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Cooperation Agreement for the Advancement of Women in ASEAN





THE Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women’s (UNIFEM) East and Southeast Asia Regional Office signed a Framework for Cooperation Agreement on June 8, 2006, to work for the active involvement of women in the social, economic, and political spheres in accordance with the 1988 Declaration on the Advancement of Women in ASEAN. ASEAN and UNIFEM will develop and carry out practical measures to implement ASEAN and UN instruments in order to eliminate violence and end discrimination against women in the ASEAN region.


The cooperation agreement between ASEAN and UNIFEM is a milestone towards realizing the mission to enhance gender equality and women’s empowerment and to achieve sustainable human development in the ASEAN region. It provides significant opportunities for regional dialogue, exchange of good practice, and upscaling collaboration among ASEAN countries to address gender concerns, especially those of a transnational and cross border nature.

UNIFEM will support ASEAN in convening a regional workshop on gender-sensitive and coordinated services to address violence against women, focusing on setting up one-stop crisis centers. The workshop will be hosted by Thailand this year.

UNIFEM and ASEAN will also collaborate in the High-Level Gender Mainstreaming Meeting to be held this year, bringing together the ministries responsible for women affairs and the ministries of planning and finance, to better operationalize programs under the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action (BFPA), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as the national plans of the ASEAN member countries.