Asian Breeze No.100 Online Newsletter
No.

100

January2024

KITAKYUSHU FORUM ON ASIAN WOMEN
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Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women (KFAW) Web-based Newsletter

Janu
Contents

ary

Rice Cakes and the Status of Women in Philippines

１-Patricia B. Licuanan (Former Philippines Minister of Higher Education 2010 to 2018)
Gender equality is key to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

３-Oda Yukiko (Officer , Japan Women’s Watch (JAWW))In this milestone 100th issue, former Philippine Minister of Higher Education Paricia B. Licuanan, who was also
active in the UN, leading the negotiations of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the UN Fourth
Conference on Women, and has been involved in women's higher education in the Philippines for a long time, talks
about gender issues in the Philippines. She spoke about gender issues in the Philippines. Ms. Yukiko Oda, she was
researcher of Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women who has been involved in gender issues at universities and NGOs
for a long time, also explains the keys to achieving the SDGs.

Rice Cakes and the Status of Women in the Philippines-Patricia B. Licuanan
Patricia B. Licuanan PhD is a social psychologist,
educator, and women’s rights and empowerment activist.
She has been professor and chair of the Department of
Psychology and academic vice-president of Ateneo deManila University and president of Miriam College. She
has played leadership roles in the women’s movement bothnationally and internationally serving as chair of the
National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women

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Asian Breeze No.100 Online Newsletter
agencies. Government working for women has
also been enhanced by the creation of the Gender
Budget which sets aside 5% of the budget of all
government agencies (including state colleges
and universities) for programs on gender equality
and women’s empowerment.

(now Philippine Commission on Women) and the United
Nations Commission on the Status of Women as well as
NGO networks in the Asia and Pacific region. At theUnited Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held
in Beijing, China in 1995, she led the negotiations on the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. She wasPhilippine Minister of Higher Education from 2010 to

Beyond national policy, international covenants
on women’s rights such as the Convention on the

2018.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment in
the Philippines is supported by many factors. The
formal policy environment recognizes theequality between women and men and theimportant role of women in national life. The

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women and the Beijing Declaration andPlatform for Action have played important roles.
Aside from the Philippines being signatory tothese, it must be noted that Filipino women,
including 4 who have served as chair of the UN
Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW),
played major roles in the crafting of theselandmark documents.

Philippine constitution has an explicit genderequality provision. There are many significant
and progressive laws such as the comprehensive
Women in Development and Nation Building
Act and more recently the Magna Carta of
Women. The Philippines was the first country in
Asia to have an Anti-Sexual Harassment Law
which has recently been expanded in the Safe
Spaces Act.

After the Global Gender Gap Index of the World
Economic Forum was established in 2006, thePhilippines consistently placed in the top 10 for
over a decade. Today the country’s rating hasgone down but it remains in the top 20, the only
Asian country on the list. And while the UnitedStates is celebrating its first woman vicepresident, the Philippines has had two woman
vice-presidents and two woman presidents andsome extraordinary women in high positions.

During the administration of President Corazon
Aquino, the first Philippine Development Plan
for Women was launched, followed by several
successor plans. The significance of thesenational plans for women is that as companion to
the Philippine Development Plan, they ensurethat women, women’s issues, and women’scontributions are part of national planning andAlong with legislation, policy, and leadership,gender equality and women’s empowerment isdriven at the grassroots level by a strong andvibrant women’s movement, women NGOs thatpush for and support progressive laws andprogramming and the work of all government2

Asian Breeze No.100 Online Newsletter
policies and make their voices heard on

are under-represented in top administrative andimportant issues.

managerial positions and in political leadership.

The status of women in the Philippines ispropelled and enhanced by what the women’s
movement refers to as the “bibingka principle”.
Bibingka, is a national delicacy, a rice cakemade from glutinous rice flour, eggs, and a bit ofsugar, topped with morsels of local white cheese,salted duck egg, and grated coconut. Making it is

Negative attitudes and stereotypes exist andoperate in society. This is particularly obvious inpolitics
wherefactorsofentrencheddiscrimination operate. A large percent of the
population believe that men make better politicalleaders than women. Thus women continue to beseriously underrepresented as candidates fora time-consuming process that involves pouring
the batter into a round pan with hot coal
underneath, then placing more hot coal on top. In
effect, the bibingka is cooked by the burning coalfrom below and above. Thus, the status of

public office although they make up at least halfof the electorate. Violence against women ispresent in many forms---domestic violence, rape,
sexual harassment, and misogynistic statementsin public coming from top male leaders.

women has fire on top in the form of progressive
and enlightened legislation, policy, andleadership and fire at the bottom in the form ofwell-organized, dynamic, and courageous NGOs.

Therefore, advocacy and action for genderequality and women’s empowerment must
continue. There is need to analyze and remedy
the Philippines’ lowered ratings on the Global

So there is a lot working for women in thePhilippines. But there are problems. Women
outnumber men in school enrollment andgraduation but these accomplishments do notnecessarily result in better access to decent jobs
nor parity in work and promotion opportunities.
Men’s average wages are higher than that ofwomen in both rural and urban areas and women

Gender Gap Index. There is need to understandhow a visibly misogynistic leadership emerged
and why it is being tolerated. The “bibingka
principle” should be applied with greater fervor
and determination.

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Asian Breeze No.100 Online Newsletter
Gender equality is key to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development
The SDG Summit: halfway point to 2030
On September 18 and 19, 2023, the UN SDG
Summit took place, bringing together heads ofstate every four years to conduct acomprehensive review of the implementation of
the Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development (hereafter referred
to as the SDGs), adopted by all United Nations
Member States in 2015.
In his opening remarks at the Summit, UN
Secretary-General Guterres stated, ‛Today, only
15 per cent of the targets are on track and manyare going in reverse. Instead of leaving no one-Oda Yukiko
Officer, Japan Women’s Watch (JAWW)

behind, we risk leaving the SDGs behind.’This
follows the UN's Sustainable Development
Report 2023, Special Edition: Towards a Rescue
Plan for People and Planet, which had pointed
out the delay in progress of SDGs
implementation using the expression ‛Promise inperil.’ The Sustainable Development Report(SDR) 2023, published by the Sustainable
Development Solutions Network (SDSN), has

Former Co-facilitator, Gender Unit, Japan Civil Society
Network on SDGs
Oda Yukiko has worked in the fields of research,education, development practice, and civil society as a
researcher at the Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women, auniversity faculty member, a JICA project expert andcommittee member, and an advocate. Her areas ofalso highlighted the slow progress, stating ‛not asingle goal will be achieved by 2030 at thecurrent rate.’

expertise are gender and sustainable development, andshe has been following the SDGs since their birth at the
UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)

Based on this sense of urgency, the Secretary-in 2012, through the adoption of Agenda 2030 at theGeneral outlined what needs to be done in the

UN in 2015, and the subsequent implementation in Japanremaining seven years, firstly to secure financing

from gender and civic perspectives. Her recent

for the achievement of the SDGs and stressed the

publications include ‘Environment, Climate Change andneed to change the international financial

Gender Equality:How Have They Created Synergies?’ inarchitecture. He also identified six targeted areas

International Women, No. 36, 2022.

where urgent transitions are needed: food,4

Asian Breeze No.100 Online Newsletter
renewable energy, digitalization, education,

the UN SDG Summit, with the latest draft

decent work and social protection, and planetary

revision announced in November 2023 andcrises, emphasizing that ensuring full gendercalled for public opinion, a new set of Guiding

equality is a cross-cutting perspective across allthese areas. In this way, he enthusiasticallyPrinciples will be announced in December 2023.

inspired action to achieve the SDGs. The Global

Based on the Guiding Principles, an ‛SDGs

Sustainable Development Report (GSDR), a

Action Plan’ is prepared every year, and actions

reportscientists

are taken accordingly, but the reality is that many

appointed by the UN, centered on transformingof these plans are based on existing programs of

the world, taking from the 2030 Agenda, and saw

ministries and agencies, So, it is difficult to say

the SDGs implementation as a game-changer,that they are plans to achieve the goals set out byviewing it as an opportunity to change the world.

the SDGs.

byfifteenindependent

The most comprehensive review of progress isthe Voluntary National Review (VNR), in which
Progress and challenges of the SDGs in Japancountries report at the High-Level Political

The progress of the SDGs in Japan is evident inForum (HLPF) held annually at the UN. Japan's

the number of people wearing SDG badges inmost recent report was in 2021. To measure thebusiness, government, or civil society, and theprogress of implementation, global indicators are

media offering special programs on the SDGs.

defined in line with the 169 targets of the SDGs,

Thanks to this, awareness of the SDGs in Japanand Japan's corresponding data can be found on

is surprisingly high, at over 90%. However,

the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

despite the prominent level of awareness, Japan's(MOFA), but it is difficult to compare progress

ranking by country, which indexes each

and understand the current situation compared tocountry's progress in achieving the SDGs, hasreports by the UN and other organizations

fallen from 11th in 2017 to 21st in GSDR 2023.

becauseGoal 5, Gender Equality, is the leading goal

Accountability remains in terms of verifying thewhere progress has not been made.

progress of the SDGs in Japan.

some

data

is

not

collected.

In Japan, the SDGs are implemented inaccordance with the SDGs Implementation

Measuring progress on gender equality -Guiding Principles (hereafter referred to as thegender mainstreaming and intersectionality

Guiding Principles), led by the SDGs Promotion
Headquarters headed by the Prime Minister. The

UN Women publishes an annual Gender

Guiding Principles are to be revised in line with

Snapshot (hereafter referred to as the Snapshot)5

Asian Breeze No.100 Online Newsletterto examine the achievement of gender equality

the gender and racial bias of developers is athrough the implementation of the SDGs. The

matter and drawing attention to the need for

Snapshot is informative for the promotion of thediverse people to be involved in the development.

SDGs and gender equality in Japan in two ways.

Regarding Goal 11 on ‛Sustainable Cities and

The first is that it specifically outlines progress

Communities,’the Snapshot projects that in 2050,

and challenges in gender equality, not only

70% of the world's women and girls will live inthrough Goal 5, Gender Equality, of the SDGs,

cities and one-third of them in slums or informal

but also through all 17 Goals. This can be seen as

settlements, emphasizing the need for public

a formulation of the preamble to the 2030

investment in the settlement sector from a gender

Agenda, which states the importance ofequality perspective. Then, Goal 11 leads towardmainstreaming gender perspectives to achieve

the right to housing for women with disabilities

the seventeen goals of the SDGs. The second

by introducing data that women with disabilities

feature of the Snapshot is that it presents an

account for 18% of all women, but only 27% (52intersectionality perspective. Let us take a few

out of 190) countries have protection andgoals from the Snapshot 2023 as examples.

promotion of women's rights in their national

Goal 9 of the SDGs on ‛Industry, Innovation andpolicies on people with disabilities. Some local

Infrastructure,’

presents gender-disaggregatedgovernments in Japan have included thedata, including that women make up a quarter ofperspective of persons with disabilities in theirthose working in STEM (science, technology,

city planning, but it is necessary to verify how

engineering, and mathematics) and ICT fields,

many of them have raised gender perspectives.

and that women account for only 17% of global

Regarding Goal 13 on ‛Climate Change,’ notpatent holders. It further notes that women are atonly does the section present gendered data that

greater risk of being exposed to technology-

160 million women and girls will be at risk offacilitated violence and suggests the need to

extreme poverty and 240 million women of foodeliminate gender-based violence to achieve Goal

insecurity by 2050 due to climate change. It also

9. Gender-based violence is often referred to inreminds us that countries are obliged to include a

Goal 5 and Goal 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong'gender

institutions, but the Snapshot suggests that it is

NationallyConvention on ‛Climate Change.’ The reportbased facial and voice recognition systems havedarker-skinned

theirParis Agreement of the UN Framework

addition, Goal 9 introduces the finding that AI-

misclassifiedin

Determined Contribution (NDCs) under thealso important for the achievement of Goal 9. In

more

perspective'

presents data showing that only fifty-five

womencountries refer to gender equality in their NDC

compared to fair-skinned men, suggesting thatand twenty-three countries position women as
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Asian Breeze No.100 Online Newsletter
agents of change. Thus, it shows that the

According to a survey, awareness of genderachievement of Goal 13 ‛Climate Change’is

equality was 90.2%, ranking second after food

related to Goal 1 ‛No Poverty’ and Goal 5

loss, and in terms of understanding, it ranked‛Gender Equality.’ The Snapshot 2023 has athird after food loss and renewable energy

particular focus on older women, drawing(22.8%). At the very least, we can say that theattention to the issue of violence against older

SDGs have contributed to removing allergies towomen as well as poverty among older women.

the term gender in Japan. As acknowledged in

It reminds us that it is Japan, a hyper-aged

the Draft Revised Guiding Principles for thesociety, which needs to mainstream the issue of

Implementation of the SDGs, Japan is severely

the human rights and dignity of older women inlagging behind on Goal 5 ‛Gender Equality.’

the implementation of SDGs. In this way, theThis means that if Japan accelerates its efforts

Snapshot attempts to show the diverse issues ofand achieves results in gender equality in thediverse people, not just gender disaggregatedlatter seven years to 2030, it could lead the global

data. It can serve as a reference for examining the

movement towards the post-SDGs as a country

implementation of the SDGs in Japan.

that has tackled difficult issues. The key toJapan's achievement of the SDGs lies in its

Lastly, one example of progress made on gender

gender equality efforts.

through the implementation of the SDGs in Japan
can be seen in the data on awareness andunderstanding of each theme of the SDGs ．

Thank you for reading. Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
Email us!

info@kfaw.or.jp

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