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UN: Women most vulnerable to global economic crisis
Jakarta Globe - March 31, 2009
Ismira Lutfia – Women are among the most vulnerable to the fallout from the global economic crisis, according to a survey published on Tuesday.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, or Unescap, said in a report based on an economic and social survey in the Asia Pacific region that woman were likely to be hardest hit by the negative impacts of the crisis.
This included female laborers in the manufacturing sector; the poor, the youngest and the oldest ones in a population; and those who have been excluded from productive resources, decent work and social security.
The survey also showed that one of the most significant impacts of the crisis was the possibility of an increase in the number of poor people in Asia and the Pacific, which already made up for two-thirds of the global poverty figure.
It also highlighted the triple threats to development in the region as a result of the global downturn, namely in economics, food-fuel price volatility and climate change.
Marco Roncarati from the Unescap social development division said in his presentation that food price hikes in a crisis often led to nutritional deficiencies in women in poor rural areas and girls being fed less than boys.
"Women and girls in Southeast Asia suffer more than men and boys," Roncarati said, adding that this food discrimination within poor rural households risked increasing malnutrition, low birthweight and maternal anemia.
The survey also reported that despite having to work to generate income for the family, women and girls also faced discrimination, were seen as a burden and as less valuable compared to men and boys in a family.
Women in the Southeast Asia and Pacific regions also faced threats of work layoffs following the financial crisis, according to the report. Data from the International Labor Organization recorded female unemployment in Indonesia as having increased from 17 percent in 1996 to 34 percent in 2006, and this could increase further as a result of the economic crunch.
Roncarati also said that while there were serious impacts from the crisis on the poor in the short term, the most alarming effect could be to their climate-sensitive activities such as agriculture and fishing, which were under threat from climate change.
"This is worrying because these activities would otherwise enable them to generate income and eventually exit poverty," Roncarati said.
Zahidul Huque, the United Nations Population Fund country director in Indonesia, said that despite the challenges, Indonesia still managed to keep economic growth in 2008 at a similar level to the previous year due to high commodity prices.
"However, the Unescap survey shows that the prospects for 2009 are less promising, as a result of falling commodity prices and exports," Huque said.
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