Australian FM confirms strong support for Lao women's programmes
Australian FM confirms strong support for Lao women's programmes
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has reaffirmed support for the country's bilateral relationship with Laos and especially assistance for women's programmes.
Ms Bishop made the commitment while speaking at the launch of the “Lao Women in Leadership” working group in Vientiane yesterday.
She is in the Lao capital to attend the 6th East Asia Foreign Ministers' Meeting and other Asean related meetings this week.
Ms Bishop outlined numerous pillars regarding Australia's support for women in Laos. One pillar focused on assisting young women to fulfil their full potential.
If younger women could see more women taking leadership roles then they could aspire to higher positions as well, she noted.
She highlighted the efforts of the Australian Chamber of Commerce for the “Women in Leadership” programme which has a strong focus on improving outcomes for women and girls as a vital element for building gender equality and growing prosperity.
The second pillar of aid programmes relates to gender equality and especially economic empowerment. The Australian government has a number of programmes that give opportunities to women such as helping them access bank accounts and finance, and running businesses.
She commended Australian support for last month's forum for Asean women entrepreneurs and professionals from the tourism sector in Vientiane as a good example of enhancing the capacity of businesswomen in the region.
The third pillar of the support was preventing violence against women with the assistance of Unicef and Care Australia. Another area of focus was education with 66 disadvantaged districts to target girls who needed assistance, Ms Bishop said.
Ms Bishop also announced an additional AU$1.8 million (about US$1.35 million) in funding to finance a programme to help more women in southern provincial villages to develop income-generating businesses.
Australia's aid programme has contributed to the establishment of more than 180 village banks in southern Laos, which now have more than 33,000 members of which 60 percent are women.
