About

Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) is a large voluntary activism network based in the Asia and Pacific Region who work on  Women’s Rights and the Advancement of Women. APWW is Non-Governmental Organization in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (since September 2007).

The Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) is a regional network of women’s groups which monitors and collaborates with the United Nations, national governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) in empowering women and advancing their human rights.

APWW is represented by five (5) sub-regions – Central Asia, East Asia, the Pacific, South Asia and South-East Asia and is also joined by representatives of each of three major international women’s networks in the region:  Asia Pacific Women Law and Development  (APWLD);  ARROW Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Center for Women (ARROW),  and Global Women’s Peace Network (GWPN).

APWW also hosts  and leads the Asia Pacific Regional NGO Committee on the Status of Women (NGO CSW – AP)  (a regional committee of NGO CSW in New York) working to support  regional engagement at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) each year with NGO CSW in New York.

With the mission of achieving Gender Equality,  Women’s Human Rights, Sustainable Development and Peace, APWW aims to:

  • Monitor and lobby for Asia Pacific women’s perspectives to be included in international documents and processes;
  • Promote gender mainstreaming in all decision-making structures;
    Disseminate information on good practices and lessons learned in advancing the status of women;
  • Build capacity in communication technologies, media strategies and lobbying;
  • Enhance women’s leadership in peace-making;
    Advocate to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against women;
  • Advocate for mainstreaming gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in SDGs;
  • Encourage sustainable rights-based development; and Strive for economic justice for women.

APWW Strategic Direction 2022 – 2026

APWW’s work provides valuable spaces for women’s Civil Society Organisations (WCSOs) to gather, share their analyses, formulate common positions, and strategise linked activities and actions on common issues.

As a network that continues to learn and evolve, APWW has raised the level of its involvement through the years, from providing research and analyses to participation and achieving high visibility inside official meetings. As APWW engages in both the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and in the UN Sustainable Development agenda it enables the network to carry forward the marginalised women’s voices inside official meetings.

Since the onset of COVID 19 in 2019 our way of working has changed in a new direction.  We host our meetings virtually, with a face to face once a year.  This will be reviewed during the 2022 – 2026 strategic direction and a hybrid model of working will be investigated.

APWW has 5 priority thematic areas for 2022-2026

  1. Promoting integration and mainstreaming of women’s rights and gender equality standalone goal of the Global Agenda 2030 into national and regional sustainable development strategies and sustainable development action plans,
  2. Building  capacity to join and engage in effective development cooperation from a women’s rights and gender equality perspective
  3. Advocating for gender equality and empowerment of women in all their diversity into all goals national, regional sustainable development strategies and action-plan,
  4. Monitoring of implementation of BPFA commitments through SDG processes throughout in the Asia-Pacific region,
  5. Pushing back on the Global Push Back on women’s rights and support ing CSOs effective engagement at all levels and all mechanisms/processes to achieve gender equality