On inclusive development, shared prosperity, and decent work
Delivered by Rachel Tan, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
17 March 2025
Thank you, Chair.
Women’s labour—paid or unpaid, formal or informal—has long been the backbone of economies. Yet, neoliberal development policies, especially through unjust trade and investment agreements, deepen inequalities, prevent shared prosperity, and undermine the goal of decent work for all women.
As we discuss women’s economic well-being, we must confront the systemic barriers that continue to exploit and erode women’s work and human rights. Trade and investment agreements, alongside neoliberal economic policies, have stripped states of the ability to protect and fulfill women’s labour rights, ensure income equality, eliminate poverty, advance decent work and provide legal and social protections, particularly in the Global South.
Decent work for women is not merely about employment; it is about ensuring safe, dignified, just and equitable conditions in the workplace. The current development financing framework – skewed towards corporate capture, public-private partnerships, regressive tax regimes and foreign direct investments – fail to deliver human rights and Development Justice for women. Instead, it perpetuates precarious, underpaid and unsafe labour conditions, creating a barrier to inclusive development, particularly in low-income countries, burdened by debt.
We need a transformative financing model that prioritises public investment in gender-transformative social protection and care systems. Debt is one of the most urgent barriers to women’s economic rights in Asia and the Pacific. Many governments in our region allocate more resources to repaying unjust debt—much of it accumulated through exploitative lending conditions, predatory financial agreements, and crises beyond their control—than they do to public services and social protection. We must demand tax justice, ensuring corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share, and work to end the structural inequalities embedded in global financial institutions. As we move forward, we must centre the most marginalised women in our conversations and in shaping policies.
To realise the Beijing Platform for Action, we must dismantle the economic hegemonic structures that have failed us and build a just, and equitable economic system. We need a feminist, people-centered economic model that invests in universal social protection, gender-responsive public services, and just and equitable transition to sustainable economies, ensuring full inclusion and equal opportunities . We need development models that are collaborative, community-driven, and transparent—where people’s voices shape decisions and translate global commitments into real change.
Women’s economic rights are human rights, and these rights must be protected and prioritised in all economic policies and strategies. The global decisions must filter down at national level in the form of tangible change in the life of those who deserve it most.
Thank you, Chair.
