Closing the Gender Gap

Posted by AsiaViews | Nov 6, 2017 | 0 |

The Philippine Star, 4 November 2017

(http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/11/04/1755373/editorial-closing-gender-gap)

The annual Global Gender Gap Report is one study where the Philippines ranks among the best in the world. Numerous laws and regulations promoting the welfare of women at home, in the workplace and in many aspects of national life have made the country rank high in terms of gender equity. The country is just one of two in the Asia-Pacific that has fully closed the gender gap in education.

In the latest report, however, the Philippines fell three notches to 10th place overall. While the country retained its top spot in Asia, it was nudged to second place in the Asia-Pacific by New Zealand. The 2017 Global Gender Gap report, released Thursday by the World Economic Forum, attributed the slip in the Philippines’ ranking to the difference in pay for men and women for rendering similar work.

The report, which covers 144 economies, studies gender gaps in labor force participation, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. The Philippines would have ranked even higher in previous studies, but weak access to reproductive health services pulled the country down.

Today, five years after the RH law was passed after a decade of debate, the law remains unenforced and millions of pesos worth of contraceptives purchased by the government have expired, thanks to the Supreme Court and the snail-paced work of the Food and Drug Administration. This time, a “worsening performance on the wage equality for similar work done” pulled the country down three notches in the annual WEF report.

For the 10th year in a row, Iceland topped the 2017 Gender Gap Report, followed by Norway and Finland. Rwanda, now recovered from genocide, ranked fourth, ahead of Sweden, Nicaragua, Slovenia, Ireland and New Zealand, with the Philippines rounding out the top 10, just ahead of France and Germany.

Closing the gender gap means empowering all segments of the population. This translates to greater productivity and contributes to an overall improvement in the quality of life. The slip in the country’s ranking shows the need for sustained efforts to achieve gender parity.

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Closing the Gender Gap