'Gender checklist' call to boost equality
Commission wants all departments to assess impact of new policies on women
Government departments should use a checklist to evaluate the gender impact of any new policy, ordinance and amendment, says Women's Commission chief Sophie Leung Lau Yau-fun.
Mrs Leung intends to ask Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to issue a decree to this effect.
After having recently been reappointed to the post for a further two years, Mrs Leung said the commission was working to ensure that someone of directorate level in each department enforced the 'gender mainstreaming checklist'.
'They must set up a reporting mechanism where if they make any amendment, touch any ordinance or bill, an exercise must then be automated to go through the checklist and give us an assessment of the gender impact,' she said.
'We then have the right to go back to them so that, at least, it gives us a way to be alerted to any new legislation so we can then throw it into our own machinery to see if we have any particular concerns about it.'
The commission tested use of the checklist in 2002 but has faced criticism from non-governmental organisations for not taking the initiative far enough and for stalling for too long. Some NGOs, like the Women's Coalition, have also criticised the commission for failing to achieve much in the way of tangible results in its three years of existence.
But Mrs Leung countered such claims by saying that the commission was not meant to replace NGOs as an activist organisation but to work hand in hand with the government to tackle bigger issues.
'We can't be a hand-to-mouth feeder - there are already 300 NGOs with women's issues as top priority. We do not want to be seen to be a fist-fighting champion in the community,' she said.
Mrs Leung said the commission's work should focus on influencing central policy and pushing for new modes of operation.
The commission will today use International Women's Day to launch its Capacity Building Mileage Programme, a continuous learning initiative targeted at women, in particular housewives, as part of its capacity-building principle.
The programme, run in partnership with the Open University of Hong Kong and Commercial Radio, provides a range of courses in personal finance, health, interpersonal skills and life situations. More than 500 women have already registered.
Mrs Leung also outlined ideas she has for a community health centre to be spearheaded by nurses to provide health and hygiene awareness classes for women, as well as a community soup kitchen catering to the elderly.
Mrs Leung said in the next two years she hoped for further liaison with NGOs and that the commission was in the process of setting up a 'theory of collaboration' to facilitate networking with and among NGOs and the government.
