On 14 March 2014, an inaugural conference was held by the Bridging GAP (Gender and Policy) Student Committee on the issue of Gender-Oriented Policies as a part of the 10th Anniversary celebration of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Samantha Hung, Senior Advisor to the Vice President of Administration and Corporate Management, Asian Development Bank (ADB) HQ Manila, was the event’s keynote speaker.Sheopened the conference with the message of the importance of empowering women to achieve development of the region overall. She affirms the need for statistics and data, as well as deliberate institutional practices that account for gendered impact, as crucial aspects of project and policy decisions. She further emphasized the progress that has been made so far is promising but ultimately the task is not complete.
This was followed by the panel discussion, which brought together representatives with leadership positions in the private and public sector. Corinna Lim, Executive Director of AWARE Singapore, Trina Liang, President of Singapore Committee for UN Women and Theresa Devasahayam, Independent Consultant specializing in Gender, engaged in a lively discussion which brought insights from their experiences on the challenges and rewards in formulating and implementing gender oriented policies. The dialogue touched upon issues like the Family Law of Singapore, gender-targeted development projects, and issues that remain hard to resolve.
A photo essay competition was also held on the theme of “Women: Creating, Doing, and Leading” outside the conference hall at Manasseh Meyer Building staircase, open for the vote by Conference speakers and attendees. The winners came from LKY School, University of Geneva, and Columbia University.
Lastly, a Joint Workshop with the Environment Policy Committee titled Mainstreaming Gender into Fisheries Policy was held with guest speaker Angela Lentisco, from United Nations Environment Programme Bangkok, who taught participants to use a gendered project assessment through the case of a fishing community.