Kuala Lumpur, 23 October 2008 - Stakeholders representing a wide segment of Malaysian society gathered to discuss and provide feedback on the draft Plan of Action for the achievement of at least thirty percent participation of women at decision making levels, under a study being completed by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (MWFCD) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Malaysia. Delegates representing the six sectors being studied under the project, including the various ministries in Malaysia, advocacy groups, representatives from NGOs and CSOs, the law fraternity, private sector and politicians attended the one-day workshop.

In her welcoming remarks, Puan Daratul Baida Osman Khairuddin, UNDP Officer–in–Charge, commended the MWFCD for their efforts in advancing the status of women in the country, and said that UNDP was proud to be a partner in projects that supported inclusive development. She emphasised that gender equality should be a working goal as it was central to development.

Puan Daratul noted that the Beijing +5 review recorded profound changes to the status of women vis-à-vis narrowing gender gaps, particularly in education and health over the last two decades.

“Although women have entered the labour force in unprecedented numbers, and thus increasing potential participation in decision making, nevertheless the progress has been slow and uneven in this area—women continue to be under-represented in formal decision making structures, and these gender disparities persist in public positions. In 2004, it was reported that only 17 countries had achieved the interim goal set at the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action to have women hold at least 30% of national legislative seats.

“Equality between women and men is fair and is right.  It is a worthy goal by itself, one which lies at the heart of human rights and one which is also central to progress in human development.  .  The relative status of women and men, the interaction between gender and race, class and ethnicity, and questions of rights, control, ownership, power and voice – all these have a critical impact on the success and sustainability of every development intervention,” she said.

“To enable women to participate in decision making that affect their families, communities and population as a whole, new mechanisms that allow women to directly influence the broader economic and political spheres have to be established. This Workshop will use the participatory approach to enable stakeholders from the public and private sectors, civil society and academia to look at the issues and challenges faced by women, and provide recommendations to overcome the obstacles to progress. By the sharing of experiences, knowledge and lessons learnt in gender mainstreaming, it is hoped that the goals envisaged in the Millennium Development Goal on promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2015 can be achieved,” she said.

In her opening remarks, YB Puan Noriah Kasnon, Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, thanked the various groups for their commitment and participation at the Workshop to provide feedback and input to the Draft Integrated Final Report and the proposed Plan of Action towards achieving at least 30% participation of women at decision-making levels in Malaysia.

She noted that in Malaysia, the female labour force participation rate was low—46.4% in 2007—compared with Singapore (56.7%), Thailand (71.4%), Japan (61.3%), USA (69.3%) and Sweden (77.7%). In terms of the total labour force, women made up only 35.9% of the total labour force. Participation of women in politics has increased only very moderately: 2.9% of those elected to Parliament in 1959 were women, compared to only 10.8% in 2008. The percentage of women elected to State Assemblies was 2.7% in 1986, and 8.0% in 2008. In the Senate, the percentage of women fell from 33% in 2004 to 26.7% in 2008.

“But thirteen years after the Beijing Platform for Action endorsed by the 4th World Conference on Women, progress has been slow to limited. Despite the long-standing recognition of the fundamental right of men and women to participate fully in society, in practice the gap between de jure and de facto equality in the area of decision making remains wide. To address this persistent imbalance, the UNDP and MWFCD have embarked on this project to formulate a Plan of Action towards achieving at least 30% participation of women at decision making levels in Malaysia,” she said.

YB Puan Noriah Kasnon outlined the following steps that could have a positive impact on improving the status and representation of women in positions of power: continuous consultations and dialogues in the formulation of the national action agenda; changing mindsets through intervention and education to promote greater awareness among men and women of issues concerning diversity and inclusiveness in society as a whole, including the workplace; and changing negative perceptions and institutionalised stereotyping on the role of women vis-à-vis motherhood.

Following the official opening speeches, Ms Askiah Adam, the Lead Consultant of the UNDP-MWFCD project, provided a general overview of the Plan of Action after which delegates participated in various breakout sessions. ( Please see the report of the proceedings of the workshop and presentation for further information.)  Feedback from the event was useful and was incorporated into the project report and plan of action to be presented formally to the government at the start of 2009.