21 September 2001                            Press Release No. G/32/2001
For use by media; not an official record.

ESCAP HOLDS WORKSHOP ON INTEGRATING UNPAID WORK INTO NATIONAL POLICIES, 24 – 27  SEPTEMBER 2001
 
United Nations Information Services, Bangkok :ESCAP is conducting a workshop on how to integrate unpaid work into national policies. It will be held from September 24 to 27 at the United Nations Conference Centre.  Some 13 countries will be attending.

"A large number of people in Asia and the Pacific, particularly women, never receive money for their work. What's more, they do not have social protection. Not only is work such as providing care to children and the elderly, preparing food or helping on farms unremunerated, such work is neither valued nor measured," said ESCAP’s Executive Secretary Mr Kim Hak-Su.  "Countries do not fully reflect the contribution of this unpaid work, which is essential for the well-being of the population, to their economies."

The major objective of the workshop ---part of the UNDP-funded Regional Programme on Promoting Gender Equality in the Asia Pacific--- is to improve the measurement of unpaid work. "Time use surveys" are the main instrument for collecting data on uncompensated work.  A number of countries in the ESCAP region have already conducted such surveys.

The Republic of Korea, India and Mongolia will be providing case studies on how to integrate paid and unpaid work into national policies. The Republic of Korea, for instance, has conducted the time use survey in 1999. As a result, the Ministry for Gender Equality is now advocating the revision of the insurance compensation rate for females in the case of accidents.

                                                                -- UNIS --