The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed and increased the vulnerabilities faced by women and has underlined the need for meaningful and lasting solutions. With Covid-19, a multitude of repercussions have emerged from growing injustice and gender inequalities for women workers, economic hardships and indebtedness, to increasing unpaid care and domestic work and rising gender-based violence.
Social protection is one of the most powerful tools for governments to reduce inequality, vulnerability and poverty. It is an essential pillar of redistributive policies when it puts money that has been gathered through progressive taxation into the hands of those who have less. If designed with a gender lens, social protection can make a substantial contribution to gender equality and the empowerment of women. An ASEAN collective response to Covid-19 is needed to reflect more inclusive gender transformative policies, where women and girls are included in the conversations to empower them to reap full rights and benefits in the workplace and beyond.
Objectives:
- This forum aims to promote knowledge sharing and stir discussions among key stakeholders from ASEAN permanent representatives and sectoral bodies, NGOs, development partners, civil society, social protection experts and practitioners about the role of social protection in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment and in addressing UCDW.
- The forum will allow participants to learn from best practices in creating fiscal space for social protection that empowers women and investing in a care economy as an opportunity to ‘build forward better’ through sustained care systems.
- The forum will also serve as a platform to facilitate cross-movement building and solidarity among civil society groups and social movements mobilizing for social protection, care and gender equality.
The event will bring together women’s organizations, gender and women affairs experts, social protection experts, national and international organizations, civil society organizations, UN agencies, ASEAN Committee on Women, ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare and Development, relevant Ministerial bodies, and individuals interested in the cause of women’s empowerment and advancement.
