15 March 2022, Stockholm – The ASEAN Committee in Stockholm (ACS), under the leadership of the Philippine Embassy as Chair of the ACS, hosted a gender-focused virtual forum in cooperation with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs entitled “Towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Leaving No Girl or Woman Behind, ASEAN’s Gender Outlook and Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy”. 

The forum was carried out in commemoration of the International Women’s Month in March 2022, and aimed to discuss the challenges encountered, and the initiatives and successes that have been achieved in efforts to narrow the gender gap and realise the SDGs for all.

In her opening remarks, HE. Ambassador of the Philippines Maria Lumen B. Isleta highlighted the progress made by the international community in achieving the SDGs, including: increase in life expectancy at birth from 67.5 years old (1995) to 75.2 years old (2020); increase number of girls provided opportunities for primary and secondary education with only 129 million (2020) out of school compared to 208 million (1995); and lowered number of women married before turning 18 years old from 1 out of 4 (1995) to 1 out of 5 (2020). She noted the risk to the gains achieved in gender equality and women’s right due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ambassador Isleta also emphasised the importance of BREAKING THE BIAS, as the international community work towards building a world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive, free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.

The invited resource speakers discussed the following topics:

• H.E. Ambassador Ekkaphab Phanthavong, Deputy Secretary General of the ASEAN Secretariat for Socio-Cultural Community provided an overview of the ASEAN Gender Outlook, which allows the ASEAN Committee on Women, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the UN Women to track how the ASEAN region has fared with respect to the SDGs, particularly on the area of gender equality.
• Datuk Yasmin Mahmood, Chair of the Heriot-Watt University in Malaysia highlighted that women’s participation in the digital economy may be encouraged through training and education that aim to build the capacities of women as entrepreneurs as well as building on private-public partnership.
• Director Pannapa Na Nan of the Department of Disaster Mitigation and Prevention of Thailand shared her experiences in carrying out activities in disaster mitigation and prevention, and the advantage of having women in civil defence (including disaster mitigation and prevention) due to women’s natural empathic nature.
• Director Vanessa Vianca Pallarco of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) in the Philippines discussed the implementation and achievement of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security (NAP WPS) 2017-2022, which aims to ensure that women are not simply beneficiaries of programs and projects but take an active role and serve as catalysts for change.
• H.E. Ambassador for Gender Equality Sofia Calltorp of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provided an overview of the Swedish Feminist Foreign Policy, which aims to address issues such as the lack of rights of women, lack of representation of women, and lack of resources. Sweden looks to continue building alliances, including with Asian countries to be able pursue stronger policies concerning women.
• Ms. Andy Yentriyani, Chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence against Women (NCVAW) of Indonesia discussed how the Covid-19 pandemic have negatively increased violence against women and children, especially those belonging to the lower income bracket and how the NCVAW is working to address the gaps in VAW response, which were made apparent by the pandemic.

A video recording of the virtual forum may be viewed at the Embassy’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/110954093946509/videos/388357169330548