Women represent 2/3 of the poor in Asia. Over 50 % or all international migrants in Asia are women. The feminization of labor migration is a persistent and deepening phenomenon, especially across Asia and the Arab States where more than half of all migrant workers are women. More legal protection and advocacy mechanisms are needed to create an enabling environment that would allow migrating women to get ‘decent’ work abroad, free from discrimination, exploitation and human rights violations. Empowering women migrant workers and strengthening governments in sending and receiving countries to promote and protect migrant workers rights will contribute to sustainable poverty reduction and inclusive growth in their countries of origin. It contributes to making migration an empowering experience for women, creating jobs and income, opening opportunities for choices and independence and for learning valuable skills. Migration are gaining momentum as a key element of income and employment in Southeast Asia. ASEAN has adopted the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW) and has set up a high-level annual ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labor where national Ministries of Labor and VET are represented. SDC will include women migrant workers in related activities in its new Employment and VET domain (EVET) at a regional level (and partially at country level also).

Effective Legal Protection and Empowerment of Women Migrant Workers from Asia

Women migrant workers in the programme countries, including legal and illegal migrants, working in the formal informal labour sectors.

1. Increased number of national development strategies and plans incorporate women migrant workers issues.
2. Increased number of legal frameworks and processes that promote and protect women migrant worker’s human rights are in place.
3. Women migrant workers are able to successfully influence key policies, programs, budgets and processes related to their rights.
4. Ministries of Labor andImmigration, Police and Planning bureaus implement laws and policies that promote and protect women migrant worker’s human rights in line with global, regional and national agreements.
5. Increased number and relevance of models of community-level initiatives for advancing women migrant workers’ human rights.

Results from previous phases:  

Key results have been achieved on global, regional and country levels, including: On the global level, the program could position itself as an important advocate for gender equality and women’s rights, through advocacy and sensitization of CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) members, resulting in the adoption of General Recommendation 26 on Women Migrant Workers. It requires all signatory states to report on women migrant worker issues. It contributed to the engendering the concerns of labour migration in global policy dialogues (e.g. the Global Forum on Migration and Development). Regional stakeholder consultations between sending and receiving countries resulted in regulations for recruiting agents and the adoption of ethical codes of conduct for recruiting agents. On national level, a number of legal frameworks include now women’s migrant workers rights. Several networks of community based networks of women migrant workers were formed, articulating the migrant labor issues in a gender responsive way on the national levels.

Phase 1 01.12.2012 - 30.06.2015   (Completed)