The 3rd ASEAN Women Leaders' Summit was convened by the Government of Lao PDR on 23 August 2024 under the theme “Strengthening Care Economy and Resilience Towards ASEAN Community Post-2025”. ESCAP, along with various development partners, hosted a series of multistakeholder capacity building events and learning exchanges during pre-Summit events held on 21-22 August that delved deeper into the Summit’s theme. In these sessions ESCAP presented its Model Framework to ASEAN member States and key stakeholders, providing guidance for countries in the region to develop national action plans. These events enhanced participants' understanding and strengthened their capacities regarding the care economy.
The pre-Summit events served as crucial platforms for multi-stakeholder dialogue. Throughout the sessions, participants exchanged good practices and practical insights on strengthening the care economy, expanding their knowledge and understanding of effective strategies that facilitate the recognition, reduction, and redistribution of unpaid care work in the ASEAN region and for the promotion of women’s economic empowerment and participation in the labour force. The discussions also addressed care issues within the broader contexts of resilience, security, and climate change, linking them to the priorities identified in the ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening the Care Economy Resilience Towards the Post-2025 ASEAN Community. This declaration, endorsed by leaders at the Summit, will also be considered by ASEAN Leaders at the 44th ASEAN Summit in October 2024.
The objective of these multistakeholder capacity-building events was to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas in order to:
- Reflect upon and reinforce commitments to addressing key issues impacting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls across ASEAN, drawing on previous discussions from ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summits and capturing them in ongoing declarations.
- Enhance awareness and deepen understanding of how care economy challenges intersect with broader socio-economic issues and build participants capacities to develop integrated approaches that address these challenges.
- Explore innovative approaches, best practices and successful models from local and national contexts of care policy ecosystems that address gendered inequalities in the care economy.
- Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue aimed at building participants' capacities to implement transformative approaches for tackling the complex challenges faced by women and girls in the care economy.