General News
International workshop on Gender, Economic Integration, and Cross-border Road Infrastructure Development
CALL FOR PAPERS FOR International workshop on Gender, Economic Integration, and Cross-border Road Infrastructure Development: Poverty and Mobility in the Context of Asia
May 6-7, 2010 At AIT Conference Center, Thailand Organized by Asian Institute of Technology Asia Pacific Regional Secretariat of the International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD)
Supported by Japan-ASEAN Solidarity Fund, ASEAN Foundation Asian Development Bank global Transport Knowledge Partnership (gTKP)
As Saskia Sassen noted, globalization is a process of differentiation. This workshop discusses how regional economic integration strengthened by cross-border road networks has differentiated effect based on gender, ethnicity and class.
Asia has historically experienced high intra-mobility of goods and people, but in the recent years, the quantum of such mobility has increased dramatically. Various factors have contributed to this increase, including economic disparity within the region; differences in economic/ employment/business opportunities; transportation and communication infrastructure development, education opportunities, and a wider network of migrants in major cities and industrial areas in the region.
One of the largest factors is the heavy investment in the construction and renovation of road networks. Road networks are considered important for regional economic integration, and especially considered critical for the less developed countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Recognizing this, large investment has been put on improving connectivity through Asian Highways. The fact that people move both within and out of the region has implications not only for the wellbeing of migrants themselves, but also for the sending and receiving communities.
Although there have been studies on regional economic integration with the improved mobility of goods and capital, how this has impacted on the socio-economic condition and cultural practices among the local people along the road as well as at the border regions are still under-studied, especially from the perspective of gender and ethnicity.
Some of the aspects that need to take note of are:
- Changes in agriculture production, such as changes induced by increase in contract farming and plantation with cross-border investment in agriculture
- Changes in peopleโs livelihoods, which can occur through cross-border tourism, crossborder trade, cross-border transportation and investments.
- Changes in cross-border migration and daily mobility of people, and how mobility is used by local women and men to cope with or take advantage of economic integration.
- Changes in access to social services such as health and education
- Changes in land use and land ownership under contesting demand for land
Source: http://cambodiajobs.blogspot.com/2010/02/international-workshop-on-gender.html
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