Long road to women’s inclusion in transport industry — Abaya

Forum discusses framework for inclusive mobility using 5 pillars

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya yesterday admitted that the Philippines still has a long way to go before inclusive mobility, equitable development and advancement of women in transportation are fully realized.

“A transportation sector that fails to address the difficulties experienced by women excludes them. Inclusiveness and sustainable development go hand in hand,” he said in his opening remarks during the APEC Women in Transportation (WiT) Forum at Radisson Blu yesterday.

The forum was held in line with the theme of the APEC Transportation Ministerial Meeting, “Driving Economic Growth through Inclusive Mobility and Sustainable Transport System.”

Abaya said, however, that initiatives to support women and take into account their transportation requirements have been started in the Philippines.

He cited the issuance of two department orders which, he said, have paved the way for various initiatives to advance the women’s advocacy such as the 2012 summit that defined the transportation sector’s gender and development agenda.

Department Order No. 2012-05 mainstreams Gender and Development in the transportation sector while Department Order No. 2012-09 defines the implementing rules on the harmonized Gender and Development guidelines for project development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Participants to the WiT Forum yesterday discussed a proposed framework for increasing women’s inclusion in the transportation sector. The proposal has been endorsed by the APEC Transportation Working Group.

“This document, which is summarized in the materials that you have in front of you and we’ve also put online, is organized around five pillars,” US Assistant Secretary Susan Kurland for Aviation and International Affairs said in her opening remarks.

Kurland, head of the US delegation, identified the pillars as:

Promoting education, which means ensuring that women receive the necessary training to qualify for jobs in transportation and to build awareness of career opportunities;

Hiring and entrepreneurship, which means removing access barriers and improving recruitment strategies;

Retention of talented women in the transportation workforce;

Advocate for women’s leadership and assure that their range of career opportunities extends to the top; and Provide women with safe use and access to transportation systems.

Under these pillars are the desired outcomes and key activities to achieve these, Kurland said.

“Using the recruitment and hiring pillar: The outcome that we would like to see is that women and men with the same qualifications are just as likely to attain a similar position, let’s say an apprenticeship,” she said.

“That outcome is then linked with a specific activity, for instance, a regional job fair held by a transportation department, or a private company, and a specific metric – increase in the total number of women with apprenticeships in transportation,” she added.

Participants to the forum included representatives from 16 APEC economies, numerous private companies, multilateral organizations, and non-profit entities.