The PPWE has partnered with other APEC working groups to incorporate gender equality and women’s empowerment into their sector-specific public-private dialogues, ministerial meetings, and projects and programs to ensure that barriers to women’s economic empowerment are addressed across sectors.
Human Resource Development Working Group (HRDWG)
The PPWE is collaborating with the HRDWG to implement training programs for developing the skills of women, fostering an enabling environment to create better quality jobs for women, and establishing capacity building centers to help women achieve competencies to meet the demands of industry, as well as enhance educational opportunities for women and girls.
HRDWG and Health Working Group (HWG)
Full participation of women in the economy is essential to achieve inclusive economic growth; however, women’s ability to access economic opportunities is sometimes hindered by health concerns. Thus, the PPWE is collaborating with the HRDWG and HWG on the “Healthy Women, Healthy Economies” initiative. A Policy Toolkit was developed to address health-related barriers specific to women so they can join, remain and rise in the work force. The Policy Toolkit includes policy recommendations and practices on: workplace health and safety; health access and awareness; gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health; and work/life balance. The Policy Toolkit can serve as a guide to APEC member economies in implementing actions on a voluntary basis and choosing actions appropriate for their economy.
Transportation Working Group (TPTWG)
Women’s inclusion in transportation, both as employees and users, is crucial to achieving full economic potential. In line with the directive of the Transportation Ministers, we will work with the Transportation Working Group (TPTWG) to develop and implement a framework for the collection of data and implementation of best practices that will enhance opportunities and measure progress for women in transportation. The Women in Transportation (WiT) Task Force will work with the PPWE to establish a “network of champions” from each economy to shape, coordinate, plan, and execute the proposed framework across its five pillars: education, recruitment, retention, leadership and safe use, and access to transportation systems.
Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG)
Recognizing that the Asia-Pacific is the most natural disaster-affected region, the PPWE collaborated with the EPWG to identify and address the needs and concerns of women and girls in emergency preparedness and post-disaster recovery and resilience.
The outcome of the PPWE project “Good Practices of Women Entrepreneurship in Local Communities in the Process of Local Reconstruction” has been shared with the EPWG as a valuable reference for achieving inclusive and sustainable recovery in the post-disaster phase, which can also contribute to the enhanced linkage between the two working groups.
Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG)
The case for increased participation of women-led SMEs in export and global markets is compelling from both a developmental and economic perspective. Recognizing that APEC economies can grow and create jobs by offering gender-responsive trade promotion services, the project “Promoting SME Development: Assisting Women-Owned SMEs Access the Global Markets” focused on strengthening trade promotion agencies to better serve women-led SMEs.
Economic Committee (EC)
The project “Capacity Building for the Reduction of Educational Gender Gaps through Structural Reforms” was launched to enhance education with equal opportunities for women in APEC economies. With this purpose, the project focuses on improving the capacity of civil servants to adapt, design, implement and evaluate gender gap reduction policies. The project is directly related to the APEC New Strategy for Structural Reform (ANSSR), as well as the SME and Women Development pillar, which has driven the recent activities of the Economic Committee.
