PH delegation seeks to finalize strategic plan for APEC women

A Philippine women delegation has sought to finalize the strategic plan that will promote women economic empowerment in the 21-country member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

The delegation led by Trade and Industry Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado said the group participated in the APEC WE meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on May 2-5.

The APEC WE meeting’s main event “APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy” which is charred by Emmeline Verzosa, executive director of the Philippine Commission on Women, was to draft the plans and projects that empower more women to be part of supply chains, and provide women access to technology, health services, finance and markets.

The delegation is composed of representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Health (DOH), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and Philippine Commission on Women (PCW). Pacita Juan, president of the Women's Business Council of the Philippines (WomenBizPH) also joined the delegation to represent the private sector. The meeting is from May 2 to 5, 2015.

The APEC strategic plan to promote women's economic empowerment is grounded along five pillars, namely, access to capital; access to markets; skills and capacity building, women’s leadership; and innovation and technology.

The meeting will also discuss the APEC women and the economy dashboard which contains indicators to measure women's advancement based on the said pillars.

The Philippine delegation was set to share its experiences and successes in enhancing the enabling environment for women's entrepreneurship through the Gender Responsive Economic Actions for the Transformation of Women (GREAT Women). This program is a governance and capacity development program with technical and financial support from the Canadian government through the Canadian International Development Agency.

Terrado also noted that as the lead government agency in the country’s hosting of the APEC Women and the Economy (APEC WE) Fora this year, the DTI had earlier collaborated with a local women’s private sector organization.

The APEC WE Fora are scheduled from September 16 to 18, 2015 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

“With multi-sectoral collaborations and public-private partnerships and participation in various fora of APEC on Women and Economy, we intend to uphold women’s role and participation in achieving gender equality in economic development in the Asia-Pacific region which bring about concrete, measurable and actionable plans that help economically empower women especially those in the micro and small enterprises,” Terrado added.