Opening Remarks: Promoting Gender Equality in COVID-19 Response and Recovery

Masatsuga Asakawa, President of Asian Development Bank, delivered the opening remarks expressing commitment to ensuring that gender equality is at the heart of ADB’s response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. He discussed how ADB’s support directly addressed one of the pandemic’s devastating consequences—the increased rates of gender-based violence. He mentioned that ADB has worked with its DMCs to provide resources for gender-based violence support programs.

Rosie Wheen

Rosie is a passionate advocate for human rights, gender equality, and universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene. She has over two decades of international development experience, having lived and worked in Indonesia for six years before joining WaterAid Australia at its inception in 2004. She was Director of International Programs prior to becoming Chief Executive in 2016. Rosie’s leadership manifesto focuses on being an authentic servant leader who always pushes herself beyond her comfort zone—this is where Rosie believes she learns most and performs at her best.

Gender Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

Justice Robyn Layton shared an ADB project that she has been working on with Dr. Mary Picard. This project analyzes the climate change and disaster risk management policies and the green jobs market for women in Fiji, Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Mongolia. It includes the crafting of a good practice gender inclusive legislative framework to strengthen women's resilience to climate change and disaster risk.

Closing Remarks

In his closing remarks, Justice Kamal Kumar thanked the participants for attending the conference. He noted the benefits of having a wide range of speakers share their experiences and help the participants understand how they are affected by climate change and what they are doing to ensure that they have a safe and healthy environment. The speakers also talked about various types of climate actions, climate impacts on vulnerable groups, as well as the roles and responsibilities of judicial officers in addressing climate change.