December 2012: A regional women’s dialogue organized by UN Women and partners has issued a statement calling on governments and agencies to address violence against women, workers’ rights, and access to sexual and reproductive health, in their quest for sustainable development.

At the “Regional Dialogue on Sustainable Development and the Post-2015 Development Agenda,” held on 3-5 November 2012, in Bangkok, Thailand, participants stressed the need for convergence of parallel processes on the post-2015 development agenda, sustainable development goals (SDGs), and the 20-year review of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). They called for strong representation of women’s issues at UN multilateral events in 2013 and 2014, and capacity building of government delegations regarding sexual and reproductive health issues. Dialogue participants also called for: equal rights to land ownership and equal access to productivity-enhancing technology; legal protection for women and migrant workers; women’s participation in post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding; and adequate financing for the sexual and reproductive health agenda beyond family planning, including younger adolescents.

The resulting statement, “The Future Asia Pacific Women Want,” highlights the suffering of women in conflict situations, and the low level of women’s involvement in politics in the region. It calls for non-judicial measures such as truth commissions to begin investigating gender-based crimes, and special measures to increase women’s participation in politics.

The Asia Pacific Gender and Macroeconomic Network (APGEM) newsletter, published by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), features a summary of the dialogue, which was convened by Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and APGEM in collaboration with UN Women.

The dialogue outcome feeds into the global thematic consultation on inequality, which is one of 11 themes being discussed with regard to the post-2015 development agenda. [Asia-Pacific GEM, December 2012] [Outcome Statement: The Future Asia Pacific Women Want]