Women In Shared Prosperity
The Government has long ago recognised women as important players in the development of the country. Since the introduction of National Policy for Women in 1989, the Government has steadily lifted women’s status by promoting women’s rights and removing many obstacles – from illiteracy to poverty – that previously inhibited women from reaching their full potential. This effort is reinforced and amplified through the inclusion of long-term women’s empowerment strategies in Malaysia Plans, both in social and economic context. Despite the progress, several issues and challenges remain. This primarily relates to the lack of valuable data and the absence of highly focused, innovative measures that can address women-related issues swiftly and effectively to enhance their economic potential and wellbeing. Moreover, in the last two Malaysia Plans, women’s empowerment was not exclusively incorporated as a stand-alone focus area but was absorbed under broad-spectrum strategies which could not effectively address the distinctive needs of women. Recognising the important role of women and their increasingly significant impact in the development process, the SPV2030 will introduce highly distinctive, gender-specific strategies under the Twelfth & Thirteenth Malaysia Plans to ensure women can reach their full potential and seamlessly contribute to the country without having to despairingly manoeuvre around gender-biased obstacles. SPV2030 aims at incorporating gender-mainstreaming in the formulation of government policies, strategies and initiatives to promote women’s economic and social empowerment for shared prosperity. This goal reflects the spirit under which the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 was founded, and are aligned with all three primary objectives under the Vision: to restructure the economy to ensure fair and equitable distribution to all, to address economic disparities so that no one is left behind and to build a united, prosperous and dignified nation.
Download the full report from the session below: