Message from the 2008 WLN Meeting Chair

Dolores Tasayco Arana, Chair of the 2008 APEC Women Leaders Network Meeting and Vice Minister for Women’s Issues, just released the message below for all the Delegates to the 2008 Meeting.  A copy of the document can be downloaded from here (PDF, 118KB).

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Dear colleagues:

Warm Greetings from Peru.  I hope everybody is well!

This communication aims to inform you about the activities I have been taking part in in submitting the conclusions and recommendations of the 13th Meeting of the Women Leaders Network.

1.       Meeting of the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade  

This meeting was held in Arequipa on 31 May and 1 June.  My presentation was on 1 June.  All we submitted was welcomed by the Chair of the meeting, Dr Mercedes Araoz, who agreed with the recommendations and outputs submitted, especially the inclusion of the gender implications in trade as a policy key issue to be considered by APEC Ministers and Economic Leaders, as well as the need for including women in planning, negotiation and implementation of trade agreements, in order to ensure gender issues are included as part of negotiations.  It is important to mention that the Ministerial Statement establishes in one of its paragraphs the following:

Gender

We welcomed the reports from the Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN) and Women Leaders Network (WLN), and recognized the importance of integrating gender considerations into the development of trade policy, and the need to strengthen APEC’s capacity in this regard.

We welcomed initiatives for the promotion of women exporters in the APEC region, particularly in developing economies, and reinforced the importance of continued cooperation between APEC and the business community to ensure that women entrepreneurs are able to both contribute to and benefit from free trade in the Asia-Pacific region.

2.        Meeting of the APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group

This meeting was held this year in Chiclayo on 25 – 27 August.  My presentation was on 26 August.

In this meeting, I submitted the conclusions of the six Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN) meetings, highlighting the need to modify the name of the Working Group to include Microenterprises.

It is important to mention that this Working Group took note of our submitted recommendations.  Additionally, Ms Andrina Lever and Ms Francine Whiteduck submitted their report Models for Supporting Women’s Microenterprise Development: Best Practices and Guidelines – Assessment and Recommendations from Phase III of a four-phase study.

3.       APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting

This meeting was held in Chiclayo city on 28 and 29 August this year.

On 29 August, I submitted my document to the meeting whose Chair was the Eng. Rafael Rey Rey, current Minister of Production.

This 15 Ministerial Meeting welcomed the recommendations of the 6 meetings of the GFPN which were considered on Items 7 and 16 of the Ministerial Statement:

7.  Ministers recognized the specific challenges faced by youth, women and minority-led SMEs and supported the inclusion of "Youth, Women and Minorities" as the cross-cutting theme within the priorities of the Strategic Plan.  Ministers agreed to continue inter-fora collaboration between SMEWG and the Gender Focal Pint Network (GFPN)

16. Ministers welcomed the participation of the GFPN, APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the Women Leaders Network (WLN), and noted their role in advancing APEC’s SME agenda and encouraged wider collaboration in areas of mutual interest.

In each meeting the work and goals of Women Leaders Network were disseminated. 

Our next report will be at the APEC Telecommunications Working Group Meeting to be held in October.

Sincerely yours,

 

(Sgd)  Dolores Tasayco Arana
Chair, 2008 APEC Women Leaders Network Meeting