"Women in Transportation" Initiative Models the Link Between Data and Women’s Economic Empowerment Across APEC
by Louise Williams, Practice Lead, Private Sector Development | April 12, 2019
Source: Nathan. In August 2018, women students from Papua New Guinea's University of Technology contributed to the Ministry of Transport's inquiry into how it can more effectively help women join the transportation sector.
The US-APEC Technical Assistance to Advance Regional Integration (US-ATAARI) activity, which wrapped up at the end of 2018, left a profound mark in an arena long skimmed over by traditional economic development programs. Across Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), US-ATAARI richly addressed the challenge of closing economic gaps between men and women as a means of advancing prosperity for all.
Led by Nathan Associates, US-ATAARI dug deep into several approaches to meeting this challenge. These included a
strengthened collection of economic data pertaining to women; improved conditions for women’s
entrepreneurship and
health; and intensive
assessments of individual economies. For its part, the
Women in Transportation (WiT) Data Framework and Best Practices initiative brought new attention to the benefits that arise from nurturing women in a sector where, but for a few female-dominated roles, they are extremely hard to find.
Although transportation supplies 10–20 percent of jobs in each of APEC’s 21 member economies, women are far less likely than men to work in the major modes of transportation—roads, rail, air, and maritime. Women are similarly scarce in careers such as infrastructure design, construction, and maintenance; transportation technology; and value-chain logistics.
Conceived and launched in 2015 by the APEC Transportation Working Group’s WiT Task Force, the WiT initiative began with a shared model for collecting data. Across APEC, statistics pertaining to women in the sector are remarkably sparse. Nathan broke down this challenge by creating a five-part data framework. Four of the framework’s pillars were oriented toward the transportation career continuum, and the fifth examined women’s access to and use of transport services. The framework illustrated the vastness of issues faced by women in the sector but also demonstrated how solutions became more achievable when they target discrete elements of the transportation challenge.
Source: Nathan
Working closely with USAID, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, Nathan put the WiT Data Framework into action. Through the life of the US-ATAARI program, Nathan collaborated with the five APEC economies -- Papua New Guinea (PNG), Vietnam, New Zealand, Malaysia, and the United States – and agreed to undertake pilot activities for the purpose of illustrating the connections between better information and more responsive policy and practice. As part of US-ATAARI’s development mission, Nathan provided technical support for those pilot activities undertaken by the three developing economies among the volunteers.
PNG chose the WiT Framework’s Education pillar and focused on connecting women vocational and university students to greater information about career opportunities in transportation. PNG’s Ministry of Transport first formed its own WiT Task Force, which convened on several occasions, including with educators, to develop an approach to more effectively prepare women students for the field. With input from women students and support from US-ATAARI, the Task Force built greater awareness across the male-dominated leadership of PNG’s transportation agencies and educational institutions. The Task Force, which remains in place, also drafted a compendium about transportation careers in PNG – and the skills necessary to qualify for them – for girls, young women, and their families to consider as they move forward with their education.
Vietnam chose the WiT Framework’s Entry into the Sector pillar, which addresses the link between personal and technical preparedness and actual employment. Led by Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport, the pilot began with a survey of around 275 male and female students nearing graduation at the University of Transport Technology in Hanoi and the Vietnam Aviation Academy in Ho Chi Minh City. Students rated how prepared they felt in their technical knowledge, interpersonal skills, foreign language skills, and professional etiquette. Significantly, the male students at both schools reported feeling more confident and prepared than their female counterparts – in all categories. Thus, supported by Nathan, the two institutions developed in-school programs for helping educators address issues of confidence and self-regard among their women students as they prepare to interview for and begin their first jobs.
Source: Nathan. Malaysia's final activity associated with the pilot it undertook as part of APEC's Women in Transportation initiative. On March 7, the project held a "recognition ceremony" that was officiated by Malaysia's Deputy Minister of Transport. The ceremony was attended both by mentors and mentees as part of the pilot's leadership activity and included circulation of a draft final "toolkit."
Malaysia selected the Leadership pillar and focused on the maritime industry. The pilot activity emphasized creating opportunities for women in decision-making and managerial positions in port operations, planning, policy, and human capital development. The pilot began in 2016 with a comprehensive survey, which benchmarked conditions for women working in 17 ports across the economy. Using data from the survey, the Ministry of Transport implementers designed a leadership and mentoring program in cooperation with TalentCorp Malaysia, a state agency dedicated to connecting employers with qualified human resources. Involving nearly 25 mentor-mentee pairs, the program unfolded between 2017 and 2019, integrating experiential data and concluding with a final video and instruction manual aimed at guiding similar leadership programs in the future.
Throughout the process, Nathan grew APEC-wide awareness and buy-in to the value of women in the transport sector, including through a
compendium of best practices and a series of convenings, training sessions, and forums. Although US-ATAARI has ended, the WiT initiative will carry on. In late April 2019, representatives to the APEC WiT Task Force will convene in Vancouver to continue learning and sharing experiences based on the framework. Meanwhile, Nathan continues to assist APEC – and its critical mission to support the economic advancement of women – as the implementer of the USAID
Strengthening Economic Growth in Asia program.