Through the Subcommittee on Customs Procedures, APEC reiterated its commitment to promoting gender equality and women's economic empowerment by addressing existing barriers in customs administrations in the region.
“Supporting the inclusion of women in customs and trade is a key priority for the Subcommittee on Customs Procedures,” she said. Kristie McKinney, the group's president, in her comments made in the workshop “Advancing Gender Equality in APEC Customs Administrations”, held last week in Palm Springs (United States). “We need to take action to directly address the challenge of gender equality,” she added.
In 2019, APEC Ministers reiterated their commitment to ensuring greater integration and empowerment of women in the Asia Pacific region through the approval of the La Serena Roadmap for Women and Inclusive Growth.
The roadmap seeks to promote actions in areas that contribute to strengthening women's participation in the labour market, improving their leadership at all levels of decision-making, supporting education, training and skills development, as well as collecting sex-disaggregated data and improving analysis.
Facts & figures
Based on this, a recent survey presented at the workshop, specified the following data: women represent the 34% of senior officials in customs administrations and around the 35% of frontline operational positions. However, data on the gender pay gap ranges from 0.5 to 1.0 1% in favor of women and the 16% in favor of men.
The survey also found that sex-disaggregated data is lacking for many areas relevant to gender mainstreaming, such as data for calculating pay gaps and pay grades. Around ten APEC economies presented their measures to support gender equality in their respective organizations.
Members also heard from the World Customs Organization and Oceania Customs Organizations. “The aim is to create a foundation for future work in this sector by identifying the systemic barriers faced by women within customs and informing responses to address these challenges,” she explained. Shisla Macleod of New Zealand Customs Service, who oversees this APEC-funded project.
“Measurement will be key to achieving gender equality in APEC Customs administrations. Currently, there is no standard set of metrics across APEC Customs administrations to understand the current state of gender mainstreaming and measure progress,” Macleod added.
“Data gaps, especially the scarcity of sex-disaggregated data, must be addressed to enable effective and well-targeted policy interventions.”
In addition to data collection, strengthening inter-agency cooperation within APEC through sharing best practices and exploring joint initiatives is seen as crucial to advancing gender mainstreaming across the board.
“There is still much work to be done in the APEC region across all customs administrations,” he said. Carlos Kuriyama, Director of APEC Policy Support Unit when he addressed the workshop participants.
“In most APEC economies, the percentage of women in frontline customs or leadership positions is clearly lower than the percentages of men in similar roles, and many APEC economies have not implemented policies to ensure equal opportunities, guide women into leadership roles or provide measures to prevent any kind of abuse,” she added.
The APEC Policy Support Unit produces the APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard, which is updated every two years. This dashboard provides a snapshot of the levels of economic and social empowerment that women have achieved in the APEC region.
“Customs administrations in APEC economies play an important role in the economy and development and as such can make an important contribution to APEC’s goals for gender equality and women’s empowerment,” concluded the director of the forum’s Policy Support Unit.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum is, since 1989, the bloc that seeks to develop the economies of 21 countries and territories of Asia and America bordering the Pacific Ocean: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. (APEC Press Release)
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