A workshop on developing the results framework of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) Work Plan 2016-2020 opened in Hanoi on October 18.

The event, organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs, the ASEAN Secretariat, the UN Women and the UNICEF, attracted 20 representatives on the rights of women and children from 10 ASEAN member countries. It was part of the sidelines activities of the third ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Women held in Vietnam.

Opening the workshop, ACWC Chairwoman Sri Danti Anwar said that since its inception, the ACWC has been actively working to realise the goals relating to women and children specified in the ASEAN Charter, the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community, and the bloc’s other documents.

The ACWC Work Plan 2016-2020 focuses on improving the commission’s institutional capacity; eradicating violence against and the trafficking of women and children; promoting the right of children to participate in all affairs that affect them; promoting and protecting the rights of women and children with disabilities; the child protection system; the right to early childhood and quality education; promoting implementation of international, ASEAN, and other instruments related to the rights  of women and children; and the social impacts of climate change on women and children.

Other priorities include gender equality in education in terms of textbooks, the curriculum, and equal access; strengthening economic rights of women with regards to the feminisation of poverty, and women’s rights to land and property; adolescent physical and mental health; gender perspective in policies, strategies, and programmes for migrant workers; gender mainstreaming; early marriage; and female participation in politics and decision making, governance, and democracy.

As of September 2018, 11 of the ACWC’s initiatives and projects had been completed, with four others currently being carried out and another 25 being built.

At the workshop, participants assessed the commission’s Work Plan, focusing on the strengths of and challenges to project implementation, along with solutions to those challenges. They also specified the results expected when the ACWC Work Plan 2016-2020 is implemented and built a framework for evaluating the implementation.

The workshop will last through October 19. Its outcomes will be reported to the ACWC’s 17th meeting, slated for the following day in Hanoi.