Catalysing change for gender equality.

Byline: Salsiah Alisjahbana and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Great strides have been taken to empower women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing adopted an ambitious global agenda to achieve gender equality twentyfive years ago. Gender parity has been achieved in primary education.

Maternal mortality has been halved. Today, the region's governments are committed to overcoming the persistent challenges of discrimination, gender-based violence and women's unequal access to resources and decision-making. The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference for the Beijing+25 Review will meet in Bangkok this week to explore how more Beijing Declaration commitments can be met to improve the lives of women and girls in the region.

Asia-Pacific governments have reviewed their progress and identified three priority areas, areas where action is imperative to accelerate progress in the coming five years. First, we must end violence against women, such a severe human rights violation which continues to hinder women's empowerment. As many as one in two women in the region have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in the last 12 months. Countries in the region have adopted laws and policies to Catalysing change for gender equality Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka prevent and respond to violence against women.

This is progress on which we must build. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2015 adopted the convention against trafficking in persons, Especially Women and Children, and a Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence against Women in 2018. Free legal services, hotlines and digital applications to report violence, and emergency shelters and safe spaces for survivors are increasingly common. New partnerships are underway challenging stigma and stereotypes, working directly with boys and men.

However, more investment is needed to prevent violence, and to ensure all women and girls who experienced violence will have access to justice and essential services. Second, women's political representation must be increased in Asia and the Pacific. Our region's representation rates are behind the global average. Only one in five parliamentarians are women in Asia-Pacific. Despite governments committing to gender parity in decision making 25 years ago in Beijing, the region has seen the share of...