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Promoting Gender Equality in the Labor Market: RETA Publications Launch

31 March 2014, K-hub 10-11am

Launch Remarks (5 mins) James Nugent, Director General, Southeast Asia Department, ADB

Asia has made great strides over the last decade in narrowing gender gaps in

education, health, employment and political participation. Today, we have more girls in

schools, fewer women dying in childbirth, more women in national parliaments,

decision-making bodies and in paid employment.

However, this increased participation has not translated into equal economic

opportunities for men and women. Gender inequalities remain in women’s access to

wage employment outside agriculture, decent work, and access to productive resources

such as land, credit, and financial services. Women continue to constitute the “buffer

workforce” as low-paid flexible workers in the labor market, and within households as

secondary earners. Today, only 30% of Asian women are in non-agriculture wage

employment, and in some countries even less than 20%.1 And women typically earn

less - between 20%-50% less than the male wage.2

The recently released World Bank publication Gender at Work: A companion to the

2013 World Development Report on Jobs underscores the same issues. It revealed

that by virtually every global measure, women are more economically excluded than

men and that women's labor force participation rate worldwide over the last two

1 ESCAP, ADB, UNDP (2011). Paths to 2015: MDG Priorities in Asia and the Pacific. Asia Pacific. MDG Report

201/2011. 2 ESCAP, ADB, UNDP (2011). pg.11

The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of

Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of

their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

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decades has plateaued, despite cumulative evidence that jobs for women benefit

families, businesses, and communities. Gender at Work is a “bird’s eye” macro view of

gender equality in the global labor market.

The Seven Gender Gaps in the Labor Market

Let me turn now to the task at hand. The 5 publications that are being jointly launched

today by ADB & ILO are a micro, “fish eye view” of gender equality in the labor market

in 3 countries in the Asia and Pacific region, Cambodia, Philippines and Kazakhstan.

Two of these countries are in my region - South East Asia.

The Asia reports highlight “7 major gender deficits” in the labor market - gaps in labor

force participation rates, employment rates, human capital, unpaid domestic and care

work burden, share of vulnerable employment, decent work, and social protection.

What this means, is that despite impressive economic growth rates in Asia, it has not

translated into sufficient employment growth, least of all, for women. In summary, the

publications show that despite reducing gender disparities in human capital (in

Cambodia) and labor force participation rates (the Philippines), the gender gaps in paid

employment rates, wage parity, productive and decent work persists, and in some

cases has actually increased.

What is ADB doing about generating jobs for women?

ADB needs to “walk the talk”, or should I say “work the talk”?

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ADB is supporting women’s participation in the labor market in many different ways

through our lending operations by providing (i) jobs and income-earning opportunities;

(ii) technology transfer, skills training, market infrastructure to improve women’s

incomes, and; (iii) access to, financial services and credit for income generation and

livelihood opportunities.

Our technical and vocational education projects are supporting greater alignment of

women’s skills to labour market needs, increasing the range of employment options for

girls and in jobs that pay better. A good example is our TVET project in the Lao PDR

that provides stipends to girls for training in traditional male trades and wage subsidies

to enterprises for employing girls.

In the Philippines, ADB is supporting the Government’s MyFirstJob pilot program,

providing job search assistance and internship programs for young, out-of-school youth,

targeting 1600 school leavers, of which 50% are females.

Similarly, the Greater Mekong Sub-region tourism development project, trained women

to operate tourism-related micro-enterprises and constructed a night market in Lao PDR

to support the livelihoods of rural women vendors and suppliers.

In Cambodia, rural road projects have included quotas for women’s employment in road

construction and maintenance, providing valuable and immediate cash income

opportunities for poor rural women.

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The publications, together make the case that Cambodia, the Philippines and

Kazakhstan need to expand employment and decent work opportunities for women in

the agriculture, industrial, manufacturing, and services sectors, as well as in promoting

women’s entrepreneurship. The case can be made for the region as a whole. This

requires gender sensitive macroeconomic policies and national employment plans and

strategies with time bound targets. Progressive, broad-based, and coordinated policy

actions are needed to close gender gaps in the labor market.

To achieve better employment outcomes for women, ADB, its member countries, the

ILO and the Philippines Commission on Women need to work together to play our part

in directly and indirectly generating decent jobs for women.

With these brief remarks I co-launch the 5 publications. Thank you .