in PNG. She has recently won the 2014 Outstanding Woman of the Year Award. As chairman for the PNG Business Coalition for Women, she is committed to removing the barriers that have prevented women advancing their careers in the region. Ms. Taviri completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science at the PNG University of Technology and worked in IT for 8 years before moving in to the energy sector.
Ana María Choquehuanca is the President of the Peruvian Association Industrial Women - PERU MISUR. She represents the incoming Host Economy Private Sector Delegation.
Ma. Aurora "Boots" Geotina-Garcia is Chair of the Women's Business Council of the Philippines. She represents the 2015 Host Economy Private Sector Delegation. As President of Mageo Consulting, Ms. Geotina-Garcia has mentored businesses on corporate finance, sharing advice and philosophies she learned as Global Corporate Finance Division head of SyCip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. / Ernst & Young’s. She expands her advocacy as a Member of the Board of Directors for various corporations in real estate, banking, and retail. She is a Board member of Business & Professional Women - Makati, Phil. Women Corporate Directors, and Samahan ng Pilipina para sa Reporma at Kaunlaran (Spark).
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Annex D: High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy
Summary Report High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy (HLPD on WE) 18 September 2015 | 09:00 AM – 01:00 PM Summit Halls C and D, Philippine International Convention Center Metro Manila, Philippines
The High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy (HLPD on WE) was chaired by the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado. Eighteen economies participated led by Ministers and Deputy Ministers as Heads of Delegations, and delegates from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, and Viet Nam.
Prior the commencement of the meeting, the Chair invited the Ministers and Heads of Delegations for a Family Photo session at the lobby of the Philippine International Convention Center.
The Chair expressed her appreciation to everyone for attending the meeting. She congratulated the participants for their active participation and contribution to the success of the Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) 2 Meeting and the Public Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy (PPDWE) which took place on the 16th and 17th of September, respectively. She also recognized the presence of the distinguished guest speakers from the APEC Secretariat, Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, and Yokohama City, Japan.
The meeting was declared open followed by the adoption of the agenda.
To turn over the floor to the next speaker, the Chair invited Ms. Irene Sim, Chief of Staff of the APEC Secretariat to give the introductory remarks and provide an overview of the APEC agenda.
Introductory Remarks
Ms. Sim congratulated and thanked the Philippines for hosting magnificently and warmly the APEC WE. She added that “one cannot help but be rejuvenated and inspired by the energy, optimism, spunk, leadership, and enthusiasm of the participants reverberating through the various meetings, workshops, and seminars in the past days.” In particular, she recalled the stories of young women leaders – the millennials – during the APEC PPDWE. Ms. Sim remarked “Well done, Philippines.”
Ms. Sim noted that the women’s economic empowerment agenda in APEC has been sustained and steadfast. She recalled how it began in 1998 when the first Ministerial Meeting on Women was held in the Philippines that resulted in the adoption of the Framework for the Integration of Women in APEC.
Ms. Sim narrated that the PPWE was then established in 2011 at the second Senior Officials’ Meeting held in Montana, the United States. PPWE’s aim was to generate stronger
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collaboration between public and private sectors and to do better to mainstream and to integrate gender responsive policies and programs focused on women’s economic empowerment to APEC activities.
Since 2011, Ms. Sim recounted that APEC Leaders recognized the crucial role of women in the development and prosperity of the Asia Pacific and have emphasized the importance of women’s economic empowerment in the annual APEC Leaders Declaration. For this year, the Philippines adopted for APEC the theme of “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World” with a goal of attaining sustainable and inclusive growth in the Asia Pacific region.
Ms. Sim recognized that women play a critical role in achieving economic prosperity. For that reason, the APEC WE 2015 is focused on the significance of women as Prime Movers of Inclusive Growth.
Ms. Sim congratulated the PPWE and the PPWE Chair for finally coming up with the Strategic Plan 2015-2018 which reflects the efforts of all 21 APEC Member Economies to promote women’s economic empowerment. She shared that the main key in this plan is mainstreaming the women’s agenda including by working in collaboration with other APEC fora. She explained that this is where the APEC Secretariat comes in, as it recognizes that gender is a cross cutting issue and will continue to promote cross fora collaboration to advance gender integration and gender equality agenda. For that reason, Ms. Sim stated that the Secretariat have ensured, and will continue to ensure, that the Program Director supporting the other APEC fora, are regularly brief on the PPWE initiatives and recent developments so they could in turn, integrate gender issues into their presentations to the various APEC fora that they are supporting.
Ms. Sim reported that recently, APEC Secretariat Program Directors have delivered presentations to mainstream gender in the Policy Partnership on Science, Technology, and Innovation (PPSTI), Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), Group of Services, the Sub- Committee on Standards and Conformance, the Energy Working Group (EWG), the Mining Task Force (MTF), and the Investments Experts Group (IEG). She explained that these activities are intended to support PPWE’s own outreach into other APEC fora.
In conclusion, Ms. Sim stated that advancing gender equality and women’s economic agenda is a challenge that belongs not only to women, but also to men.
After the speech of Ms. Sim, the Chair introduced DTI Secretary Hon. Gregory L. Domingo, who recently chaired the Ministers Responsible for Trade, who will expound how the economic empowerment of women is vital in achieving inclusive growth.
Economic Empowerment of Women for Inclusive Growth
In return, Secretary Domingo congratulated Undersecretary Terrado for a job well done and all the efforts in the past months have been well worth it. He thanked everyone for their participation as it bolsters gender integration, gender equality, and women’s economic empowerment towards fostering sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the Asia Pacific region. He took note that the major agenda of the fora is the ensure women’s greater access to capital, markets, capacity and skills building, and to promote women’s leadership and competitiveness through technology and innovation. In particular, the Philippines has a
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greater focus on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) taking into account thatmajority of enterprise owners, managers and workers in micro enterprises are women.
In setting the background on the current contribution and potential inputs of women to economic productivity, Secretary Domingo mentioned the market share of small and medium enterprises as over 97 per cent and account for 50 to 80 per cent of jobs generated in APEC countries. SMEs contribute 13 to 60 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) across APEC countries. They also make up 35 per cent of a country’s exports wherein between 20 per cent and 80 per cent are active importers. SMEs collaborating with larger firms are seen as major contributors in the innovation of an economy.
The SMEs integrated in the supply chains of global firms showed improvement in human and technology capital which enhanced their productivities. Secretary Domingo explained that to promote inclusive and equitable growth, APEC focused on developing the region’s SMEs in order to bolster their ability to take advantage of cross border business.
The rise of Global Value Chains (GVCs) and forging of free trade agreements opened doors for SMEs to participate in trade. In connection with this, Secretary Domingo shared that in the recent meeting of the APEC Ministers for Trade (MRT), adopted the Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which promotes the direct participation of MSMEs in regional and global trade.
However, Secretary Domingo expounded that global value chains generally engage medium enterprises and; only a small minority of MSMEs are able to participate because of lack of required sophistication and are unable to participate in direct exports due to cumbersome rules and procedures. With the promotion of MSMEs in the APEC region, women enterprises will benefit as APEC is giving special focus in bringing MSMEs front and center in the decision making of the global trade fora.
According to the 2010 United Nations estimate, the APEC region loses up to US$ 47 billion in output each year due to lack of women’s participation in the labor markets. Additionally in 2012, they estimated that up to US$ 89 billion a year could be added to the regional economy when barriers to women’s economic participation are eliminated.
In addition, Secretary Domingo mentioned that there is a need to mainstream women’s participation in the various APEC Fora in order to address their capacity building needs.
He also stated that the Strategic Blueprint for promoting global value chains development and cooperation and capacity building for SMEs’ integration into the global value chains in major industries would be relevant in promoting greater participation of women in trade.
Furthermore, he said that to “strengthen the focus on MSMEs led by women,” the Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs specifies the following major directions: 1) APEC will foster the use of gender-disaggregated data in measuring the economic and social impacts of MSMEs. This is important in monitoring the progress of women’s participation in the economy; 2) APEC will promote the understanding of the divergent constraints faced by male and female-led MSMEs; and 3) APEC will encourage the exchange of best practices on women-friendly interfaces with customs and other border authorities.
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APEC to achieve sustainable growth with equity, will enhance SMEs’ global competitiveness through innovation and tapping women’s productivity, ensure financial inclusion, strengthen food security and improve access to health services. Secretary Domingo explained that it is for this reason that APEC Ministers and Leaders agreed to focus on eliminating the barriers which curtail gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. He emphasized that these will be worth the effort as US$ 89 billion per annum could be gained if women across the region realize their full economic potential.
In connection with the above, Secretary Domingo announced that the Philippines will be chairing the Committee on Trade and Industry next year for APEC and a woman from the Trade and Industry will be heading this committee.
In concluding his Welcome Remarks, Secretary Domingo stated that with the high quality of participation and energy of the participants in the workshops in the last few days, he had no doubt that women economic empowerment is already at hand.
Following Secretary Domingo was Mayor Fumiko Hayashi of Yokohama City, Japan. The Chair thanked Mayor Hayashi for gracing the event and also recognized the 50th anniversary of the sisterhood of the cities of Yokohama and Manila.
Opportunities and Challenges for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Japan
Mayor Hayashi stated that ever since Yokohama hosted the 2010 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, she took part in APEC Women and the Economy discussions. Due to Prime Minister Abe’s initiative in putting the promotion of women’s empowerment in Japan as a major pillar of its growth strategy, movement on this has grown fast pace. Recently in August, the World Assembly for Women in Tokyo 2015 was held where female leaders from around the globe exchanged dynamic ideas; something that you could consider women’s version of the Davos forum. Public efforts are accelerating on the bill to promote the empowerment of women that is currently being debated upon.
Yokohama, being Japan’s most populous city with 3.7 million inhabitants, Mayor Hayashi devoted herself to making it easier and more fulfilling for women to work specifically by improving the availability of child care which is their primary barrier to female social progression. She has managed to reduce the number of children on waiting lists to zero by increasing the number of facilities while matching the needs of the residents. She also shared that developments are being made through the various policies including support for female entrepreneurs and networking among working women.
Mayor Hayashi heads the Mayor’s Association of Designated Cities, which is a male dominated organization, composed of 20 Japanese cities. She articulated how she was able to change relationships and foster constructive debate by seeing things from the viewpoints of others.
Another big issue in Japan is the long working hours. She mentioned how the idea that women are meant to do the housework, child-rearing and care, while men are meant to devote long hours to a profession, has stood a long way in female progression. Hence, revisions to tax and social security systems are now being considered to foster an equally empowered society.
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Mayor Hayashi stated how she was motivated by the APEC discussions since 2010 until 2015, where the role of women promoting inclusive growth was discussed. She cited how everyone, both locally and internationally, is now working to advance women’s economic empowerment which she hoped will be transmitted around the world. She emphasized how this dialogue and implementation is vital to set all this in motion. In closing, Mayor Hayashi mentioned how she was determined to see APEC continue to grow and bring about a rich future.
After the speech of Mayor Hayashi, the Chair called on the PPWE Chair Ms. Emmeline L. Verzosa from the Philippine Commission on Women to report on the outcomes of the PPWE 2 Meeting held on 16 September 2015.
Report by the PPWE Chair
The PPWE Chair thanked Papua New Guinea for graciously hosting the first meeting of PPWE in Port Moresby on May 3 to 5, 2015.
With a mission to mainstream, elevate, and integrate gender responsive policies and programs focusing on women’s economic empowerment into APEC activities, the PPWE Chair gladly announced that the three-year PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018 was officially adopted in Manila. She said that the Strategic Plan envisions a “strong sustainable, balanced economic growth in the APEC region that is more inclusive and enabling for women to succeed and advance.” She mentioned how the Strategic Plan will advance women’s economic participation through the five (5) priority pillars: 1) women’s access to capital and assets; 2) access to markets; 3) capacity and skills building, and health; 4) leadership, voice, and agency; and 5) innovation and technology. This also aims to strengthen the foundation and operating structures of the PPWE and the Women and the Economy Fora.
To strengthen the integration of gender responsive policies and programs across APEC fora, the Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals was updated to assess all concept notes and projects submitted to the APEC Secretariat. The PPWE Chair mentioned that this tool provides a range of approaches to address gender issues, from basic to more complex, depending on the type of project. She thanked the APEC Secretariat by designating a Gender Focal Point who facilitates the assessment of project proposals.
The PPWE Chair shared that based on the updates provided by the APEC Secretariat during the meeting, twenty one (21) out of forty two (42) project proposals for 2015 Project Session 1 satisfactorily addressed the gender criteria in their first submission. Meanwhile, proposals that did not satisfactorily address the gender criteria were returned with feedback and constructive suggestions on how the project could be improved and become gender responsive. She informed the body that a draft Cross-cutting Issues Map was prepared by the APEC Secretariat which illustrates the various APEC fora and working groups that are working on gender-related issues.
With the target of achieving at least ten (10) cross-fora collaboration by 2018, the PPWE Chair reported that there are already nine (9) APEC cross-fora collaboration in varying degrees have been made. These are the following: 1) Health Working Group 2) Human Resource Development Working Group 3) Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group
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4) Telecommunications Working Group 5) Transportation Working Group 6) Emergency Preparedness Working Group 7) Anti-Corruption Working Group 8) Economic Committee 9) Energy Working Group
The PPWE Chair noted the gender-responsive provisions of the Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs which advocates the strengthening of women-led MSMEs through the use of sex-disaggregated data in measuring the economic and social impacts on MSMEs, and also recognizes the divergent constraints faced by male and female-led MSMEs in doing their business.
The PPWE Chair also mentioned that in the upcoming 22nd APEC Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting in September and the 12th APEC Energy Ministers Meeting in October, increase in women’s participation will be discussed.
On the PPWE projects and Individual Action Plans (IAPs), the PPWE Chair highlighted the reports done by a number of economies such as: 1) Japan: fourteen (14) economies have submitted their IAPs to increase women’s leadership in the public and private sectors which have been uploaded at the APEC website. It also shared its compilation of best practices on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Local Communities in the Process of Disaster Reconstruction. 2) United States: the online platform on Women’s Entrepreneurship in APEC (WE- APEC) initiative has been launched on 17 September which identifies existing networks of women-owned business in the APEC economies. 3) Chinese Taipei: conducted a Seminar on Empowering Women through ICT for Inclusive Growth on 16 September which is part of the multi-year project “Innovation for Women and Economic Development – Facilitating Women’s Livelihood Development and Resilience with ICTs” that illustrates how women use ICT for business in the digital arena. 4) Papua New Guinea: presented a project proposal entitled “Women’s Access to Financial Services Data in the APEC region” which aims to collect data on women’s access to financial services and identify barriers and recommendations. Co-sponsors of this project are the Philippines, Peru, United States of America, and Indonesia. 5) Canada: presented an initiative on “Dedicated MSME Sub-fund and Policy Support Facility” which aims to address the lack of a dedicated funding facility for MSME- related projects within APEC. 6) Other delegations from Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia and Singapore also reported on their initiatives to advance women’s economic empowerment.
The PPWE Chair added that the APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard has been finalized and will soon be available online. This initiative aims to provide a snapshot on the status of women in APEC, by looking at a set of eighty (80) indicators to measure progress of women’s participation in economic-related activities and women’s inclusion in several aspects of life. She encouraged the economies to support the implementation of the Dashboard to make it a robust tool for tracking, measuring, and communicating progress in reducing barriers to women’s economic participation.
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The PPWE Chair endorsed the APEC Women and the Economy Fora 2015 Statement which contains concrete and actionable recommendations categorized along the three sub- themes: Women and Inclusive Business; Women in the International Markets and Global Value Chains; and Women and Sustainable Development.
In her closing statement, the PPWE Chair thanked all economies, APEC Secretariat, and private sector representatives for their hard work during the meeting and looked forward to communicating inter-sessionally to continue the discussions in achieving gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, and the realization of inclusive economies build a better world for all.
Afterwards, the Chair called on Ms. Ma. Aurora “Boots” Geotina-Garcia representing the Women’s Business Council Philippines which is the private sector partner and co-lead for the hosting of the PPDWE on 17 September 2015.
Report by the PPDWE Lead
Delivering the outcomes of the PPDWE, Ms. Garcia cascaded the highlights of the discussions wherein more than eight hundred (800) delegates and guests were present. She narrated how the dialogue was filled with compelling stories of great women, men and their organizations, and how it fostered rich exchange of insights and best practices on women empowerment and integration. She affirmed how women possess the capability and right attitude and character in driving inclusive growth in our respective economies and the APEC region.
Ms. Garcia shared the following recommendations generated from the PPDWE on how APEC WE can maximize and harness the strengths and potentials of women towards achieving our goals: 1) PPDWE recommended investing on the youth, recognizing the rise of the women millennials and their contributions to the society. To do this, they recommended investing in education – especially in the areas of science, technology and mathematics (STEM) – which allows us to take advantage of the rising need for talents and people in the fields of information, technology, research and innovation. Other suggestions include initiating mentoring programs for women, granting scholarships, and retooling the education system to ensure that it addresses tomorrow’s skills and knowledge requirements; 2) PPDWE recognized the value of technology which has created huge impact on the way people do business, connect with others, build relations, and live their daily lives. In this regard, PPDWE encouraged stakeholders to establish ICT infrastructure that will connect women in businesses into customers and markets, value chain support, mentoring and networking initiatives, as well as e-commerce programs. They also recommended to support start-ups that create and harness today’s so called “creative disruption” by encouraging them to pursue their dream of starting their own enterprises with the use of technologies – allowing them to take the risks, go beyond status quo, and create their rules and programs customized to their business models and needs; 3) PPDWE recommended increasing gender diversity in boards starting with government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), government financial institutions, and publicly listed companies. To do this, they suggested these two strategies to be taken into consideration: a) establishing a quota for women seats on
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Corporate Boards; and b) incorporating gender diversity language into corporate governance codes of each country. To further increase opportunities to advance women’s voice and leadership, they suggested the conduct of leadership training for MSMEs and women-owned enterprises around APEC economies; 4) PPDWE recommended initiating programs for those who are at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) such as by means of consulting low-income women more to understand the effective approaches in helping them. They suggested to create carefully designed livelihood programs that will effectively empower women in communities, particularly mothers; 5) PPDWE recommended supporting more inclusive businesses particularly those with explicit women empowerment in their business strategy. As the Gender and Inclusive Business Study of the Asian Development Bank shows, inclusive businesses have great potential for BoP population and for women empowerment. These kinds of businesses create jobs and income opportunities for the poor and help meet priority service needs in education, water, and energy, among others. Inclusive business was defined as commercially viable enterprises that market solutions to the BoP. To clarify, this does not refer to social enterprises, CSRs, or micro-enterprises; 6) PPDWE recommended the use of gender lens in establishing financial support and training for businesses. Additionally, they suggested to funnel investments on private sector companies with innovative gender policies that extend across their supply chains as well as provide direct capital to companies and social enterprises that offer products and services benefiting women and girls; 7) PPDWE recommended starting gender equality advocacies right in our own homes by increasing awareness and appreciation among our children, spouses, relatives, and friends. These programs should help identify parents, especially in communities, become better equipped to mentor and guide their family about issues surrounding gender equality. These should allow more young girls (and even boys) to learn more about technology so that they may harness it in future efforts for inclusive growth and women empowerment; and 8) PPDWE recommended continuing the collaboration among the government, business sector, and civil society in designing and implementing programs for women as this results to significant and positive impacts where everyone converged. PPDWE expressed its hope that the HLPD on WE will mark the start of our continuous collaboration and convergence.
Finally, Ms. Garcia stressed that PPDWE offered challenges and opportunities on women empowerment; yet she remained optimistic that the HLPD on WE will offer solutions to the challenges identified.
Policy recommendations (from the Heads of Delegation and ABAC)
Australia
Australia, as represented by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Bill Tweddell, stated that the theme “Women as Prime Movers of Inclusive Growth” highlights the importance of women’s role in achieving regional growth as it aligns with other international commitments, such as the G20 leaders’ commitment to reduce the gender participation gap by 25 per cent by 2025. Ambassador Tweddell stated that this commitment is a policy priority for Australia which they are working hard to achieve.
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Australia noted the progress that is being made, but challenges still remain to be addressed. Nevertheless, Ambassador Tweddell remarked that the unique strength of the Fora is that it maximizes international collaboration between the public and private sectors to increase women’s participation, which is not only good for women, their families and communities, but also vital to economic growth.
Ambassador Tweddell mentioned how APEC has consistently exhibited the vitality of forging bilateral and regional partnerships and the importance this will provide when they support each other to reach important outcomes. He emphasized the relevance of APEC in achieving this and commended the host for the coming up with the sub-themes: Women and Inclusive Business; Women in the International Markets and Global Value Chains; and Women and Sustainable Development as it provided great foundation to further the conversation thus far and as these showcased foresight and aspirational focus to advance women’s economic empowerment agenda.
Australia expressed its disappointment that the 2014 economic participation rate of women lags behind of men and is under 50 per cent in many APEC economies. Ambassador Tweddell noted how limiting women’s participation in the workforce is a waste of potential which would amount to an estimated US$ 89 billion every year.
Although Australia entered their 25th consecutive year of growth which has forged unprecedented trade links within the region, their economy still faces challenges. As of today, Australia has an ageing population and this challenge pushes downward pressure on income growth, while the investment boom is behind them. Ambassador Tweddell shared that increasing workforce participation and productivity is among the considered solutions. Currently, the level of women’s workforce participation in Australia is 71 per cent, which is behind men with 83 per cent.
Ambassador Tweddell reported that the Australian government is therefore working closely with the private sector in creating conditions for business to innovate and help to drive the social change necessary for real progress on women’s economic participation. Australia is currently working on: 1) Studying the economic conditions for employment growth; 2) Improving the accessibility and affordability of Australia’s child care system; 3) Supporting women in small business and encouraging more women entrepreneurs; 4) Examining the disincentives to work in the tax and transfer system, and implementing programs that help women overcome barriers to employment; and 5) Supporting women to pursue careers in growth industries and to reach senior leadership positions.
Australia maintained its commitment to remain at the forefront and to sustain its close collaboration with regional and multilateral organizations in promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. In this regard, Australia set a target requiring at least 80 per cent of aid investments, regardless of their objectives, to address gender issues effectively in the implementation process.
Ambassador Tweddell shared how APEC economies play an important role in steering the conversation where women’s economic empowerment is not a woman’s issue, but an economic and cultural issue. He encouraged all economies to make concrete commitments to increase the participation of women in their economy.
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Australia stated that gender equality and the economic empowerment of women is an achievable goal. By way of closing, Australia expressed its unwavering support in making men as equal partners to achieve a future where gender equality truly exists. Ambassador Tweddell said that by engaging men, this will drive and accelerate the changes needed to achieve it.
Brunei Darussalam
Brunei Darussalam, represented by Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Deputy Minister Datin Paduka Hajah Adina Binti Othman, shared how women’s role has gained its prominence in the society and economy. Deputy Minister Adina acknowledged how the theme "women as prime movers of inclusive growth" is timely and cannot be denied. As policy makers, she encouraged everyone to ensure that there are facilities that can provide an enabling environment allowing women to participate in their respective economy.
Brunei Darussalam recognized women as the backbone of the family being the primary educators at the first line of informal education. Deputy Minister Adina stated that women play the vital role in the upbringing of their children and equipping them with intellectual and social skills while, managing the household. She explained that this poses challenges for modern women as they juggle responsibilities being a mother and part of the workforce. To address this, she shared that capacity building and empowerment programs have been Brunei’s supporting mechanisms for women as emphasized in their Plan of Action under the purview of the Special Committee on Family Institution and Women Issues which highlight eight priority areas: 1) Strengthening family institutions 2) Work-life balance 3) Economy 4) Women and legal rights 5) Information 6) Health 7) Education 8) National mechanism for women empowerment
Brunei Darussalam shared that these programs are implemented in close coordination with the government agencies, NGOs, private sectors, and other stakeholders within their community. This Plan of Action incorporates key performance indicators and timelines to ensure the outcomes of each line of action.
In acknowledging the role of women as movers of inclusive growth, Brunei emphasized the need to implement target-specific policies to build resilience in our women and equip women with necessary skills and knowledge to increase their competitive edge.
Brunei shared that the outline for strategy and policy development in their national vision 2025 provides equal opportunities for women in the labor force even in the male dominated organizations. As of today, Deputy Minister Adina reported that with more than half of SMEs in Brunei owned by women, young women’s participation in online home businesses is the recent trend. She stated that these business enthusiasts participate locally as well as the regional market through the use of technology and social media as platform for advertising and by finding innovative ways to deliver their services.
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Brunei stated that research play a major role in isolating specific challenges and to accelerate women’s innovativeness throughout the journey towards gender equity, gender equality, and women’s economic empowerment. In their economy, Technology Park, knowledge hub, and financial grants were provided to further the innovation. Deputy Minister Adina shared that they also closely work with representatives of international bodies like the UN Women, UNICEF, and UNESCO.
Canada
Canada, represented by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Neil Reeder, stated that women are an essential role player and equal partner in pursuing the growth and prosperity of an economy and the Asia Pacific Region. Statistics show that progress has been made globally wherein: 1) Women represent 40 per cent of the global workforce; 2) Women represent 43 per cent of the global agricultural workforce; 3) Women represent more than half of the world’s university students; and 4) In the APEC region, more than 60 per cent are women are part of the formal economy.
On another note, Ambassador Reeder reported that women are significantly underrepresented as a proportion of small business owners in Canada. In 2011, Canadian women held majority of leadership in only 15 per cent of small businesses. Further, majority of women-owned businesses engaged in Canada tend to be smaller in size, smaller in revenue and growth rate, and less likely to be incorporated than business of male-owned counterparts. Nevertheless, significant progress is currently trending in Canada as statistics shows that 1) four out of five businesses are founded by women; 2) women business owners now employ 1.7 million Canadian out of its 34 million citizens; 3) women-owned SMEs generated US$ 74 billion in revenue; and 5) 5 per cent of all export-sales abroad was generated by women-led SMEs.
Ambassador Reeder stated that the benefits of women’s economic empowerment are now broadly understood. Significant progress abroad has been helpful in assisting girls and women around the world to realize the right to education and participate meaningfully in their economies and society.
Canada also recognized the significant skills gap between men and women particularly in developing economies. Ambassador Reeder noted how this translates into lower labor force participation of women and the tendency of women to be channeled to lower status pay for employment.
In this regard, Canada proposed the following recommendations focusing on three major areas: 1) Canada emphasized the need to ensure that laws, policies and institutions enable women’s full and equal participation in the economy are in place. This includes the need to break down restrictions for women to own land, ability to open and manage their own business, participate in skills training, and have access to finance; 2) Canada suggested ensuring that women are integrated into economic decision-making and committed to support initiatives for women entrepreneurs as well as ensuring women and girls have access to learning and training opportunities to have enough skills to participate in the economy on an equal footing with their male counterparts. Capacitating them with necessary skills for employment will help facilitate access to
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labor markets for marginalized or disadvantaged population including women and youth.
Canada cited that in the Philippines, they are supporting the GREAT Women Project which assists micro entrepreneurs in the food, clothing, textile, and household goods sectors to successfully and sustainably grow their businesses through enhancing their products, increase their productivity, marketing, and compliance with safety and business regulations. It also helps connect Philippines to the domestic and international markets. Canada shared that they have placed assistance through the Philippine Commission on Women with a total contribution of 14 million dollars in two phases.
Furthermore, Canada reported that in the Philippines through grant in Asian Development Bank, they are supporting the program called JOBSTART which aims to improve the job readiness of Filipino youth, both male and female who are not in employment, in education or in training. Canada explained that they provide them enhanced employment facilitation assistances like career guidance, life skills training, technical training, and internship with employers. Canada cited the study conducted by ADB which shows that more than one-third of women fall into this category compared to 1 out of 5 men in the Philippines. Additionally, women who are high school graduates are more than 3 times more likely to be unemployed, not in training or educational programs, as compared to women who are college graduate.
Eventually, Canada emphasized that skills for employment, particularly more targeted at women, play an important role in promoting economic growth as well as development goals. Ambassador Reeder explained that women who are educated and trained are not only better equipped to provide for themselves, but better equipped to provide for their families. He also mentioned that women who tend to marry later, have fewer children, although they provide better health and nutrition for their families and, they contribute more to the wider economy; and 3) Canada recognized that women are crucial to long term economic growth having multiple roles as worker, entrepreneur, consumer, caregiver, and leader contribute enormously to local and global economies. Canada has taken action to promote greater rates for women’s entrepreneurship. The Action Plan for Women Entrepreneurs is part of the 2015 budget to help women connect with the tools they need to succeed in business. Canada also provides funding including US$ 700 million available for 3 years in order to finance women-owned businesses in Canada though Canada’s Business Development Bank.
Canada shared that they have a project called It Starts with One, which is a campaign designed to encourage successful business leaders to make a difference in a woman’s career by being her champion. They create online tools for young women entrepreneurs and lead to enhance trade missions abroad to network. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is compiling some of the best practices such as to promote market expansion into a dedicated website for women entrepreneurs in Canada, newsletter, a dedicated LinkedIn group, as well as a directory of women- owned businesses in Canada to facilitate dialogue and interaction in our women’s business community. Working together on these key issues, women’s autonomy and
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leadership, skills for employment, and support of institution and legal environment, Canada expressed its confidence that real progress will be made in advancing women’s economic empowerment, economic security, and right.
Canada encouraged APEC through PPWE to continue to identify and support best practices in the abovementioned areas.
Chile
Chile, represented by National Women’s Service Minister Counsellor Mrs. Alicia Frohmann, emphasized that “his-tory” does not necessarily mean “her-story.” Mrs. Frohmann explained that economic growth does not automatically lead to inclusive growth. She explained that during the time of the slowdown of economic growth at the international financial crisis, Chile tapped the potential of women through their economic participation.
Although big progress in health and education indicators has been made according to the 2014 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report, Chile stated that they are behind economic and political participation which involve power relationship. Mrs. Frohmann explained that women’s movement, public policy focusing on women and gender equality, contribution of smart and creative women in science, business, and politics have changed their society. Further, she said that having a woman President H.E. Michelle Bachelet made a difference.
Chile shared the following updates in their economy to further advance women’s participation: 1) Chile reformed their electoral law. Temporary quota for women was put in place wherein not more than 60 per cent of names of people on the ballots can be of members of one sex. This is to ensure 40 per cent quota on the ballots, and to encourage political parties to include women; 2) On 8 March International Women’s Day, Chile has made an institutional reform which created the Ministry for Women and Gender Equality; an upgrade of the previous status of the government agency for women; 3) Regarding equal rights, there is a certification or norm 3262-2012 for gender equal rights certification of organization following ISO standards and certification; 4) Regarding health and reproductive rights, the government of Chile has presented a bill to de-penalize involuntary pregnancy interruption in three cases: a) threat for the woman’s life; b) lack of life viability of the fetus; and c) rape. This is now being discussed in their Parliament though quite controversial; and 5) Meanwhile, improvements on the labor rights have been made such as through the ratification of ILO Convention number 189 regarding decent work for domestic workers and the new domestic Chilean law that guarantee the rights of women as part of our society.
In APEC, Chile enumerated the four initiatives that they are currently participating in: 1) WE-APEC Network pilot program participation which provides avenue for networking with member economies particularly in America; 2) Pilot economy for the Healthy Women, Healthy Economy Policy Toolkit; 3) On the gender gap in education in math and sciences, there will be a seminar in Santiago on 13 and 14 October wherein everyone is invited; and 4) Current project they are developing is on Best Practices on Women MSME Exporters.
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Chile also proposed to include gender specific commitment in trade and trade negotiations in free trade areas in the Asia Pacific initiatives. Chile shared that they are participating in the Free-Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) Joint Strategic Study and will propose this issue in the study group.
Chile shared that in 2019, being the host of APEC; they plan to establish a working group composed of the present and future host to coordinate for the Women and the Economy Forum. They plan to propose women’s economic inclusion as a priority issue at the APEC Leaders’ level in 2019. This will include addressing issues on: women’s resilience in times of natural disaster; disparities in labor force participation; women’s political and economic empowerment; overcoming poverty for women and the impact on development; and promotion of women-led SMEs, among others.
Lastly, Chile assured that they will bring back home the ideas and energy generated in the meetings and that they will strive to implement all the ideas raised.
People’s Republic of China
The People’s Republic of China, represented by All China Women’s Federation Mme. Meng Xiaosi, mentioned the following policy recommendations: 1) On supporting women to do online business, China highlighted the need to enhance the development by letting APEC women be part of the network; 2) Provide support for women to be part of the Global Value Chain; 3) Open up opportunities for women to gain access to capital, existing internet platforms. They suggested for women entrepreneurs to network amongst others; 4) Create an inclusive economic environment for women; and 5) APEC to increase women’s economic development by improving the status of women that have unpaid work.
Ultimately, Mme. Meng mentioned that they will continue to work hand in hand with its APEC partners.
Indonesia
Indonesia, represented by Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise, recognized how the 2015 APEC WE 2015 Fora theme is inspiring and very relevant to the slow growth of the current economic conditions that require all elements of the community to be informed in the economic development.
Indonesia shared that in their economy, women’s economic growth in the MSME sector increased by 70 per cent in 2015. There was also progress in the utilization of ICT which provided the opportunity for both woman and man to engage in business. Currently, Indonesia’s internet penetration rate has increased significantly making them place as the 4th in the world in terms of access to the internet.
Furthermore, Indonesia provided the following updates: 1) Women in decision making positions in the government and private sector have also increased. In the executive body, it elevated from 9 per cent in 2010 to 16 per cent in 2015; whilst in private sectors, women CEOs have increased from 2 per cent in 2010 to 5 per cent in 2013;
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2) Training and marketing assistance have been provided to women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises with general agricultural products such as coffee, tea, and batik; 3) To assist women in informal sector, Indonesian government has conducted mapping and survey of woman in household and now preparing a special policy to promote their productivity and opportunity to market their products while, protecting them from discriminatory policy and regulations; and 4) Indonesia put up the Presidential instruction number 9 on gender mainstreaming which will be carried out by ministries down to district governments to ensure that women and men have equal access to participate, benefit and control development including in the economy. In 2012, government issued national strategy for the acceleration of the implementation of gender mainstreaming through gender responsive planning and budgeting. Indonesia stated that in the current mid-term national development plan for 2015 and 2019, 30 government agencies have planned to integrate gender policies and programs in their ministries to eliminate gender discrimination.
To address the constraints and obstacles to achieve gender equality and women’s economic empowerment, Indonesia proposed the following policy recommendations and strategies: 1) Each economy is encouraged to make the public procurement more inclusive for woman; 2) Promote policies and practices to support flexible working arrangements and work- life balance; 3) Promote policies to encourage the public sector to procure goods and services from women-owned businesses; 4) Undertake and disseminate gender analysis of policies and programs related to micro economic stability, structural reform, taxation, and foreign direct investments; 5) Link policies on social development to ensure poor and vulnerable group benefit from economic growth and development; 6) Develop and implement gender sensitive employment center growth strategies based on full and productive employment, decent work for women and men; 7) Adopt and enforce the principle of decent work in both formal and informal sectors giving due consideration to gender equality perspective in implementation; 8) Develop methodologies, tools and capacities for gender responsive budget process to ensure the systematic incorporation of gender perspective in all budget and planning processes; 9) Maintain statistical instruments to measure in quantitative and qualitative terms unpaid work that is outside national account to reflect better its value in policies, strategies, plans and budgets across all relevant sectors; and 10) Promote the greater recognition that care work should be shared between the state, private sector, civil society and household between men and women and strengthen dialogue and coordination between all relevant stakeholders.
Indonesia concluded that the fora should be a medium not only to exchange information and best practices on the role of women and contribution in the economic sector, but should also be a medium to holistically address the common constraints and challenges faced by women.
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Japan
Japan, represented by the Cabinet Office Vice-Minister for Special Missions Mr. Kazuhiko Ishihara, stated that Prime Minister Abe’s administration has been the first in Japan to address woman’s participation in the economic context. Vice-Minister Ishihara shared how these efforts clearly change the Japanese society and wished to move together with the APEC member economies.
Japan proposed three policy recommendations as follows: 1) Promote the creation of a Framework to advance women’s empowerment. As such, by the end of August 2015, Japan’s diet passed an Act on the promotion of women’s participation and advancement in the work place. This act aims to promote the active participation of women in the workplace not only in government organizations, but also national government agencies, and large companies are obligated to create and publish an action plan for the promotion and recruitment of women including specific numeric progress. For instance, if a company will make an effort to promote productive and sustainable work-life balance, the government will support that company through government procurement.
Japan also encouraged economies’ participation to the APEC Project that enhances women’s leadership through the establishment of Individual Action Plan. Japan explained that each economy could include voluntary targets which they could work on by the end of 2020; 2) Japan expressed its hope for economies’ active participation in this and work together to advance women’s empowerment in the APEC region. They believe that by including more people in action for women’s empowerment, in particular men, this will create a win-win society for everyone.
Japan shared that they hosted a World Assembly for Women (WAW!) in August 2015 in Tokyo, which brought global wisdom that made people realize that a society where women shines exist. It also provided opportunity for male global leaders to share that women’s economic empowerment to a better place for all and to encourage to support each other; and 3) Japan raised the need to empower woman to take leadership positions. In case of the great Japan earthquake in March 2011, women including the elderly and persons with disabilities are the most affected in times of disasters in Japan. Women involvement in decision-making in disaster risk reduction is highly encouraged as women’s perspective is critical, in particular, into family, health, and safety.It also contributes to the safety and security of the community.
Taking note that natural disasters can happen anywhere, Japan shared the document which was circulated to the attendees, which stated the experience of women from the Great East Japan earthquake. They encouraged the APEC economies to use this document as reference in discussing women’s economic empowerment in disaster reconstruction efforts. Japan also informed that they held a workshop on Good Practice on Woman Entrepreneurship in the Local Communities in the Process of Disaster Reconstruction which aimed to share to APEC member economies, Japan’s experience in reconstruction phase.
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In conclusion, Japan expressed its hope that the outcomes of this dialogue will lead to concrete actions for promoting the economic participation of women in the APEC region.
Republic of Korea
The Republic of Korea, represented by Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Minister Heejung Kim, reported on the importance of capitalizing on women’s talents and its contribution to sustainable economic growth.
Minister Kim mentioned how women’s economic participation rate has to increase for economic growth. In comparison, a country with a US$ 40,000 per capita income versus a country with a US$ 50,000 per capita income will generate over 60 per cent and 70 per cent female economic participation rate respectively.
Minister Kim explained that generally, a country with high GDP per capita also shows higher rate of women’s economic participation. In the diagram presented, employment rate of women in GDP per capita and birthrate are very closely related. In all three areas, Republic Korea’s numbers are far below OECD average. Moreover, study shows that if low birthrate continues, Minister Kim stated that Korean population will be extinct by 2750. But this program is not only for Korea, even China with the world’s largest population of 1.3 billion could face similar situation.
Republic of Korea explained that utilizing women resources is necessary due to the low birth rate problem. To encourage women’s participation, Minister Kim said that the Korean government has been focusing on four dimensions: Recruit, Retention, Re-start, and Representation. 1) Recruit: Republic of Korea noted that there is no gender gap at entry level positions; however, there is a difference as the economic activity of man is 94 per cent; but for women, it is below 60 per cent. Further, more men get to be promoted than women. The economic participation of those at the age of 30s is 90 per cent wherein women’s participation is very low. 2) Retention: Republic of Korea emphasized that for women to continue their career, family culture and work life balance policies is important. Hence, Minister Kim reported that Korean government has developed a policy promoting flexible working hours and childcare systems are done in order to have quality time. For individuals and families, Korean government is working on campaigning quality time together once a week by declaring every Wednesday as a Family day. 3) Re-start: Republic of Korea shared that there are support centers with over 100 networks nationwide providing counselling, job connection, and career development education. Minister Kim explained that the government encourages company management programs for them to promote family friendly management. Since implementing the certification policy, she stated that the mindsets of corporations are now changing and more of them are practicing family friendly management. The number of companies was up almost to tens of thousands and counting this year. Korean government is also providing incentives including time extension on local tax audit and interest rates benefit resulting to higher growth and lower turnover. 4) Representation: With the representation of the first female President Madame Park Geun-hye, Minister Kim shared that the public sector is leading the change with a goal of women’s advancement in employment with 40 per cent of women leaders in the public sector and 50 per cent women managers in the private sector. In the
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Republic of Korea, Minister Kim stated that they are working hard in encouraging the private sector to include women in management and leadership positions.
In conclusion, the Minister Kim encouraged everyone to "Let's go together!”
Malaysia
Malaysia, represented by Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development Deputy Minister Senator Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, mentioned that in 2015, the total population of Malaysia is amounting to 30.5 million with women comprising 48.7 per cent.
Since 1989 through the formulation of national policy for women which was later on reviewed in 2009 together with the formulation of the plan of action for the advancement of women, Deputy Minister Fun shared that empowering women has always been part of Malaysia’s plan. She stated that it was first mentioned in fourth Malaysian plan followed by the sixth and tenth, where woman and gender continue to be the focus particularly in the economic development specifics to increase female labor force participation rate from the 47.9 per cent in 2011 to 55 per cent in 2015.
To increase the number of women in key decision positions, Malaysia stated that they plan to be a high income nation by 2020 under the economic transformations program. Deputy Minister Fun expounded that the objective in increasing female labor participation rate will continue in the 11th Malaysian plan which is 2016-2020 where the new target is to achieve 59 per cent participation of women in the work force by 2020. Apart from this, she shared that the goal is to realize 30 per cent participation of women directors in corporate boards of public listed companies. From 46.4 per cent in 2007, 54.1 per cent of women in the first quarter of 2015 are now participating in Malaysia’s work force.
In order to achieve and support the abovementioned targets, Malaysia did the following: 1) Promote flexible work life by using ICT to enhance work efficiency and employee participation. Malaysia put up an online portal which aims to view a network of employers and talents that optimize work-life integration while maximizing efficiency and enhancing employee engagement. It also serves as repository of best ideas and practices in flexible working arrangements as well as family friendly facilities. The key features of the portal are the network available between the employee and employer. List of the job opportunities and incentives are also provided; 2) The government of Malaysia also launched a Career Comeback Program to encourage woman to return to job market. Under this program, there is the resourcing grant and retention grant introduced to provide incentives to employers to implement programs to recruit and retain women who have been on career break; and 3) Support women in decision-making roles through Women Director Program, with at least 30 per cent of women in decision making in public sector has been adopted in 2004. Women in top management position in the public sector have increased by 18.8 per cent in 2004 to 33 per cent in June 2015. Due to the remarkable progress made in the public sector, at least 30 per cent of women in decision making positions in the corporate sector in 2011 are implemented through Malaysia’s corporate governance. Companies are required to disclose policies and targets with respect to companies’ positions of women in their report. Three views of the program are: Registry, sourcing, and reporting. Malaysia explained that this will help track achievements of the key performance indicators of the women director program.
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Malaysia reaffirmed the importance of women to be part of economic resources and having opportunities to uplift their capability in order to optimize their potential as economy building contributors to the country.
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, represented by Department of Religion, Youth, and Community Development Secretary Anna Solomon, thanked the Philippines for giving them the opportunity to host the first PPWE Meeting in Port Moresby in May 2015 which provided them a handful of experience in preparation for their hosting in 2018.
Papua New Guinea shared that they are a very young economy in APEC, as compared to the other APEC member economies. They are diverse in terms of culture whereas with 7.3 million people, there are 850 distinct languages, and 3 national languages. Eighty per cent of its population lives in the rural areas with very ragged terrains. Secretary Solomon explained that this back drop posed challenges for them such as timely delivery of services. On a lighter note, Papua New Guineans, most especially the women, are very resilient. She stated that they have learned a lot from the bigger economies and the journey that they have taken.
Papua New Guinea highlighted the importance of informal economy and microenterprises. Secretary Solomon suggested on having discussions on financial inclusion, financial literacy, and the most basic adult literacy, since there is still a lot in their population that are not able to read and write.
The hosting of the PPWE 1 Meeting showcased Papua New Guinea’s commitment of wanting to learn more from bigger economies and to make improvement on the conditions of their women. Further, Secretary Solomon said that they are committed to the Bogor Goals, particularly in addressing the challenges of the global financial crisis while, acknowledging the challenges of the social dimension of globalization.
Papua New Guinea’s constitution called on equal participation in political, economic, social and religious aspects. Secretary Solomon stated that religion played the biggest part in their country being one of the major service providers to the most rural areas. With this, main line churches are considered as strategic partners in service delivery.
With a heightened focus on Human Capital Development, Papua New Guinea’s Vision 2050 strongly recommended intervention programs which aim to have gender equality be given more attention and support with sufficient resources. Secretary Solomon emphasized that although these policies are listed in documents, the reality shows that these sometimes do not happen.
Through the Papua New Guinea’s Medium-term Development Strategy 2011-2015, gender equality and reducing violence against women are identified as key to promoting long term economic and social development. This strategy highlights the need for gender responsive budgeting, recognizing gender inequality as a severe threat to development.
Papua New Guinea further shared that their government focused on three areas: 1) women leadership; 2) women’s economic empowerment; and 3) gender-based violence. But now, they are shifting the focus to women’s economic empowerment as a way of addressing
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gender-based violence. Through structural changes and policy interventions, women now move to leadership positions. There is also Papua New Guinea’s gender equality and social inclusion policy that put quota for women to attain leadership roles based on meritocracy. As of today, Papua New Guinea proudly shared that there are now 3 women secretaries in their government.
In order to do this, Papua New Guinea suggested to look for male champions in advocating women’s empowerment and also noted the need to study the context of each village to appropriately address stereotypes on women. Additionally, the benefits brought by strong private sector participation were also cited.
As she ended her remarks, Secretary Solomon congratulated the Philippines for their ICONOGRAPH exhibit.
Peru
Peru, represented by Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Peoples Minister Marcela Huaita, proposed the following policy recommendations: 1) In 2015, Peru’s Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Peoples has created a General Directorate of Promotion and Development for Women’s Economic Rights which will be responsible in policy formulation and coordination with the public, regional government, private companies, as well as with international and technical organizations. In this regard, Minister Huaita emphasized the importance of having an institutional framework which advocates for women’s economic rights and participation which will help utilize specific programs that will ensure women’s access to financial and technological resources; 2) Peru suggested having a multi-sectoral gender national plan with strategic objectives. In this plan, they recommend to include ways of addressing gaps in women’s participation in Science and Technology; guarantee women’s economic rights; reduce gender based violence in all legislations; increase the participation of women and men in the decision making and political and civic participation; and assess the contribution of women in the sustainable natural resources; and 3) Peru recognized the APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard as an important tool to advancing progress in reducing barriers to women’s economic participation across the PPWE five pillars. The same as what they do in Peru, Minister Huaita recommended having a national system for gender equality aligned to quality policies and indicators. They use this as an instrument to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of public management for gender equality at the different sectors of government in the national, regional, and local level.
Philippines
The Republic of the Philippines, represented by Philippine Economic Zone Authority Director General Lilia B. De Lima, reiterated the remark of President Aquino which is in achieving the goal of an inclusive economy, women are seen as better partners; hence, the government provides women entrepreneurs with even more opportunities.
Director General De Lima mentioned how it is intrinsic in the Philippine society wherein women are seen superior in many aspects, including prudent budgeting and family advancement as a whole. She explained how the Gender Responsive Economic Actions for
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the Transformation (GREAT) of Women Project brought policies and reforms as a core group of government agencies was formed as gender champions. These group institutionalized processes to review and reform policies and programs that address gender issues. For instance, these are the National Development Plan for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the Go Negosyo Act or Go into Business Law which showcase that women are represented and consulted in the national and local MSME development. Likewise, gender champions started to streamline and simplify business registrations and improved access to business development services through the local investment and enterprise promotion services.
The Philippines also cited the advocacies of the Women’s Business Council Philippines and Women Corporate Directors Philippines through the support of the Management Association of the Philippines which promote more women in managerial roles in companies. However, women MSMEs on the other hand, face difficulties in linking in international markets and global value chains. As a way of addressing this, she acknowledged and praised the WE- APEC Network online portal which is the initiative of the United States.
On the other hand, the Philippines stated that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is intensifying efforts on the use of green technology and environmental-friendly businesses and in the development of alternative livelihood specific for women in the upland areas particularly in the agro-industry and eco-tourism; while the Department of Science and Technology builds women-friendly designs for the equipment of small businesses benefiting mostly women.
The Philippines noted that a lot still needs to be done for the full implementation of the Magna Carta of Women and the Strategic Plan for Women and the Economy to intensify gender responsive capacity building skills training. In support of these initiatives, Director General De Lima, as head of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, committed to pilot the implementation of the Healthy Women, Healthy Economy Toolkit in the PEZA economic zones. She stated that there are 3,500 companies and counting inside these PEZA economic zones which account for more than 80 per cent of total exports of the Philippines. Additionally, she shared that out of the 1.3 million directly employed by PEZA, 58 per cent of it are women; the same ratio of women in managerial positions in Filipino-owned companies inside these zones. But for foreign-owned companies, 90 per cent of which are male managers.
Director General De Lima shared that they aim to influence medium and large scale companies to link with MSMEs as part of their supply chain to promote inclusive business. She also expressed its gratitude to the government of Canada for the continuous support on the GREAT Women Project, among others.
In conclusion, the Philippines emphasized the need to formalize an APEC-wide exchange platform or portal for women in enterprises to encourage mentoring, sharing of best practices and success stories, training, access to marketing, financing, among others to reach many women entrepreneurs in the APEC region.
Russia
Russia, represented by Ministry of Economic Development Deputy Director of Asia, Africa and Latin America Department Ms. Natalia Strigunova, took note that the Philippines was the
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economy who launched the theme of women’s empowerment in the APEC Agenda. She recounted that the first Ministerial Meeting was held in Manila and paved way for the drafting of the Framework for the Integration of Women in the APEC Agenda.
Russia recommended for economies to increase women’s economic performance by launching projects and, organizing capacity building events in collaboration with other fora. This will also create an efficient and favorable environment that support women’s economic activities. Ms. Strigunova noted that one of the distinctive features of modern global economic development is the growing role of women in international business activities. In Russia, as guaranteed by their Constitution, women are equal to men in their rights and economic opportunities.
In the recent years, Russia discussed that to ensure livelihood balance for women with children, the ministry of labor has prepared a set of programs that include measures to ensure the reliability of record on education, health, children, as well as flexible forms of employment and decent employment for women, including the promotion of self- employment organization of occasional guidance and training for women on maternity leave.
Russia stated that there are about five and a half million small and medium enterprises, with women owning 35 per cent and also share 25 per cent of the products and services produced by women-led SMEs. Women are prevalent in the fields such as consulting, advertising, tourism, social services, and business activities in the areas which provide good opportunities for the Russian economy. Ms. Strigunova interestingly noted that in the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring, Russian companies founded by women are more successful during the first year, in comparison with companies founded by man.
Ms. Strigunova stated that the Russian government focused on providing support for female business initiatives and unleashing their potential since 2013. These measures are implemented within the program of SMEs support, realized by the Ministry of Economy and Development of Russia. Additionally, Russia has also paid attention to the creation of special infrastructure; business incubation sites; science and technology industrial parks; centers for business development; and financial organizations.
In APEC, Russia emphasized the need to focus more on increasing projects and activities for women, specifically through PPWE to be approved by APEC. Russia expressed its support to the PPWE Strategic Plan 2015-2018 and Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals as these create comprehensive approach to increasing the efficiency of the PPWE work. However, Russia commented the need to be realistic and patient in setting goals and timelines. They explained that our priority is to have a quality and reliable work and policy recommendations which are used by our Ministers and Leaders.
Russia mentioned how every woman entrepreneur in APEC has her own unique story of success and rich experience that she can share with others. Hence, Russia recommended developing communication, networking, and coordination among economy level, business network, private sector initiatives and government services that support and strengthen the capacities of women owned enterprises and female entrepreneurs in the APEC region.
By way of doing so, Ms. Strigunova shared that in Russia, they have a National Business Success Cup which provides an avenue in discovering new business talent of women innovators or entrepreneurs. She expounded that this Cup is a business competition which
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includes nomination of women’s best projects wherein regional winners are provided opportunities to participate in international exchange programs that aim at sharing business experience. Ms. Strigunova added that this provides an excellent chance for local entrepreneurs to be acquainted with international best business practices, get new contacts and easier access to new finance sources and new markets.
Lastly, Russia stated that they are open for new projects and initiatives to co-sponsor. Further, Russia shared that they will also launch their own project and will be open for communication.
Singapore
Singapore, represented by Ministry of Social and Family Development Senior Director Mrs. Tan Hwee Seh, stated that to achieve economic empowerment, women need equal opportunities for education, skills and capacity building, fair employment and leadership. Senior Director Tan explained that women-owned enterprises need equal access to resources such as capital and market.
Singapore shared their experience in the following areas and also provided recommendations accordingly: 1) Equal Opportunity: Senior Director Tan shared that in the UN Human Development Report 2014, Singapore ranked 15th out of 152 countries in the gender equality index. This report includes the opportunities available to women in areas such as labor markets and empowerment, education, skills, and capacity building. She explained that the key is to invest and maximize the potential of the people regardless of gender, race, or creed. By doing so, education becomes the key enabler in harnessing the potential of women. In Singapore, more than half of the university graduates are women and now well represented in subjects traditionally viewed as male dominated, in particular in STEM. 2) Fair Employment: Singapore shared that the employment rate for female workers (aged 25 to 54) was 76 per cent in 2014; while for older women (aged 55 to 64) was 52.7 per cent in the same year. Women have also made into previously male dominated professions such as legal, engineering, accounting, professions. Supporting women workers in Singapore is the ILO Convention 100 on Equal Remuneration, ratified in 2002, which reinforce inclusive and non-discriminatory work practices for women. 3) Access to Capital and Markets: Senior Director Tan cited that in Doing Business 2014 Report, Singapore ranked 17 out of 189 economies for ease of getting credit for business. Nevertheless, she mentioned that they still face challenges particularly in increasing the number of women in boardroom. She explained that the percentage of women directorship in stock exchange listed companies lagged 8.3 per cent in 2013; although it has increased marginally to 8.8 per cent in 2014. To address this, she stated that they will further raise awareness on the economic value of having women on board by sharing best practices.
Finally, Singapore remained confident that the APEC’s efforts to break down barriers to women’s economic participation will enable more women to become prime movers of inclusive growth. As Senior Director Tan explained: “we will then have more “her-story” instead of “his-story”.”
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Chinese Taipei
Chinese Taipei, represented by Dr. Joyce Yen Feng, shared that on 16 October 2015 they co- held with the Philippines the Seminar on Empowering Women through ICT for Inclusive Growth. This Seminar is part of the APEC Multi-Year Project (MYP) Innovation for Women Economic Development led by Chinese Taipei and co-sponsored by the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Chile and Australia. Launched in 2013, this Project is the first MYP under PPWE. It emphasized how women’s utilization of ICT to innovate and achieve economic growth by gathering successful cases from economies that illustrate how women in the Asia Pacific region use ICT to innovate, create business opportunity, and improve their economic status. Dr. Feng encouraged more economies to join this project.
In line with the abovementioned, Dr. Feng enumerated the following policy recommendations and shared the actions taken by their economy: 1) Chinese Taipei suggested for APEC Leaders and Ministers to recognize and give importance on innovation and ICT for women’s economic development. Economies should work on providing an enabling environment that have full and equal access to resources and opportunities for women to participate in the global market; and 2) Chinese Taipei encouraged economies to support inclusive business by integrating learning resources that provide diverse digital learning environment, promoting enterprises utilizing e-learnings to cut training costs, andfree entrepreneurship training courses to equip businesswomen with skills in each stage for the start up. Some online open universities have already opened these courses covering business operations, financial management, innovation, and marketing skills.
Dr. Feng shared that from 2012 to 2014, a total of 51,000 women became new students of the online university accounting for 51 per cent of all members. Female entrepreneurship network and information exchange platform were constructed to create interpersonal exchange business opportunities for women and help them set up companies successfully. Entrepreneurship service window was established to provide consultation and guidance service for female entrepreneurs from the year 2011 to 2014.
Further, she reported that the Female Micro Start-up Program provided courses for a total of 51,741 women trainees as well as startup consultant services for 11,303 women trainees; 6,482 women to set up their own business; and 10,920 job opportunities for women.
Chinese Taipei also mentioned that in September 2014, Social Enterprise Action Plan was launched at central government level which provided them a friendly ecosystem, skills, network, and space hub for social entrepreneurs. Chinese Taipei provided funding amounting to US$ 5.38 million dedicated for private sector to participate in this field and help the young generation enter social entrepreneurship.
Thailand
Thailand, represented by Ministry of Social Development and Human Security Vice Minister Pol. Gen. Suwat Chanitthikul, reported that positive developments and progress as a result of the economy’s efforts in improving the lives of its people as reflected in the National Economic and Social Development Plan. Vice Minister Chanitthikul reported that Thailand
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continues to achieve progress by increasing the overall opportunities for women to reach executive or decision making level and reaching the target to double the proportion of women in parliament, sub-district administrative organizations, and executive positions in the civil service. Additionally, Thailand has increased the number of women entering the labor market with 64 per cent labor force participation rate; one of the highest in the Asia Pacific region.
Vice Minister Chanitthikul expounded that in order to improve gender equality and provide benefits for women, nine days before the HLPD on WE, Gender Equality Law became effective in their economy which criminalizes those who discriminate among sexes and practice gender inequality. He added that in May 2015, Thailand’s cabinet has approved the law on the prevention on sexual harassment, which provided a broader definition and enforcement to protect women from sexual harassment in the workplace. This law aims to create a more enabling environment for women to allow them to harness their full potential.
On another note, Thailand informed the body on the concept of gender budgeting which was the topic discussed in UNDP and King Institute. He explained that despite the fact that this topic has been acknowledged, Thailand does not have the monetary system for budgeting in place. Hence, workshops have been conducted to provide knowledge and understanding on gender budgeting, starting from the government and policy makers. This is to avoid the misconception that gender budgeting is merely allocating the budget for women; but instead, an important issue that needs to be taken into consideration.
In line with the abovementioned, Thailand has now included in their new draft Constitution a gender budgeting policy through the formation of the National Reform Council. They believe that this development will provide an opportunity to put forward this issue into affirmative action. Thailand discussed further that as a member of ASEAN and with the establishment of the ASEAN Community, this will provide women a better chance to compete with other economies. In their Ministry, they have conducted workshops with the aim to promote economic and trade development, and improve entrepreneurial skills.
Together with the rest of the economies, Thailand reiterated its commitment to advance gender equality goals and women’s economic development agenda in APEC. Further, Thailand committed to continue working with other APEC economies to realize our common goals which is: to invest in gender equality and women empowerment not just in monetary terms, but also to change the social bias against this goal. Vice Minister Chanitthikul said that through the recognition of the contributions that women can make, there will be prosperity and inclusive growth in the region.
United States of America
The United States of America, represented by US Department of State Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues H.E. Catherine Russell, recalled the two important milestones for gender equality, citing the anniversaries of the 1995 United Nations 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing and the adoption of Learning and Development Goals in 2000. Ambassador Russell noted how these initiatives drove progress for over two decades but at the same time, a reminder that our quest for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment remains unfinished.
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The United States emphasized the need for a continued commitment throughout the APEC region and around the world in order to attain gender equality. In this regard, Ambassador Russell gladly reported that the APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard went live at the APEC website. She explained that the Dashboard serves as a valuable tool in developing policies and building capacities grounded on hard data.
Another initiative that the US has recently launched a global platform called Alliance for Global Artisan Enterprise which provides support to global artisan enterprises. In support to this, they have launched a campaign called Choose Artisans which asks for government, investors, private sector, and consumers to take part and support women’s entrepreneurship both domestically and abroad. In line with this, an online portal which was also the initiative of the US called Women’s Entrepreneurship in APEC (WE-APEC) Network was launched.
There is also a global initiative called SPARK which was launched to help emerging entrepreneurs generate over US$ 1 billion in private investments in their businesses. US stated that more than half of the investments to be raised will benefit women and youth.
Additionally, US shared that they opened several women’s entrepreneurship centers in Africa and Asia and will continue to provide brick and mortar for women entrepreneurs to get the resources they need to start and grow their own businesses.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Russell informed the body that the US Small Business Administration launched the Innovate Her challenge earlier this year. This initiative aims to discover products and services across the US that help empower women and their families. US also expressed their delightfulness for being part of the APEC’s efforts to develop Healthy Women, Healthy Economy Policy Toolkit that was launched on 17 September 2015. She stated that they will continue to implement President Obama’s Signature Healthcare Law which has specific benefits for women. For instance, in early September, President Obama ordered federal contractors to offer employees 7 days of paid sick leave.
Another initiative led by US is the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative (YSEALI) which provides leadership opportunities to young women and men in ten regional economies. They also now bring their attention to traditionally male dominated sectors like transportation, by working with APEC economies to improve women’s representation across that sector from boardroom to shipping docks.
Furthermore, US shared that they are also investing for the leaders of tomorrow. Ambassador Russell informed that earlier this year, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama launched That Girls Learn Initiative to tackle the challenges that keep 52 million girls from going to school over the world. As a support to this initiative, she shared that three-week camp for girls was organized in July which focused on science, technology and, engineering, art and design, and math, in addition to leadership skills training. The Obama Administration’s Strategic Plan on STEM Education prioritizes STEM Educations for groups underrepresented in these areas including women and girls.
Ultimately, US duly noted that none of these work would not be possible without the collaboration and support of economies, civil society, and the private sector. Joint efforts of these sectors are key to the strength and importance of APEC to the global effort to support women and girls.
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Viet Nam
Viet Nam, represented by Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs Deputy Minister Nguyen Trong Dam, remarked that APEC is an important avenue to discuss economic cooperation and women’s empowerment. In their economy, laws and policies have been initiated and considerable number of programs have created opportunities and provided women access to employment opportunity, getting out of poverty, and enhancing their economic situation.
Deputy Minister Nguyen shared that currently; a Vietnamese woman has gotten better access to jobs and now participates in labor market whereas female workers account for more than 48 per cent out of the 53 million workers. The rate of woman in business increased from 20 per cent in 2014 to nearly 25 per cent in 2015. They have also proactively launched and promoted women’s status and development through women’s business networks and collaborating with other APEC economies. They acknowledge though that challenges still exist such as financial insecurity and the nature of business the woman has.
As a solution to this, Viet Nam emphasized that by eliminating the barriers that limit women’s economic participation; this will encourage a more inclusive participation, promote growth, and enable development of the economy. Viet Nam recommended for the PPWE to create more projects supporting the Framework for the Integration of Women in APEC, women’s economic empowerment and development, and capacity building activities.
Finally, Viet Nam highlighted how the discussions in HLPD on WE provide a place where economies learn from each other’s experience which will be helpful in preparation for their economy’s hosting of APEC in 2017.
ABAC
The APEC Business Advisory Council represented by its Chair Ms. Doris Magsaysay-Ho shared their recommendations on ways in which APEC can collectively promote and support the economic empowerment of women in the region.
This year, ABAC is guided by the theme “Resilient, Inclusive Growth: A Fair Deal for All” which is aligned with the APEC 2015 theme “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World.” She remarked that how these themes guide us in our shared mission which is to ensure that all segments of society – especially women – are empowered to have meaningful access to work and business opportunities and that more people at the bottom of the pyramid benefit from global markets.
The ABAC Chair has enumerated the following areas of concern where ABAC recommends both business and government to address: 1) ABAC recognized the shortages of talent brought about by aging populations and how having someone available to care for children and elderly at home will help women enter the workforce. To address this, ABAC shared how they engaged other economies in seeking best practices across the region, which includes providing day care facilities offered by companies or governments and, flexible time or work at home programs. ABAC applauded the project 50 Leading Companies for Women in APEC spearheaded by APEC PPWE that recognized companies that offer proven and effective ways to improve women’s economic participation;
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2) ABAC informed that they are working on with APEC on developing a new approach called “Earn, Learn and Return” to effectively manage cross border labor flows which they envision will provide opportunities for workers to pursue careers across borders, but to regularly return home to be close to their families, and eventually return home permanently to contribute their knowledge to the sending economy. This initiative recommends a sectoral approach to education and training and the mutual recognition of educational skills certification. ABAC expressed its support to Chile in its call for the ratification of the ILO Convention on Domestic Helpers. They also reported that the Philippines has adopted the convention in 2012 and has brought it a step further with the adoption of the Domestic Workers Act in 2013; 3) ABAC welcomed the Healthy Women, Healthy Economy Policy Toolkit that provides a menu of options for companies to implement gender sensitive policies and programs that address the well-being, health, and work life balance of women in the workforce. They also welcomed the Women and the Economy Dashboard as a great way to measure the effectiveness of policies across economies; 4) ABAC recognized technology as a driver for inclusive growth and recommended to remove barriers in order to engage in e-commerce. They shared the USC Marshall School study which posits that technology and e-commerce are giving women the greatest ability as entrepreneurs to have the flexibility to manage their own work life balance and achieve financial empowerment. Through this, ABAC supported the Boracay Action Agenda and the Cebu Action Plan mentioned by Secretary Domingo which outlined inclusive policies that will give MSMEs and women meaningful access to trade; 5) ABAC cited the paper they released in 2013 which showed the striking reality that the restrictiveness in accessing capital for women entrepreneurs emanated from their lack of assets that they own, and the insufficient business training that they have received, if any at all. ABAC updated that they will be having a meeting with SME Ministers to discuss this issue and recommend solutions; 6) Recognizing how technology levels the playing field, ABAC strongly recommended for APEC to implement policies and promote more women to embrace STEM and engineering, changing mind sets across young girls of APEC; 7) ABAC advocated the active engagement of private and public sectors in consolidating best practices to increase women’s representation in the board room, promoting corporate family responsibility, and integrating women-owned businesses into the global supply chain. Furthermore, they advocated for more companies to embrace the concept of inclusive business with larger companies developing longer value-based partnership models with their suppliers. ABAC posits that this model can propel SMEs owned by women into global value chains most quickly; and 8) ABAC urged APEC to lead by example. They shared that as of today, there are only 11 women out of the 63 ABAC Members, with some economies having two female members. They said that ideally, one out of three ABAC members should be a woman.
To cap it off, Ms. Ho congratulated the Chair for the successful PPDWE, expressed its support to the initiatives everyone has made in their respective economies and across APEC, and looked forward to a continuous collaboration of APEC and ABAC to achieve full participation of women in the economy.
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Concluding remarks – Setting the Action Agenda for Women’s Economic Empowerment
Wrapping up all discussions done thus far, the Chair, Undersecretary Terrado conveyed her warmest and sincerest gratitude to all economies who took time to participate in the discussions and who clearly stated their views and recommendations on how gender equality and women’s economic empowerment agenda could be pushed forward in the APEC work streams. Although the Chair noted that much still needs to be done, but she remained optimistic that with economies joining hand in hand in pushing for a concrete, actionable, and measurable policy recommendations, gradual progress is being made.
The Chair thanked the PPWE for taking the initiative in reaching out with other cross fora through active participation in the SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE) to ensure that the other APEC fora and member economies take into consideration looking through a gender perspective in assessing project proposals and initiatives originating from their respective fora. She especially thanked the APEC Secretariat for its great decision to appoint a Gender Focal Point who will assist the Program Director of the PPWE in ensuring that the other APEC fora’s project proposals will be infused with a gender flavor that is acceptable to all.
The Chair recognized the efforts of the PPWE and congratulated its Chair who has done an excellent job in guiding the discussions for the implementation of the PPWE Strategic Plan which further strengthened the initiatives of APEC WE and for coming up with an agreed and acceptable language for all for the APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement.
On the other hand, the Chair also congratulated the PPDWE for a very enlightening sharing of best endeavours and success stories. She emphasized that having the presence of the APEC Leader, no less than the President of the Republic of the Philippines H.E. Benigno S. Aquino III strengthened our call not just Philippines as Host Economy, but Philippines together with APEC economies, to bring back again the focus on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment agenda.
The Chair took into account the policy recommendations and interventions made by all Ministers and Heads of Delegations in the HLPD on WE. She reiterated the call for an action agenda that should be given special attention for women’s economic empowerment by enumerating these five points: 1) The Chair emphasized the importance of increasing the role of women MSMEs in regional and global trade by putting this as our top priority. To achieve this, the Chair encouraged economies to assist these MSMEs by improving the financial environment through the promotion of alternative financing schemes for start-ups and MSMEs, and by fostering inclusive and gender responsive business strategies to empower these women entrepreneurs; 2) The Chair reiterated the call to increase the participation of women in leadership positions such as in business and politics. She encouraged economies to promote targeted approaches in creating an enabling environment for women where they could reap valuable rewards in order to move to the top management position or “C-suite”. She suggested expanding opportunities through skills and capacity development and, peer-to-peer learning and networking among others; 3) The Chair emphasized the importance of closing the gender gap divide by increasing women’s ability to access Science and Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
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and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) jobs and opportunities. She recognized how women’s ability are harnessed through the utilization of efficient ICT tools and smart technology in building, operating, managing, and growing women-led enterprises; 4) The Chair promoted the use of the recently launched Healthy Women, Healthy Economies (HWHE) policy toolkit for greater economic participation of women in the economy; and 5) The Chair encouraged government agencies to collect and produce sex-disaggregated data. She also expressed her support to the implementation of the Women and the Economy Dashboard to bridge the gender gap.
Ultimately, the Chair noted how advancing women’s economic agenda has always been a tricky issue as it cross-cuts to all sectors and relevant topics in the APEC fora. She encouraged economies to determine which aspects APEC should put special emphasis. She remarked that through the adoption of the Women and the Economy Statement, this will help address the 5 Pillars of Women’s Economic Empowerment in APEC: 1) access to capital and assets; 2) access to markets; 3) skills, capacity building, and health; 4) leadership, voice and agency; and 5) innovation and technology.
On a personal note, the Chair expressed her gratitude to everyone who supported her execute the leadership position or the Chairmanship of the APEC WE 2015 Fora. She humbly thanked everyone for their understanding in case there are unintentional omissions and commissions that she did. She shared how this experience as the Chair has been a pleasure for her in which she will remember for life.
Formal adoption of the Women and the Economy Statement
The Chair of the HLPD on WE presented the APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora Statement which was hereby adopted by all economies present. The APEC WE 2015 Fora Statement serves as the APEC WE’s contribution to the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November 2015, in Manila, Philippines.
The Chair invited the Past Chair represented by the People’s Republic of China and the Incoming Chair represented by Peru to give some statement.
Remarks by the HOD of the Past and Future Chairs
People’s Republic of China
The People’s Republic of China mentioned "See you in Peru."
Peru
After eight years, Peru will be hosting once again APEC in 2016. They shared that the theme of the APEC Women and the Economy 2016 Fora will be “Breaking Barriers to Economic Integration of Women in the Global Market” noting how this cross-cuttings to all APEC fora. In line with the five pillars in advancing women’s economic empowerment, the following sub-themes are: 1) Care systems to break down barriers for inclusive growth; 2) Costs of gender-based violence in the economic development;
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3) Mechanisms for the internationalization of women entrepreneurs in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; 4) Financial literacy for access to capital; and 5) Digital literacy for economic inclusion.
Peru proposed to discuss the issues on digital and financial literacy, so that women can gain access to markets, capital and assets, as well as to achieve internationalization of women MSMEs. All of these are possible only if APEC member economies provide care systems, as it will free up time that women devote to unpaid domestic work which impedes economic inclusion of women. Another barrier identified is the costs of gender based violence in the economic development of women as it causes loss of productivity in female labor force.
Peru stressed the need to have a consensus agreement on policies that promote women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in APEC. They welcomed everyone to go to Peru with open arms followed by the presentation of a video teaser on what they will expect next year. The Chair expressed her excitement for Peru’s hosting in 2016.
Before she adjourned the session, the Chair once again thanked all people behind who supported the whole execution of the APEC Women and the Economy 2015 Fora.
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Annex E: PPWE Management Council Meeting
Summary Report Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy Management Council Meeting (PPWE MCM) 18 September 2015 | 02:00 PM – 05:00 PM Philippine International Convention Center Metro Manila, Philippines
I. Preliminaries Prior the official start of the meeting and while waiting for other economies, the participants engaged in an informal discussion on the following: . The rationale for creating the Management Council Meeting (MCM) is to ensure smooth transition between the current and incoming PPWE Chairs through sharing of information on planning processes, issues and challenges in organizing the Women and the Economy Fora and other related meetings; and . USA informed the Meeting that there is a scheduled independent assessment of PPWE in 2016; this is already approved by the Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE). SCE will hire a consultant to conduct survey and interviews among PPWE members.
II. Opening Remarks by the 2015 PPWE Chair The PPWE MCM Chair Ms. Emmeline L. Verzosa, welcomed everyone to the Meeting, and warmly greeted her co-Chairs, Peru and People’s Republic of China. The MCM was attended by the following economies: Australia, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Chinese Taipei, and USA. The APEC Secretariat and the APEC Business Advisory Council were also represented.
III. Adoption of the Agenda
The agenda include the following:
A. Implementation Plan of the PPWE Strategic Plan for 2016-2018 B. APEC 2016 Work plan: An Introduction by Peru Co-Chair C. Other Matters
The PPWE Chair invited the Economies to endorse the Agenda, which was done accordingly.
IV. Discussion and Agreements on the Agenda
A. Implementation Plan of the PPWE Strategic Plan for 2016-2018
The Meeting discussed strategies on how to sustain and further strengthen cross-fora collaboration within APEC.
A.1. APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC)-related discussions . Australia inquired on what is the official interface between PPWE and ABAC; . ABAC representative shared that currently, the engagement is per project basis. ABAC recently collaborated with PPWE on the development of the Healthy Women, Healthy Economy Policy Toolkit;
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. The ABAC representative expressed willingness for a more meaningful and institutionalized collaboration with the PPWE as regards the implementation of the Strategic Plan 2015-2018; . The US delegation also expressed its desire to start a partnership with ABAC to move forward the WE-APEC Network Initiative; . The PPWE members were in agreement that there should be a conscious effort to nominate women representatives to the ABAC. The US delegation suggested having a list of women ABAC nominees prepared for when nominations come up. The US delegation also shared that in the case for US representatives at ABAC, the White House selects the US representatives; this highlights the commitment of Senior Officials and private sector to the ABAC; . The Australia delegation shared that they have a commitment to have one woman representative at ABAC but have, so far, not placed one in the council; . The ABAC representative clarified that the council does not meddle with the affairs of the Members when it comes to an Economy’s representatives. The ABAC simply flags to an Economy if there is a position that needs to be filled up; and . While it is important to have women ABAC members, it was also stressed that it is equally important to have a gender-responsive members, whether male or female, at the council.
AGREEMENT: Each economy should have at least one woman member (1/3) in the ABAC. Fill out all slots because it impacts on the agenda and projects of ABAC.
A.2. PPWE Communications Plan Following the discussion on PPWE engagement with ABAC, it was suggested that a Communications Plan be developed that will indicate how PPWE engages with ABAC and other working groups. The development of a Communications Plan is one of the targets in the Strategic Plan.
A.3. Guide to Gender Criteria As reported during the PPWE 2 meeting, fifty per cent of projects have gender criteria. Projects that did not pass the gender criteria were returned and given recommendations for improvement. However, it was noted that the current gender criteria are not too strict. Nevertheless, it is a very significant development to have gender expert, Ms. Penelope Howarth, in the APEC Secretariat who facilitates the assessment process.
AGREEMENT: It is imperative that all projects will pass the criteria, more so now that the APEC Secretariat has a gender expert to review the projects.
A.4. Guidelines on mainstreaming gender in APEC In the approved Strategic Plan, PPWE targeted the development of Guidelines on Mainstreaming Gender in APEC by 2018. . The delegations agreed that having this set of Guidelines will help PPWE in mainstreaming gender in the other working groups, especially in those with no clear correlation between gender and their sector. While the Gender Criteria is useful, it is not sustainable and not enough as it is only for projects; . It was suggested for each working group to be reminded of gender issues to be addressed in their projects. The PNG delegation further commented that the working groups should look into where the key pillars impacting women’s economic empowerment fall in their work plans; and
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. The following were suggestions on how to develop the Guidelines: (1) develop guidelines on specific areas and not on general statements that can just be easily ticked; (2) Indonesia suggested to monitor the implementation of the five key pillars in relation to the Guidelines; (3) US suggested looking for an external consultant who can coordinate the update of the Guideline; and 4) explore if this endeavour can fall under Canada’s new project on a dedicated micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sub-fund and policy support facility.
AGREEMENT: The following Economies agreed to work on the update of the Guidelines: Australia, USA, Philippines, Indonesia, and Canada (though the latter was not present during the MCM).
A.5. Strategies on mainstreaming gender in the APEC The following were suggestions related to integrating the gender-perspective in across APEC: . Create a Task Force to make sure that gender perspective is integrated in other working groups. US did not recommend the creation of a Task Force and, instead, suggested educating other working groups by having one of the PPWE members attend these working groups’ meetings. Australia suggested forming a Tiger Team, wherein a member of another working group is temporarily made part of the PPWE and vice versa; . PPWE to identify possible “gender allies” in the other working groups, and meet with them to strategize how the gender perspective can be integrated in their respective working groups. One successful case is the HWHE initiative wherein there were champions from the Health Working Group and Human Resource Development Working Group who pushed for the development of the Toolkit in their own working groups. In the end, it fostered ownership of the project, including the necessary follow-through and next steps; . Have gender experts in all the APEC fora to ensure that all working groups understand what gender is; . Hold a policy dialogue where PPWE can get gender experts to talk about specific issues based on the five key pillars impacting women’s economic empowerment; . Conduct training on integrating gender perspective with the Chairs of other working groups; . Get champions among senior officials to espouse gender; . Have a member of a working group brought physically in PPWE and then let that representative champion the gender issue in the working group later; . As part of PPWE’s monitoring and advocacy strategy, a PPWE member should always be present during SCE meetings; . Indonesia suggested holding another joint ministerial meeting and enhancing projects that were already started. The host economy can coordinate with the concerned working group; and . Think of priorities by themes and have projects follow those themes. This will encourage a programmatic approach instead of activity-focused.
A.6. Communication platform within PPWE . The Australia delegation suggested having an internal communication platform that will facilitate easier communication exchanges between PPWE members. Australia clarified that this platform is not about having a Dropbox account but having a document management system that will keep track of the different versions of documents that go back and forth between Economies;
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. It was suggested to have a repository website for inter-sessional documents in the APEC website; . The PNG delegation also commented that a communication platform where the private sector can discuss their issues be also made available; and . The US delegation shared that the existing WE-APEC website is a good platform for women entrepreneurs and ABAC members to express themselves.
AGREEMENTS: (1) Ms. Romy Tincopa of the APEC Secretariat to hold a meeting with the APEC Communications group to discuss the creation of webpage for uploading of informal documents/intercessional documents; (2) Economies to share speeches, IAPs, etc. on a voluntary basis; (3) APEC website section on documents needs to be populated/updated; and (4) Utilize and share the WE-APEC website.
A.7. Project funding (PNG-initiated agenda) It was acknowledged that it is sometimes difficult to acquire funding for PPWE projects. One strategy to address this is to implement projects through or with other sub-fora/working groups that have more funds or more funding opportunities.
A.8. GREAT Women Platform Philippine delegation shared with group that Malaysia is set to replicate the GREAT Women Platform, and that it is also open to other APEC economies.
B. Plans for 2016 APEC WE by Peru . The 2016 APEC WE will be a 3-day event in Lima, Peru, in June 2016. It will follow usual schedule: first day will be allotted for the PPWE meeting, 2nd day for the PPDWE, and 3rd for the HLPD. The theme will be “Breaking Barriers to Economic Integration of Women in the Global Market”; and . The Peru delegation clarified that they will only be able to host one PPWE meeting next year. Thus, if another Economy is willing to host another PPWE meeting, then the offer will be gladly accepted.
ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Share the Peru APEC WE 2016 PowerPoint presentation to other Economies.
V. Closing Remarks
A. Closing Remarks by China delegation China expressed her appreciation that the gender perspective has already been mainstreamed in many of the works of APEC but noted that that there is more work to be done. She encouraged more dialogues to reach PPWE’s goals and the use of internet to share experiences of each economy.
B. Closing Remarks by PPWE Chair The PPWE Chair summarized the agreements made during the MCM. They were the following: . For Australia, US, Philippines, Indonesia, and Canada to update the Gender Mainstreaming Guideline; . Explore the creation of Tiger Teams to infiltrate working groups and have gender issues addressed in other working groups; . Ensure that PPWE Members are invited/present during SCE meetings;
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. Ms. Romy Tincopa of the APEC Secretariat to conduct a discussion with the APEC Communications group so that a dynamic webpage for documents is made; . Create an APEC WE (online) communication platform that will encourage public- private sector dialogues; . Look into other working groups that have funds for funding to support PPWE projects; . Increase female membership in the ABAC, and ensure that ABAC members, whether male or female, are gender-responsive; and . Development of a communications plan (as per PPWE Strategic Plan) that will inform how PPWE engages with ABAC and other working groups.
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Annex F: APEC Multi-Year Project: Seminar on Empowering Women through ICT for Inclusive Growth
Synopsis
The opening speakers are in agreement in the importance of empowering women as catalyst for social change and economic development. It is in alignment with these mindsets that the speakers have thus presented several case studies of women entrepreneurs who designed game-based learning applications, e-tools and programs, and research demographics of women in areas like Chile, Australia, Philippines, Korea, Peru, and Taipei. The strategic approaches respond to challenges posed by women in business to address issues about isolation, of women working from home and not empowered about her capabilities and skills, the opportunities for her to develop her skills and access capital funds to service and develop her markets and learn new marketing initiatives, and bridging the digital divide between the genders. The initial attempt to empower women through inspiring programs that addresses cultural make-up and processes and how training programs can be designed and be user- friendly, accessible, affordable, and interesting for women to actually use and apply to their business.
MORNING SESSION
Opening Remarks
Hon. Joyce Yen Feng Minister without Portfolio, Chinese Taipei Welcomed 171 representatives from 12 economic spectrums with annual projects affirming the consensus of the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in empowering women to address capacity building competencies, promote communication channels in collaboration with public and private sectors and non-government organizations (NGOs).
Hon. Nora K. Terrado Chair, APEC WE 2015 Fora Undersecretary, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Cited the 3rd year for APEC’s multi-year project on Innovation for Women and Economic Development by advocating for women’s livelihood development and resilience with ICTs. To enliven the proceedings they designed an interactive workshop program to generate more participation and networking through shared experiences and inputs on strategic models.
Guests-of-Honor
Hon. Catherine M. Russell Head, United States Delegation Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues U.S. Department of State Started at the US Department two years ago and observed the inequality of women’s rights in other countries. Shared what her country has done to bridge the gender gap through policies on health care benefits, addressed climate control, and promoted women empowerment. She wanted feedback mechanisms to maximize collaboration and advance the use of the Toolkit.
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Mr. Andrey Mukhanov Chair, APEC Telecommunications Working Group (APEC TEL) Adviser to the Minister, Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communication of the Russian Federation Started at the US Department two years ago and observed the inequality of women’s rights in other countries. Shared what her country has done to bridge the gender gap through policies on health care benefits, addressed climate control, and promoted women empowerment. She wanted feedback mechanisms to maximize collaboration and advance the use of the Toolkit.
Keynote Speech
Ms. Aida Jean Manipon Country Program Manager, UN Women Philippines Noted UN’s Goal 5 where global leaders will sign gender equality by 2030 enhancing use of ICT to promote empowerment, access to resources and financial services and other Goal targets for resilient infrastructures, foster innovation, accelerate hunger mitigation programs, global partnerships, etc. 2015 saw the 20th year of the UN World Conference of Women in Beijing (BPFA: Beijing PlatForm for Action) promoting greater participation of women especially in the use of ICT to bridge the digital divide and address issues of empowerment thru education, gender sensitive legal environments, access to financial resources and improve labor and employment conditions. Cited data: 2.7 billion are online and women comprise only 40% including the labor force.
30-minute Session Break
PANEL SESSIONS
Session 1 “Innovation for Women and Economic Development” and Toolkit and Game-Based Learning Application
Moderator: Ms. Patricia May M. Abejo Director, Department of Trade and Industry, Philippines
Speakers:
Ms. Ching-Cheng Chang Research Fellow at Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Chinese Taipei Discussed the objectives/Key Result Areas (KRAs) of APEC’s Multi-year Project (MYP) 2013-2016 that includes access to new ICT devices and value added services (VAS), to share best practices on ICT innovations apps for women and identify key elements for successful women-led businesses. The work plan includes 2 years of inventory, case studies and newsletters, followed by a year of online learning, surveys, and APP design and another year of game-based learning and Toolkit design targeted for 2016.
The first phase baseline survey findings on how ICT can empower women by creating an environment to participate in community-based activities, create business and employment opportunities for women, create business-enabling networks that address women’s needs. Introduce innovative ICT solutions to solve issues of financial literacy and family consent, provide e-commerce platform and cost effective package to assist micro businesses break
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market limitations, boost the confidence for entrepreneurship, and build networks to enhance leadership qualities.
The second phase on online training addressed pre and post business concerns for monitoring and guidance and collected data on personal background. It involves 20 participants, 20 hours of online business tutoring over 100 course topics, examine the functions of e-learning platform, explore participants’ expectation and satisfaction and study the interaction between mentors and participants. The Phase 2 survey results reveal the preferred topics (human resources management, financial literacy, marketing skill, access to market), behavioral support and stable infrastructure service. The findings and recommendations reveal the women’s unfamiliarity with utilizing ICT for market information, high level of ICT literacy does not assure the ability to access market information or how to translate them to benefit their business.
Recommendations include encouraging women specializing in ICT or women in ICT-related businesses to design e-learning programs tailored for women’s needs and to help women entrepreneurs overcome the challenges.
Ms. Hsiao-Mei Lin Co-Founder and CEO of HEX, Inc. / Thunder Sensing Inc., Chinese Taipei Started her business with her husband as partner. Working on the principle that gamification engages people on an emotional level to achieve their goals they then developed fingertip gaming app on entrepreneurship, global app downloads, “WE boss” (Women Economy). The objective is to educate women to develop skills using game applications while addressing limitations on time, cost and space. The fun and user-friendly application educate and train women in startups in an interactive way allowing them to gain competence and learn to SWOT (identify strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats), and provide translations into different languages to close the communication gap between people from urban cities to those from villages/provinces.
Question & Answer
1) What about idiom?
Response: Ms. Hsiao-Mei Lin offered options in the App that can integrate settings for access to different languages/dialects.
2) There was a comment that availability and reliability of Wi-Fi connection and IP concerns must be addressed to make this effective. It was mentioned that infrastructure issues will be addressed in another session later.
Session 2 Successful Cases of Women’s Economic Empowerment by Economy Presentation
Moderator: Ms. Ching-Cheng Chang Chinese Taipei
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Speakers:
Ms. Carol Hanlon CEO of Belmont BEC, Australia Presented their experience in online training and development to empower women in Australia thru BPW Business Incubator. Creating non-profit initiatives to assist women entrepreneurs (25,000 were assisted and 10% in SMEs) they developed simple data gathering requiring basic yes/no answers, monitored skills requirements and needs by asking “do they need the skills?”, provided 9100 topics with free webinars, addressed demand and support of SMEs, SWOT emotional attachments, financial feasibilities, activated sponsorships and networking, personal mentoring, provides 24/7 online support. She shared actual participants experience profile.
Ms. Yunkeum Chang Director of the Institute of Leadership and General Education at Sookmyung Women’s University Presented ICT programs in the Republic of Korea and shared actual cases using the Gyeonggi Women’s Development Center (GWDC) and Women’s Enterprise Supporting Center (WESC) startup incubator. They developed programs for women as leaders and used ICT as KRA. The Informatization Promotion Basic Law in 1995 initiated the emergence of Cyber Korea 21, eKorea Vision 2006 and Broadband IT Korea Vision 2007 Converging. They addressed the gender digital divide by providing internet classes for a million housewives in 2001 which doubled in 2003, ande-Business for women in 2004. Women’s education is one of the greatest contributors to development. The percentage of women internet usage in Korea vary from age levels from 99% for ages 40 below and decreased to 41% for seniors (60 and up).
GWDC has managed 22 women entrepreneur annually since 1999, with 48 startups with public academic partnerships. WESC has 14 branches in multiple cities operating 171 women business incubators since 2007.
Ms. Olga Pizarro Stiepovic Professor of Del Desarrollo University, Chile Presented demographical data of women entrepreneurs in Chile: 25% women entrepreneurs with 71% doing it for opportunity and 29% out of necessity. SWOT analysis include cultural conditions where more women are educated than men but women lack the confidence to start a business or afraid of failure. Women in Chile tend to prioritize their children and husbands with the latest gadgets and settle with older gadgets for themselves or not have gadgets at all which limits their digital connectivity. There is also a language barrier because most of them do not know the English language. There are efforts to promote entrepreneurship by the state and in the academe but needs sustainable support from personal mentoring. Actual cases of successful women entrepreneurs were presented.
Ms. Chiqui Escareal-Go President, Mansmith& Fielders, Inc., Philippines Study on an online training and mentoring program. Shared 5 actual cases of women entrepreneurs although 1 backed out in the course of study. The criteria for their selection include diversity, have no previous engagement with existing program organizers and do not require them to be “internet savvy.” SWOT analysis include human to ICT infrastructure factors (affected by internet speed, type of computer, time management) and human-to- human concerns like need for personal mentoring and peer engagement. They found the
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course training helpful but had difficulty with language barrier affecting comprehensibility, time factor affected viewing flexibility, while expectations ranged from improved business or to build their business confidence, 75% satisfaction rating against 25% unsatisfied who will not recommend this training to others.
Lunch Break
AFTERNOON SESSION
Presentation on the APEC Women’s Participation in the Digital Economy
Dr. Patrice Braun Adjunct Professor, Collaborative Research Network Federation University, Australia Presented WEF 2015 Agenda on women as prime movers of inclusive growth. To address this there is a need to enhance women-led SMEs competitiveness, strengthen women’s presence in regional and global economy, target skills and capacity development approaches, and consider the enabling environment that women operate within. He posits scenarios like how does one keep up with the pace of technology and the connectivity of devices, integration and globalization of and through ICT (telephony, technology roadmaps, ecosystem support, etc.) and possible disruptions. Human-centered thinking should be considered in all phases. Working IN the business is different from working ON the business. Every ecosystem is unique, and women are only as good as their enabling environment.
Presentation on “Interaction of Women Friendly App”
Ms. Hannah Chou Co-Founder of Our City Love Social Enterprise, Chinese Taipei Presented survey App targeting People with Disability (PWD). 80% of PWDs surveyed were women reliant on family (husband or children) to assist them in operating the app on gadgets. Reported SWOT analysis using actual scenarios of PWDs’ concerns like locating PWD friendly establishments, career opportunities for PWDs, etc. The use of ICT as a powerful tool to assist PWDs navigate the real world maximized ICT’s potential and relevance to all sectors of society. “It’s not people who are disabled; it’s the environment that is disabled.”
Presentation on the Project Toolkit / Overview of Breakout
Facilitators: Ms. Rosario M. Gruet, Philippines Dr. Ching-Cheng Chang, Chinese Taipei
Introduced the objectives and discussion rules, the topics, the moderators, the timetable, and presentation module after. The four topics for discussion and the moderators are as follows: 1) Capacity Building – Dr. Patrice Braun (Australia) 2) Entrepreneurship – Dr. Olga Pizzaro Stiepovic (Chile) 3) Infrastructure – Dr. Yunkeum Chang (Republic of Korea) 4) Public-Private Partnership – Ms. Chiqui Go (Philippines)
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BREAKOUT SESSION & PRESENTATION
I. CAPACITY BUILDING Moderator: Dr. Patrice Braun, Australia
The development and enhancement of skills and knowledge from the grassroots level to marginalized groups, from training and workshops to enhance character build up and proper structures to empower women not only in the macro economy but also from small home- based initiatives, address language barrier and other communication concerns, provide technical support and infrastructure will address business and financial literacy, provide access to jobs or business ideas, peer teaching/counseling.
Members of this discussion group include representatives from Russia, Chile, Peru, Philippines and Spain.
II. ENTREPRENEURSHIP Moderator: Ms. Olga Pizarro Stiepovic, Chile
The major challenges affecting women entrepreneurs are cultural differences and practices, economic status of their country and their family which affects financial viability, biased gender roles and expectations, limitations to legal avenues and capital funds, support group to build business confidence and share skills and knowledge, economic sanctions, and inability to utilize ICT to source, build, access markets.
An enhanced program for sustainable entrepreneurship status for women through ICT must have regional cooperation and shared vision to seek support and push their agenda from their government to support women-led businesses, access to loans and simplified loan process, provide baseline data and other data source, create a pilot program, develop ICT learning tools and capabilities to access market and develop ideas.
Members of this group include representatives from Russia (Larisa Ivanisova), Chile (Maritza Lafertte), Thailand (Dr. Monthip Spiratana), Philippines (Hazel Marizella Yap, Dr. Venus Genson) and USA (Tong), Taipei and Papua New Guinea.
III. INFRASTRUCTURE Moderator: Dr. Yunkeum Chang, Republic of Korea
The active presence of government support in activating its authority to make ICT accessible and effective is crucial. This participation requires the appointment of an ICT Specialist who can provide knowledge and vision in improving connectivity and activating robust networking programs. For marginalized countries with limited funds for proper infrastructure support, the support and assistance of regional groups like APEC may provide the proper channels to activate and enhance connectivity weakness. The provisions of incentives for sponsorships and donors and additional support from pooled private organizations and institutions must also be tapped. There is also a clamor for active online support to push infrastructure agenda and get government support and funding. Infrastructure support includes up-to-date hardware devices, internet access even outside of the city, daycare
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centers, online learning programs with well-designed courses and system compatible platform, affordable internet infrastructure and equitable access to ICT.
Members of this group include representatives from Australia (Carol), Indonesia (Indra), Russia (Karina), New Zealand (Wendy) and the Philippines (Tina, Dina, Mitch) and Dr. Chang from Korea.
IV. PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP Moderator: Ms. Chiqui Escareal-Go, Philippines
The dynamics of the support coming from PPPs in terms of scholarships, private collaborations, government incentives, proper policy and implementation support, economic/capital funding, and exchange program, women empowerment programs, can enhance the proper network and cooperation in different countries and the regions. But the crucial and integral part is how to be able to harness these partnerships. And how can initiatives convey proper support channels and meet the needs and demands of women especially in SMEs.
The recommendations presented were to network directly with government or political and authority figures conversant and sympathetic to the cause of women to aggressively push the agenda of crafting legislation, support effective language translation and technical support and pass effective policies and proper implementations of laws that will allow easy access to women-led initiatives in grants funding and organizational support. Another is to create a portal for regional cooperation of women to seek assistance, redress and support.
Members of this discussion group include representatives from the USA (Marily Mondejar), Korea (So Young Lee), Philippines (Luna Fojas, Milagros Lacson), Peru (Jessica Soto, Lorena Sandoval), Chile (Mateo) and Taipei (Hannah Chou).
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Annex G: APEC Women’s Business and Smart Technology Seminar: Including & Leveraging Smart Technology for Empowering APEC Women Entrepreneurs
Summary Report 15 September 2015 | 02:00 PM – 06:00 PM Summit HallsE and F, Philippine International Convention Center Metro Manila, Philippines
Host: Asia Pacific Women’s Information Network Center (APWINC) of Sookmyung Women’s University, Republic of Korea Department of Trade and Industry, Philippines
Organizer: Global Women’s ICT Network (GWIN), Republic of Korea TeamAsia, Philippines
Support: Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Republic of Korea NS Home Shopping, Republic of Korea SAMSUNG, Republic of Korea
Co-sponsors: Australia, Chinese Taipei, Viet Nam
Participants: Total 110 participants composed of APEC Delegates (12 economies), women entrepreneurs, government officers and academic scholars
Objectives:
. To promote women-owned businesses using smart technologies and to inform them of current trends such as smart services (3D printing, big data, etc.) and sharing of best practices and useful resources for launching start-ups. . To share experiences and business models of successful women businesses based on smart technologies in APEC economies. . To formulate policies and develop strategies for leveraging smart technology. The results will be reported to PPWE, WEF, or other related Fora, Policy Partnership on Science, Technology and Innovation (PPSTI). . To create an APEC “in-house online accelerator support system for start-ups” by partnering with regional entities that can then be leveraged by women entrepreneurs when launching their start-ups.
< Session Highlights > Opening and Welcome Remarks
Moderator: Ms. Maria Montserrat Hamlin, President of TeamAsia, PH
Opening Remarks: Dr. Yong Ja Kim, Vice President of GWIN, ROK Welcome Remarks: Hon. Nora K. Terrado, CHAIR, APEC WE 2015 FORA, Undersecretary (Usec.), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), PH Congratulatory Remarks:
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Ms. Min Jai Lee, CHAIR of Korean Women Entrepreneurs Association, ROK Ms. Myrna Tang-Yao, President of Business & Professional Women (BPW), PH Ms. Joeng Ae Bang, Internal Auditor of Credit Guarantee & Investment Facility, Trust Fund of Asian Development Bank, PH
Keynote Speech Session : Highlights of the Current Issues and Trends for Women Entrepreneurs
Moderator: Dr. Paul Chao-Chia Huang, Managing Director, LoFTechnology, Inc. Chinese Taipei
Speakers:
Hon. Nora K. Terrado, CHAIR, APEC WE 2015 FORA, Usec, DTI, PH . Highlights that “As an enabler, Technology can help us steer our businesses to success. It is vital to development. The two are closely tied. But we need to properly manage technological advancement in a way that is inclusive, facilitates our continuing integration in the global supply chain, and leads us to sustainable growth and development”.
Dr. Kio Chung Kim President of GWIN, ROK, Dr. Myonghee Kim, Director of APWINC, ROK . Current Status of Women (emphasizing that women’s empowerment is also a smart strategy for national development) . Introduction of 3 Disruptive Technologies that can bring empowerment for women: Mobile, IoT (Internet of Things), 3D Printer . Support System for APEC Women Entrepreneurs (e.g., partnering with regional accelerator programs)
Dr. Lorna Wright, Executive Director of Centre for Global Enterprise, Schulich School of Business, York Univ., Canada . Smart technology: challenges and opportunities for women-owned business. . Challenges faced by businesses and companies due to the smart technology trends: “7 billion connected mobile devices in the world today (more than one for every human being). Consumers want more convenience and intelligence and less hassle – want connection in real time”. . Advantages of smart technology for women-owned business (ex. Increase margins, lower costs, easier to connect with customers, sup pliers, like-minded people). . What companies, women, government need to do in order to overcome the challenges and take away opportunities in the digital world.
Session on Sharing of Best Practices
Moderator: Dr. Patrice Braun, Adjunct Professor, Collaborative Research Network, Federation University Australia
Speakers: Ms. So Young Lee, Chief Vice President of Korea Information-Technology Business Women’s Association, ROK . Bio-3D-IT convergence for smart women’s business . Emphasis on the endless evolution of Smart ICT convergence: In the 1990s, IT industry consisted of mass production and replication of ITs such as personal computers and internet and during 2000, custom made production and IT convergence so called smart and green has emerged. The next generation of IT industry is collaboration production of IT Co-evolution.
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. Introduction of Bio, ICT, 3D convergence for human life : 1) Bio 3D scanning and printing for anti-aging/injury therapy; 2) Bio 3D ink for patient specific care system; 3) Bio 3D printing for affected area on optimization
Dr. Donald Patrick Lim, Chief Digital Officer of ABSCBN, PH . Sharing his ideas on how women can make use of technology to generate more income and be more inclusive in the digital world. . Sharing homegrown successes on YouTube channel like Kids Toys which trumps ABS-CBN in viewership. . The Philippines is one of the top consumers of YouTube with a significant number of Filipino YouTube personalities penetrating the video-sharing website including ‘Kid’s Toys’ channel that features two young girls unboxing toy after toy that their father bought them. Their unboxing video of ‘Baby Alive’ has already reached a whopping 90 million views, their most watched video so far.
Ms. Magdalah Racine-Silva, President & Chief Executive Officer, DMS International, USA . Emphasizes that educational and experience diversity among women is a complement to using technology to solve problems . Underlines that new 21st century leader traits are needed for global success. Comparison between perceptions of women’s traits versus traits needed for success. She quoted that “Tenacity/Resilience, Drive/Passion and Work Ethic” rank among the Top 3 traits cited as most attributing to our success. Thus, mindset is what really matters for success, with technology breaking down the unconscious bias that women can’t be as good as men.
Session on Overcoming Challenges in Launching your Business
Moderator: Dr. Yunkeum Chang, Director of Institute of Leadership & General Education, Sookmyung Women’s University, ROK
Speakers: Ms. Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Founder, Chairwoman & CEO of Care.com, USA . Points out that some companies just focus on their business model and think of brand as the pretty pictures, colors and taglines. Thus, underlines that your company’s brand is your authentic relationship with your employees, clients and stakeholders. . In order to be a successful women entrepreneur she needs to surround herself with a team that she shares values with, be careful of choosing an investor and think big and then engineer the company for scale
Dr. Chonchanok Viravan, President, Pathanasomdoon Company Limited and former President of Business Professional Women (BPW International), Thailand . To launch Start-up business, one can start with social media like Facebook because social media is the quickest and most affordable way to create online presence of your business. This can later help build content for future website. By doing so an entrepreneur does not have to jump right into opening online shop and understand the expense and risks involved in starting online businesses.
Ms. Teri Jayun Ham, Founder of H Network Consulting Group, Director of International Development, GWIN, USA . Underlining the use of Start-up accelerators which offer discounted or free resources to help entrepreneurs launch their businesses. Some of the services offered include: mentorship, training and other educational components, and business support (technical, HR, design, communications, marketing, call centers, etc).
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. Call for collaborating APEC women entrepreneurs to launch the APEC Women Entrepreneur Start-up Accelerator Program (AWESAP) pilot: 1) for start-up accelerators who would be willing to become program partners and allow our pilot participants to leverage their services and tools to launch their start-ups; 2) for corporate/business partners who would be willing to train our pilot participants to help give them the skills and development they need to be more effective and competitive.
Results of the Seminar
The speakers covered a wide range of issues connected with women entrepreneurs and smart technology, which participants found most informative and inspirational. Participants were encouraged to comment on what they were learning throughout the session and upload these in real time to the GWIN website (www.gwin.or.kr). These comments were organized around three questions: 1. What are the opportunities using smart technologies? 2. What are the challenges using smart technologies? 3. What are your key takeaways from today’s event?
Opportunities 1. Crowdsourcing 2. Crowdfunding 3. Business having real time interaction with customers and suppliers. 4. Establishing linkages 5. The potential for 3D printing to allow anyone to develop innovative products inexpensively. 6. Have government invest in training start-ups so they can better access smart technology connecting people.
Challenges 1. Lack of training and knowledge about smart technologies 2. Lack of information on what is available 3. Disconnect between what is needed and service delivery. 4. Technology is changing too rapidly. One can’t keep up. 5. Connectivity issues (e.g., speed, access, cost, stable connections) 6. Logistical problems in exporting, particularly on how to handle different regulatory issues. 7. Getting people to trust 8. Charge back risks 9. Women facing technology related violence. 10. Calculating ROI from use of social media.
Key take-away 1. Female traits of leadership are needed in the 21st century. 2. Biotech and 3 D printing are the most important technologies (Chile) 3. Need to promote a more entrepreneurial mindset in women. 4. In building a brand need to be authentic. Authenticity and passion will make business sustainable. 5. Smart technologies are diverse and disruptive. 6. Smart technologies are great equalizers. You don’t need the huge capital investment required in bricks and mortar business. 7. Trust and reputation are critical for business success. 8. You can make money from YouTube total views. 9. Technology is critically important in this era. The willingness of APWINC to extend their hand in helping women entrepreneurs is appreciated.
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Recommendations
1. Develop an APEC/WEF Portal of Trade and Exchange 2. Develop an APEC accelerator program for women start-ups 3. Develop training programs to teach women avenues for generating income – e.g., how to use free technology to make money (e.g., You Tube) or how to link to the “gig” economy to monetize spare resources, such as a spare room or a car sitting idle most of the day (e.g., through Airbnb, Uber)
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