The Advisory Committee of the project “Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region” met in Vientiane on Jan 14.

The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Director General of the Department of Skills Development and Employment Vanny Keoxayavong and Representative of the European Union to the Lao PDR François Pravongviengkham.

Representatives of International Labour Organsation, UN WOMAN and relevant offices also attended the meeting. Participants were briefed about the implementation of the project over the past one year and priorities set for 2022.

Safe and Fair is part of the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global, multi-year initiative between the European Union and United Nations. The project is implemented through a partnership between the ILO and UN Women, in collaboration with UNODC, with the overriding objective of ensuring that labour migration is safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region.

Sponsored with a EUR25.5 million funding from the European Union, the regional project is implemented in ten ASEAN member countries namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The programme aims to address women migrant workers’ vulnerabilities to violence and trafficking, strengthen rights-based and gender-responsive approaches to violence against women and labour migration governance and support access to essential services by: improving the frameworks that govern labour migration and ending violence against women; improving access to information and services for women migrant workers and opportunities for them to network and organise; producing data and evidence on the experiences of women migrant workers; and campaigning to generate a better understanding of the contribution of women migrants.

Source: Lao News Agency