Bangkok--5 Mar--UNISBKK
Event on 9 March will address need for gender considerations in responses to financial downturn
To commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day, the United Nations system in Thailand will hold a special event next Monday on the theme “Gender implications of the economic crisis in Asia-Pacific.”
The event will address the need to incorporate gender considerations into both short-term and long-term policy responses to economic downturns, including stimulus packages and social protection measures, and moreover to strengthen investment in women’s empowerment.
This was a lesson learned from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, and one which has strong implications for the crisis unfolding today — as economic downturns and volatility have the greatest impact on the world’s poor — women tend to be hit harder due to persistent gender-specific inequalities in labour markets as well as traditional views of men’s and women’s roles in the economy and society.
The event will feature keynote remarks by Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and Ms. Gwi-Yeop Son, UN Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative for the United Nations Development Programme in Thailand, as well as a dialogue with practitioners — including the chief executive officer of THAICOM, the Director of the Thai Labour Campaign, the Executive Coordinator of the Committee for Asian Women, and a senior research specialist from the Thailand Development Research Institute — on the diverse impacts of the crisis on women and required responses.
A reception will be held following the formal programme, accompanied by a film and exhibition. The event is organized by the UN Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, an interagency group co-chaired by ESCAP and the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
Members of the press are invited to attend the International Women’s Day event, which will start on Monday, 9 March, at 9.00 a.m. in Conference Room 4 of the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok.
Speakers will also be available for media interviews prior to or following the event.
For more information, please contact:
UN Information Services
Tel: +66 2 288 1861-9
Fax: +66 2 288 1052
Email: [email protected]