Asia-Pacific Capacity Development on Gender and Macroeconomic Issues (Asia-Pacific GEM)

Asia has been achieving rapid economic growth for decades. More countries in the region are joining the multilateral, regional and bilateral trade arrangements. Despite such development, the region still faces high poverty and hunger incidences. Inequalities between the countries and among different social strata within a country have widened. Women increasingly join the labor force as coping mechanisms during economically difficult times or to respond to opportunities resulting from globalization processes. However, their responsibilities in unpaid domestic work such as caring of family members remain; as a result, women bear the double-burden of work. Gender inequality remains a significant challenge in the region. External economic shocks such as global food, fuel, and economic crises have gender differentiated impacts. Gender-responsive macroeconomic policies and related development projects are urgently required for the Asia-Pacific countries to ensure the gender equality over the course of development.

In order to response to these issues, UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre initiated the Asia-Pacific Capacity Development project on Gender and Macroeconomic Issues (Asia-Pacific GEM) in late 2009. The 2009-2011 project is supported by the Government of Japan through Japan-UNDP Partnership Fund. The aim of the project is to assist the countries in the region to enhance their capacity of gender-responsive policy making and programme development in the areas of budget, employment and work, statistics as well as trade and investment. The project activities include:

• Regional intensive course on gender and macroeconomic issues
• Policy advice and technical support to related capacity development projects at national and community levels
• Knowledge management and sharing
• Expert referrals services