Gender Justice

YMCA is a world-wide Christian, ecumenical, voluntary movement for women and men with special emphasis on the genuine involvement of young people. It seeks to share the Christian ideal of building a human community of justice with love, peace and reconciliation for the fullness of life for all creation.

Each member YMCA is therefore called to focus on certain challenges which will be prioritised according to its own contexts- that includes:

• Empowering all, especially young people and women to take increased responsibilities and assume leadership at all levels and working towards an equitable society.

• Advocating for and promoting the rights of women and upholding the rights of children

(Excerpts from Challenge 21)

The APAY adheres to the guiding principle of Challenge 21; hence commitment for the Gender Justice remains an integral part and a mandate in the YMCA, especially in the Asia and Pacific region. APAY initiates the promotion of Gender Equity in all levels with a community-specific approach. It affirms that the quest for the elimination of discrimination of gender-based violence and promotion of an inclusive society requires a collaborative undertaking irrespective of sex and gender. The YMCAs will continue to establish an inclusive environment by creating awareness and policies that promote and reflect gender justice and develop a mechanism that addresses gender issues, including sexual harassment. Through the Gender Justice initiatives, APAY increases dialogue and discussions on various perspectives, including the non-binary perspectives of gender.

Gender Justice is one of the main focus of the Quadrennial Program Plan (QPP) of the APAY with the following objectives:

To cultivate a culture of gender equity and empowerment of women and girls at all levels through the creation of platforms of learning, reflection and exchanges of experiences
To ensure the development of leadership skills, organizing and advocacy capacities of YMCA constituencies that promote reforms for equal opportunities for all at all levels

Each member YMCA is therefore called to focus on certain challenges which will be prioritised according to its own contexts- that includes:

• Empowering all, especially young people and women to take increased responsibilities and assume leadership at all levels and working towards an equitable society.

• Advocating for and promoting the rights of women and upholding the rights of children

(Excerpts from Challenge 21)

Gender Justice is one of the main focus of the Quadrennial Program Plan (QPP) of the APAY with the following objectives:

1 To cultivate a culture of gender equity and empowerment of women and girls at all levels through the creation of platforms of learning, reflection and exchanges of experiences

2 To ensure the development of leadership skills, organizing and advocacy capacities of YMCA constituencies that promote reforms for equal opportunities for all at all levels

East Asia Workshop on Gender Justice and Social Transformation

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Last Updated (Wednesday, 10 May 2017 17:42)

Hong Kong: 7 -11 June 2017

Introduction

Manifestations of gender injustices were identified by various constituents of the movement. The individual stories of injustices presented in different regional, national and local platforms form part and parcel of the lived experiences on discrimination and subordination of women and girls. These manifestations of gender injustices are evidently a violation of the fundamental human rights. After all, the call for gender justice is the call for basic right. It counters, as expressed in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the global recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. More importantly, these gender-biased traditions and practices undermine the core of our Christian ideal of equality and justice for all of God’s creation.

As expressed in Challenge 21, each YMCA member is called to build a human community of justice with love, peace and reconciliation for the fullness of life for all creation. We are called to specifically empower all, especially young people and women to take increased responsibilities and assume leadership at all levels and working towards an equitable society; and to advocate for and promote the rights of women and upholding the rights of children.

Following therefore the mandate of Challenge 21, this quadrennial envisions working together, as a movement, towards developing communities in which no one particularly women and other sexual minorities are excluded, marginalized or discriminated against because of their gender. As part of a wider social movement working for social transformation, the regional movement has the responsibility to promote the protection of a person’s rights.

With the end in view of realizing the vision for gender justice, the regional office will conduct series of sub-regional workshops that aims to empower women and men to work towards achieving gender justice and developing equitable society.

Stand for Someone’s Rights Today

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Last Updated (Friday, 09 December 2016 15:09)

Human Rights Day 2016

The Advance Training of Trainers in Gender Mainstreaming, June 3-10, 2013

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Last Updated (Wednesday, 11 September 2013 17:00)

I. Introduction:

As earlier shared, after long years of attempts and efforts to advance our responses and achieve positive change in gender mainstreaming towards social change through the YMCA work, the eighteen (18) participants including resource persons to the Advance Training of Trainers in Gender Mainstreaming from seven (7) national and local movements including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, realized that YMCAs need to strive harder in their quest towards their gender mainstreaming goals. Following the initial Gender Mainstreaming training held in Jakarta in November 2012, this follow-up training was conducted on 3-10 June 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand. The need to further the YMCAs’ initiatives and responses in integrating gender mainstreaming process into the overall work of the movement is in itself a strengthening aspect as both women and men could become decision makers to sustain growth and development of the movement.

As has been written, shared and discussed in some platforms, “gender equality is the goal of gender mainstreaming. It requires integration of gender equality concerns into every aspect of the development process, including governance of an organization. It is a powerful tool for social change because it takes into account and responds to the intersections of power, wealth, knowledge, capabilities and rights in creating and sustaining gender inequality. It has been noted that YMCA, after 25 long years or more of taking this issue-based APAY thrust, has not gained much experience that can be shared as part of a strategic and specific action plans. Though it recognized this leadership initiatives to include it in the strategic goals, we know that in practice, there are no effective and tested strategies to help achieve institutional and social change in our respective movements and through response programs in communities we work with.

APAY Regional Workshop on Social Economy

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Last Updated (Wednesday, 11 September 2013 16:51)

26 June to 1 July, 2013
Seoul, Korea

Introduction

Social Economy is considered as an alternative economic system when the market economy has totally failed to bring economic emancipation for the people in modern days. The outcome from the Bretton Wood Institutions formed in the last century after the WW2 never brought good news for the mass people of the countries of the South. The market economy dwelt on the values of profitability only, made the world divided between the rich and the poor and the gap ever widening. The recent economic recessions in US and Europe lead to untold suffering of the people and the bailout procedures only helped the financial institutions earn more while leaving the vast majority of the mass people in deprivation.

In such a situation there is a need for an alternative way to nurture the economy, based the values of cooperation, mutual respect, social entrepreneurship and social welfare. The social economy, is termed as ‘third sector’ and ‘non-profit sector’, refers to the various organizations between the state and the market, fulfilling both economic and social welfare objectives. The organizations include associations, traditional co-operatives, social co-operatives, charities, foundations and other types of organizations. These organizations usually do not distribute the profit but invests those again for cumulative effects of their missions. Volunteerism is the key human resource of social economy. The decision making bodies of these organizations are generally comprised of volunteers. Historically it has been observed that when people are economically depressed, they unite in solidarity and form social enterprises for their mutual benefit. Such enterprises prevail both in the South as well in the North too.

Advance Training of Trainers in Gender Mainstreaming 2013

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Last Updated (Friday, 29 March 2013 14:11)

Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs
Gender Equity Committee
Advance Training of Trainers in Gender Mainstreaming
3-10 June 2013, Bangkok Christian Guest House
Bangkok, Thailand

I. Introduction:

According to the Asia-Pacific Human Development Report in 2010, “in every country across the region, pervasive gender inequality remains a barrier to progress, justice and social stability and hinders the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Discrimination and neglect are threatening women’s every survival where women suffer from the lowest rates of political representation, employment and property ownership and their lack of participation is also depressing economic growth”. Various issues and categories of physical, domestic, sexual violence, harassment, discrimination, rights denial, subjugation and dehumanizing treatment are still common realities for many girls and women of our time.

After long years of attempts and efforts to advance our responses and achieve positive change in gender mainstreaming towards social change through the YMCA work, we realize that we are still far from reaching those goals. We seemed to have taken only minimal initiatives and responses in integrating the process into the overall work of the movement. The interests shown by leaders in this area of work along with the attention given by the policy and decision makers in the movement appear to be on the low side.

As has been written, shared and discussed in some platforms, “gender equality is the goal of gender mainstreaming. Mainstreaming requires integration of gender equality concerns into every aspect of the development process, including the functioning of institutions of governance” of an organization. It is a powerful tool for social change because it takes into account and responds to the intersections of power, wealth, knowledge, capabilities and rights in creating and sustaining gender inequality. (Jim Chalmers) It is sad to note, however, that after 25 long years or more of having this issue-based APAY thrust, the YMCAs have gained not much experience that can be sharedas part of their strategic and specific action plans. Though we recognize the leadership initiatives in the YMCA strategic goals, we know that, in practice, we do not have effective strategies to achieve institutional and social change in our respective movements.

Therefore, as it is not simply an issue within a sector as expressed during the Committee meeting, but more of an overarching issue of human experience,we need to address some key issues within and among us to be able to devise effective strategies that are workable and implementable in our respective contexts. As it has been asked: if policy/program formulation is the key challenge, what is the specific institutional factor that hinders change? What is our experience in changing the environment, beliefs, norms, organizations, attitudes and actions which shape gender mainstreaming processes?Is structural change the first concern or is it our own personal conversion?

As recommended by the Gender Equity Committee of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs an advanced training of trainers will again be conducted to further train and enable YMCA staff and volunteersto effectively implement awareness raising program in respective YMCAs/communities, raise consciousness on gender issues and concerns, sensitize members and volunteers in local/national movements and further develop trainers at the respective YMCAs. This will hopefully move forward gender mainstreaming in the different YMCAs and communities towards social change.It is therefore recommended that volunteers and staff leaders in the decision making be involved in this process.

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Gender Justice

East Asia Workshop on Gender Justice and Social Transformation

Introduction

Stand for Someone’s Rights Today

Human Rights Day 2016

The Advance Training of Trainers in Gender Mainstreaming, June 3-10, 2013

I. Introduction:

APAY Regional Workshop on Social Economy

Introduction

Advance Training of Trainers in Gender Mainstreaming 2013

I. Introduction:

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