This factsheet was developed for the 2022 Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD), by the Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism Asia Pacific (RCEM) Thematic Working Group on Gender. Sexuality and SRHR, which APA co-leads.
Gender, Sexuality and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Factsheet by the AP-RCEM Thematic Working Group
Introduction:
Gender inequality, patriarchy, religious fundamentalism and increasing militarism limit the opportunities, available services and capabilities of nearly half of the population in Asia and the Pacific where women, girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual, plus (LGBTIQA+) people face multiple levels of marginalization and constant threat of discrimination and/or violence. 53.8 million unintended pregnancies occur each year in Asia, of which nearly 65% end in abortion[1] In 2015, around 85,000 women in the region died through causes related to pregnancy or childbirth. Most causes of maternal mortality are preventable. The COVID-19 pandemic has served to greatly exacerbate underlying structural inequalities and the experience of gender based discrimination, as well as inequity in access to vaccines among marginalised communities within countries of the region.
The systemic mainstreaming of gender is needed if we want to achieve the SDGs, to end the pandemic and to build back better, fairer, justly, and transformatively. Fulfilling commitments to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action (PoA), the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) and goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, can help governments achieve Agenda 2030 and the targets set for SDG Goals 4, 5, 14, 15 and 17. Data monitoring and accountability including civil society and citizen generated qualitative evidence is needed to uncover and provide insight into the inequalities faced by marginalized communities, and expose the intersections of overlapping systems of disadvantage and discrimination that compound violations of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender inequality and bodily autonomy.
II Gender, SRHR and Sexuality & the SDGs under review in 2022
SDG 4 (Quality Education)
Sixty percent of the world’s youth live in Asia-Pacific—more than 750 million young people between the ages of 15-24. Research reveals that the “majority of LGBT students report having experienced some form of bullying or violence.”[2] A joint statement[3] by multiple UN agencies highlights that “children face bullying, discrimination or expulsion from schools on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity or that of their parents”. A UNICEF report on COVID-19 reveals the multi-faceted discrimination faced by young sexual and gender minorities in Asia Pacific including “additional challenges as many are not able to support themselves, are struggling with sharing their identity with families at home, or struggling to access regular health services.”[4]
And COVID-19 has impacted girls’ access to education in particular, especially for those from low-income households and rural areas; resulting in increases in child marriage, teenage or early pregnancy, and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The lockdowns and school closures have exacerbated existing gender inequalities across the region.
The majority of countries in Asia and Pacific have laws or policies related to SRH and/or sexuality education for young people, but commitment to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) varies significantly across these countries. Of 28 Ministries of Education surveyed, only two countries - the Philippines and Thailand - mandate the provision of sexuality education for young people by law. And only 19 reported that their governments allocated specific funding towards sexuality education.[5]
In nearly half of the countries surveyed, age-appropriate sexuality education is not introduced to young people in early childhood.[6] Implementation of age-appropriate CSE would promote gender equality and better health outcomes, including lower rates of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections and reduction of SGBV.
Recommendations:
● Transform the education systems to adapt to the new normal context of Covid-19. Ensure inclusive, quality education for all children including addressing learning losses, and improve digital literacy/ ICT skills among girls so they are not left behind.
● Develop and implement national laws and regulations that mandate provision of CSE in schools. Children should receive age appropriate CSE from early primary, before the onset of puberty and sexual activity, and education should continue throughout adolescence and adulthood.
● School-based CSE should be taught as a mandatory subject. When sexuality education is optional, a significant number of young people are at risk of missing the opportunity to receive education on consent, respectful relationships and their sexuality,[7] as well as prevention of early and child forced marriage and SGBV
● Ensure that CSE topics include gender, power, sexual rights, equality, and sexual and gender diversity, and pleasure, including in the out-of-school context.
● Address specific needs of LGBQI+, trans and gender diverse children, particularly addressing drop out rates, bullying and lack of support systems in school.
SDG5 (Gender Equality)
Gender inequality is perpetuated through norms and practices that are particularly detrimental for women, young women, trans and gender diverse people and other marginalized groups. Most recent data suggests the region’s progress towards gender equality (Goal 5) is very slow. Challenges persist because countries in Asia Pacific are failing to act effectively and to recognize, address and eliminate intersecting forms of discrimination and violence. The increased violence as an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been termed “the shadow pandemic”. Further, the binary language of Goal 5 and its indicators lead to non documentation of gendered violence faced by LBQ women, trans and gender diverse people.
Poverty and gender inequality are at the root of the significant disparity in maternal health outcomes both between and within countries. According to WHO, 94% of all maternal deaths occur in low and lower middle-income countries[8]. And in Indonesia, for example, the risk of maternal death is three to four times greater in the poorest than the richest group. Ensuring access, availability, and quality of reproductive health services can go a long way in preventing maternal deaths[9].
Young women, in particular, are placed at the bottom of the family and social hierarchy leaving them vulnerable to child, early and forced marriage and early pregnancy. Harmful practices such as female gendital mutliation/cutting (FGM/C) violates the bodily autonomy and integrity of women and girls, yet it persists across large swathes of Asia. Only two countries, Indonesia and the Maldives, have nationally representative data on FGM/C[10]. UNFPA reported as a result of COVID-19, an additional two million cases of female genital mutilation or cutting will need to be averted to meet Agenda 2030 commitments. FGM/C can cause immediate and lifelong health consequences, and is rooted in harmful and discriminatory gender norms, especially within communities where discussions about sex and female sexual desire are considered taboo.
In many countries in the region, family and domestic violence legislation does not protect unmarried intimate partners. Many of the same countries - such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia, as well as other countries including Japan and Mongolia - do not recognize martial rape. Access to justice for women and girls in some countries is, therefore, challenging regardless of marital status.
Criminalisation of same sex relationships, lack of legal gender recognition laws and criminalisation of harmful and derogratory practices such as conversion therapy increase vulnerabilities of marginalised groups like LBQ women, trans and gender diverse individuals. Research shows that natal families as well the state and religious institutions are responsible for subjecting trans and gender diverse people in South and Southeast Asia[11]. Research also shows that access to healthcare and SRHR are complicated by stigma and discrimination. For instance, trans people delay seeking treatment because of fear of discrimination and stigma related to occupations like sex work.[12]
Recommendations
● Address gender equality in a comprehensive, crosscutting manner including all the economic, social and environmental dimensions.
● Integrate SRHR into national strategies and health policies, and ensure that SRH services are available at primary, secondary and tertiary level, and increase access to information and self-care, especially for marginalized groups, such as adolescents and young people, people with disabilities, women living with HIV, LGBTIQ+, sex workers, migrants and mobile people, refugees, amongst others
● Governments should focus on policies that address structural, power and political dynamics that perpetuate discrimination against marginalized groups and remove barriers to gender equality, including removing discriminatory legal frameworks, implementing policies that promote women’s labor force participation, including equal access to education at all levels, recognizing, reducing and redistributing unpaid care work and ensuring universal health coverage, including SRHR.
● Increase investments for gender equality and women and girls’ empowerment by promoting investments across all sectors, including agriculture, education, social protection, health, infrastructure, justice, and water and sanitation
● Fulfill commitments to ICPD PoA, Beijing PfA, and endorse and commit to the Generation Equality Forum.
● Address harmful practices such as Conversion ‘Therapy’ and FGM/C as human rights violations
SDG 14 (Life below water)
The growth of litter and toxic substances in the oceans damages and destroys fragile maritime ecosystems, and affects health, especially that of children and pregnant women. Oceanic pollution due to maritime transportation and debris, and rising ocean temperatures impacts directly on fisheries and the livelihoods of those who depend on oceans. Women in parts of India and Bangladesh have faced health consequences and seen their economic prospects diminish as rivers have become saltier. In Fiji, a rapid rise in sea levels and resulting saltwater intrusion and coastal floods have already made portions of the island nation uninhabitable.
Fishing activities led by women are often ignored and not recognised, they lack access to leadership positions due to gender discrimination. Reports show that women, who occupy 90% of all jobs in the labour intensive seafood processing industry, commonly suffer discrimination, violence, sexual harassment and poor working conditions.[13] Ensuring women’s access to leadership positions and empowering women’s action on the oceans are fundamental to allow them to play a key role in protecting marine ecosystems, tackling marine litter and promoting sustainable fishing.
Recommendations
● Mainstream gender across all elements and targets of SDG 14
● Governments should involve women in policy making, leadership and decision-making bodies at all levels to improve water management
● Governments should ensure the development of staff capacity to increase knowledge, abilities and skills in gender budgeting, to enable the inclusion of gender in the organizational culture, programmes and projects
● Governments should strengthen data collection to collect and produce data that is disaggregated of data by age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and expression , race , ethnicity and other characteriststcs. At the same time such data needs to be protected and ensure privacy and confidentiality of data.
SDG 15 (Life on Land)
Women, especially indigenous women, are especially affected by biodiversity loss. Women and indigenous groups living in rural areas can be affected by soil depletion and reduced water supply, which exacerbates poverty and hunger. Women’s roles as primary caregivers and providers of food and fuel make them more vulnerable when flooding and droughts occur.vii Degradation of nature can lead to increased GBV including sexual assault, domestic violence and forced prostitution.[14], disproportionately affecting women, indigenous women, non-binary people and other marginalized groups. Many of the climate and environmental activists suffering violent attacks are women.
Lack of access to land, forests and other natural resources is a major cause of deprivation for women, especially indigenous women. The lack of fulfillment of women's rights and access to resources intensifies these negative effects. Across Asia only 10.7% of women owned land compared to the global average of 20% and 18.6% in Africa in 2014. [15] Climate change and the climate crisis has impacts on human health and well-being, including SRHR.
Recommendations
● Mainstream gender into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). Ensure leadership of women, in particular indigenous women, and other marginalized groups and build capacity to ensure their inclusion in decision-making processes
● Ensure an enabling environment for women and non-binary environmental rights defenders and protect them from threats and attacks. Investigate reports of intimidation, threats, violence and other abuses promptly.
● Respect, protect and fulfill SRHR of those affected by humanitarian crisis and the climate crisis, using evidence and human rights-based action that informs policies, standards, programme design, implementation and practice. Provide additional support to marginalised groups, such as people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expression, and sex characteristics, people living with HIV, sex workers, amongst others.
● Fulfill commitments and achieve the targets set by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals)
There are significant gaps in reliable data on key SDG indicators that would improve governments’ ability to identify areas of health need and to assess the effectiveness of existing strategies and policies. Statistical data on the SDG indicators remain limited: nearly 40 per cent of the SDG targets cannot be measured for the Asia Pacific region due to the lack of data.[16] Furthermore, there is little data available about marginalized populations such as migrants, people with disability, LGBTIQ+ and other vulnerable communities. Challenges remain in producing disaggregated data so that the SRHR needs of these communities are met.
Countries have been taking nationalistic approaches to vaccination and leverage their privilege and economic domination. This has a disproportionate impact on women and girls, LGBTIQ and marginalized groups in developing countries, as gender discrimination manifests on every level as a barrier to accessing vaccinations[17].
Recommendations:
● Revitalize partnership for gender equality in the region and facilitate country to country and regional cooperation to achieve gender equality. Ensure allocation of adequate budget to gender equality laws, policies and programme design within the nation SDG implementation plans. At the same time developed countries should fulfill their commitment to 0.7% GNI for ODA
● Governments and other stakeholders should build accountability mechanisms into strategies and monitor the effectiveness of these mechanisms, including taking action to ensure that such mechanisms are responsive to rights of women and girls and trans and gender diverse people.
● Governments should strengthen national statistical systems to collect and produce comprehensive, high-quality, accessible, multilingual, reliable, timely and disaggregated data to monitor SDG indicators and support evidence-based policy formulation and recognize the contributions of civil society and citizen generated evidence.
● Countries with strong feminist leadership and women represented in positions of leadership have seen a more gender equitable recovery. Invest in capacity strengthening opportunities for women, girls and marginalized communities to uphold their agency and contribute to sustainable development. Engage with men and boys to change behavior and ensure gender equality
● Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development through north south, south south and triangular multi stakeholder partnerships with gender equality and human rights at the center.
● Take action to end the disadvantage, exclusion, violence that arise as a result of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination;
[1] Guttmacher Institute (2018). Abortion in Asia: Fact sheet.
[2] United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2015) From Insult to Inclusion. P.28 Available at: https://www.aidsdatahub.org/sites/default/files/resource/insult-inclusion-2015.pdf
[3] https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Discrimination/Joint_LGBTI_Statement_ENG.PDF
[4]https://blogs.unicef.org/east-asia-pacific/reflections-from-copingwithcovid-lives-of-lgbtiq-youth-during-the-lockdowns/
[5]LEARN. PROTECT. RESPECT. EMPOWER. The Status of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Asia Pacific. A Summary Review 2020. https://eseaor.ippf.org/resource/learn-protect-respect-empower-status-comprehensive-sexuality-education-asia-pacific
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] WHO, Maternal mortality (19 September 2019). Visited 6 March 2022. website: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality#:~:text=The%20high%20number%20of%20maternal,births%20in%20high%20income%20countries.
[9] ARROW. (2020). Affirming Rights, Accelerating Progress and Amplifying Action: Monitoring SDG3 in Asia-Pacific. retrieved 4th March https://arrow.org.my/publication/affirming-rights-accelerating-progress-and-amplifying-action-monitoring-sdg3-in-asia-pacific/
[10]https://www.arrow.org.my/publication/asia-network-to-end-female-genital-mutilation-cutting-fgm-c-consultation-report
[11]https://weareaptn.org/resource/conversion-therapy-practices-against-transgender-persons-in-india-indonesia-malaysia-and-sri-lanka
[12] https://weareaptn.org/resource/the-cost-of-stigma-understanding-and-addressing-health-implications-of-transphobia-and-discrimination-on-transgender-and-gender-diverse-people
[13] International Organisation for Women in the Seafood Industry. 12 September 2019. SDG 14 will never be attained if 50% of the population it affects is not taken into consideration
Website visited 8 March 2022. https://womeninseafood.org/sdg-14-will-never-be-attained-if-50-of-the-population-it-affects-is-not-taken-into-consideration/
[14] Asia Pacific Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (2020) Global Environmental Commons and Linkages with Gender and SRHR
[15] UN WOMEN/ ADB (2018). Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia Pacific.
[17]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281553089_Gender_Determinants_of_Vaccination_Status_in_Children_Evidence_from_a_Meta-Ethnographic_Systematic_Review
