
Women powering trade unions in Asia Pacific
17 September 2018
The Platform
of Action for Gender Equality (PAGE) for the period 2015 - 2019
sets out a policy framework for ITUC-AP's approach to and wider work on gender
equality. It includes strategies and recommended areas of intervention to
advance its implementation in the following:
·
Increasing
women’s labour force participation and access to decent work;
·
Building
a union leadership with a minimum of 30% women representation;
·
Organising
informal, precarious and domestic workers; and
·
Recruiting
and organising young women workers.
At the ITUC-AP level,
PAGE is primarily implemented through the activities of the Gender Equality
Activities Department, as well as in the activities of all other Units of the
ITUC-AP Secretariat. The ITUC-AP Women’s Committee assists with promoting,
monitoring, reviewing and analysing periodic reports and assessing outcomes
achieved.
The ITUC-AP Secretariat utilises
two complementary approaches to facilitate the achievement of desired outcomes:
· Explicit
integration of gender equality in its policies, programs and projects (gender mainstreaming); and
·
Support
affiliates’ activities and own work to develop or implement national strategies
and actions plans which specifically target the promotion of gender equality
(targeted measures for women’s empowerment).
Advancing
women’s agenda through the ITUC-AP Women’s Committee
The Committee
is a regional body composed of women leaders from ITUC-AP’s 59 affiliated
organisations in 34 countries in the region.
Meeting annually, the
Committee is a key platform for affiliates’ gender focal points to monitor and evaluate
progress of gender equality mainstreaming in both the operations of ITUC-AP and
affiliates. It provides opportunities for members to share knowledge and tools
and showcase best practices, experiences and lessons learned in localising the
implementation of PAGE.
Composed of a diverse
group of union women leaders and activists, the committee also advises on key
actions for strengthening and improving the achievements of the union women
movement in the region.