Southeast Asia Regional Gender Project Gender equality has been a central focus of the work of the FES since the 1980s. In 1992, a women’s promotion program was introduced in Thailand, and seven years later that program was expanded to a regional endeavor which at the beginning was integrated into the FES Thailand office and then transferred to the Philippines in 2003. Since the beginning of 2006, the Jakarta-based Regional Gender Program Southeast Asia, comprised by the FES country offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and the regional office in Singapore, focuses its activities on the following: ·         Encourage more women involved in the political decision-making process and establish gender equality in all policy areas; ·         Strengthening a regional network of committed young men and women struggling to bring more democracy to their home countries in South East Asia; ·         Observe the implementation of the decisions reached at the 1995 Beijing UN World Conference on Women; ·         Mainstreaming gender in major work areas and projects of FES; ·         Develop a Gender Competence Centre to generate and disseminate gender knowledge.   Besides its close cooperation with partners from the region, the Regional Gender Program Southeast Asia of FES also has an internal function, which is to support the effective implementation of gender mainstreaming within FES work in Asia. Training and information for FES staff on the concepts of gender and gender mainstreaming are one of the programs crucial tasks as well as the provision of inputs to the FES Gender Hub Asia which serves as an electronic gender resource center and is operated by the South Asian Gender Program.   Vision The Regional Gender Program of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung is dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and equity in the Southeast Asian region as well as to support the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This international convention was ratified by Cambodia in 1992, Indonesia in 1984, Laos in 1981, Malaysia in 1995, the Philippines in 1981, Singapore in 1995, Thailand in 1985, Timor Leste in 2003, and Vietnam in 1982. The ultimate goal to achieve is Southeast Asian women living free from all forms of discrimination and being able to use their potential to contribute to the development and democratization of their countries.   Mission ·         Evaluation of the implementation of CEDAW and BPfA in Southeast Asia ·         Support efforts for those documents’ effective realization ·         Further FES efforts to implement gender mainstreaming effectively into FES project activities in Southeast Asia   Activities The Regional Gender Program Southeast Asia supports activities on regional level, such as conferences, seminars, training workshops, as well as research and publications, and, thereby, facilitates regional, inter-regional and international exchange.   The program also supports regional networks of progressive women and youth, such as the Young Progressives Southeast Asia (YPSEA). The YPSEA is a network of young people in Southeast Asia, actively involved in progressive politics. It involves groups and youth wings of political parties of six Southeast Asian countries.   Furthermore, the Regional Gender Program Southeast Asia facilitates research on women’s situation in Southeast Asia, on policies and measures to eradicate women’s discrimination. Gender Country Profile: Philippines Joanne Carmela Barriga, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Philippine Office, 2006 Strategies Against Trafficking in Human Beings Anna Kalbhenn, Dialogue on Globalization, FES Berlin, 2004 Transformative Power: Case Studies on Political Participation of Community Women Leaders Villarin, Tom and Sanz-Ramos, Sylvia (Editors) Publishers: Institute of Politics and Governance (IPG) and the Barangay-Bayan Governance Consortium (BBGC) Quezon City, 2004 WTO & Gender: Between Reform and Rejection Report on a Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Panel Discussion in Cancún, Mexico, 2003 The Doha Development Round, Gender and Social Reproduction Young, Brigitte and Hoppe, Hella, Dialogue on Globalization, Occasional Paper No. 7, 2003 Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Berlin, 2003 Participation of Women in Philippine Politics and Society: A Situationer Mylene Hega, Manggagawang Kababaihang Mithi ay Paglaya (MAKALAYA), Quezon City, 2003 Excerpt - The Anti-Sexual Harassment Law in Retrospect: Advancing or Retarding Women's Status? Manggagawang Kababaihang Mithi ay Paglaya (MAKALAYA) Published in cooperation with the Labor Education and Research Network(LEARN), Inc. and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), 2000 Our Right to Self Determination: PILIPINA's Position on the Issues of Divorce and Abortion Veronica Fenix-Villavicencio and Rina Jimenez-David OF PILIPINA, Quezon City, 2000 An Overview of the Gender Situation in the Philippines Carlos Antonio Q. Añonuevo, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Philippine Office, September 2000 FES claims no responsibility for the views and ideas presented in the on-line publications.