Jakarta – A high level meeting of ASEAN countries in Jakarta called on Indonesian government officials Wednesday to collaborate and approach the grassroots community to promote gender equality.
Regional Program Director of UNIFEM for East and Southeast Asia, Jean D'Cunha, said that various ministries needed to think and act to solve various gender inequality issues.
"The responsibility for guaranteeing women's rights rests with various government structure, such as the National Planning Board and the Finance Ministry, with the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment at the helm," D'Cunha said.
The two-day meeting is jointly organized by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment and the ASEAN Committee on Women to narrow the gender gap in the region through refined policy making.
D'Cunha told The Jakarta Post that Indonesia urgently needed a change of attitude and values to hasten progress.
ASEAN consists of Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
A 2005 World Economic Forum study concluded that Malaysia and Thailand were ahead of Indonesia in achieving gender equality when it comes to the workforce.
Representative ASEAN women's ministers planned to come to a conclusion Thursday based on previous provisions from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Indonesia ratified CEDAW in 1984, integrated gender mainstreaming policy in 2000, and passed the Domestic Violence Law in 2004.
The 10 ASEAN member countries are among the 194 states that have ratified the "women's bill of rights" which is the cornerstone of all UNIFEM programs.
Besides CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals set forth governments' commitments to enhance women's rights.
"We need to promote and implement the equitable and effective participation of women in all fields and at various levels of the political, economic, social and cultural life," said State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meutia Hatta.
Indonesian women are still far behind compared to their male counterparts in several sectors, such as education, health and politics, she said.
"There are twice as many illiterate Indonesian women compared to men," said Setiawati, a deputy of Meutia. The main problem, she said, was that decision making in households was usually left to the men.
"Maternal deaths in Indonesia are among the highest in ASEAN countries, about 307 per 100,000 women," Setiawati said.
For an Indonesian family, if they have limited finances and have two children, a boy and a girl, many would opt to pay for the boy's education although the girl might have a better aptitude toward learning. "It's hard work because we have to create a breakthrough in unconducive social and cultural conditions," Setiawati said.
In politics, Indonesia wants to reach a level where 30 percent of politicians are women, but in fact women comprise only 11 percent of all politicians, she added.