Women in the Asia-Pacific continue to face barriers in entering, remaining in, and advancing in the workforce. The multi-year APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies (HWHE) initiative aims to address health-related issues, which include workplace injuries, sexual harassment, lack of family-friendly policies, and more. In 2015, APEC welcomed the HWHE policy toolkit: a menu of options and actions that economies may pursue in part or as a whole to achieve HWHE objectives. The toolkit focuses on five areas – workplace health and safety, health access and awareness, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and work/life balance.

An underlying APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Literature Review informed and validated the recommendations included in the policy toolkit.

Since the launch of the toolkit, the initiative has developed additional tools to promote implementation of health and workplace programs and policies, including an economic case study for governments and business case for businesses.

This effort has been led by USAID’s US-APEC Technical Assistance to Advance Regional Integration (US-ATAARI) project, implemented by Nathan.