Background and Principles
During the first 20 years of the GMS program (1992-2012), there were no projects that directly focused on promoting gender equality. However, some projects under the 10-year GMS Strategic Framework (2002-2012) reflected such issues, including human trafficking prevention, promoting safe labor migration, and creating employment opportunities for women. Particularly notable were the “Preventing the Trafficking of Women and Children and Promoting Safe Migration” project and the promotion of women’s employment in the objectives of the North-South Economic Corridor (NSEC) and East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) development projects.
Gender equality issues were first identified as part of sectoral strategy goals in the GMS Tourism Sector Strategy 2006-2015, and were mentioned in various cooperation sectors under the second 10-year Strategic Framework of the GMS program 2012-2022, including tourism, human resource development, public health, agriculture, and environment. However, most references were limited to supporting women’s access to basic opportunities and rights, rather than directly emphasizing gender equality issues.
The emphasis on gender equality under the GMS 2030 Strategic Framework represents a significant leap forward in strengthening regional cooperation under the principle of inclusivity, ensuring that low-income populations, including women, will benefit from future GMS program projects. This supports member countries in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and SDG 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries.
Recent Progress
The Secretariat and consultants are currently developing the GMS Gender Strategy Implementation Plan 2025-2030 (GSIP 2025-2030) to establish guidelines for implementing the GMS Gender Strategy, which was endorsed by ministers and heads of delegations from GMS member countries at the 25th Ministerial Conference on December 8, 2022, toward successful implementation. This represents operational efforts to drive development according to the vision of the GMS 2030 Economic Cooperation Framework, emphasizing issues that promote gender equality with detailed activities, outcome indicators, and systems/mechanisms.
