IGTN-Asia was set up to strengthen the capacity of Asian women's organization for understanding the impact of the trade liberalization on women's economic and social development.  In the last year, IGTN-Asia has been quite active in pursuing advocacy, literacy and research activities around the region and within the Philipines where its secretariat is based.

IGTN-Asia is a group of committed women researchers, advocates, and policy analysts from across Asia who have been working together on the effect of trade liberalization on rural women, women workers, and women migrant workers and the broader impact on their families and communities. IGTN-Asia is part of the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN) which joins women globally to monitor trade initiatives and to offer alternatives from a gender perspective. IGTN is represented in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Caribbean, the Pacific, Europe, Central Asia and North America.

In order to promote transparency within the IGTN and facilitate greater understanding of IGTN-Asia for those who wish to learn more about the Network or partner with us, the IGTN-Asia organizational structure is detailed below. The links below can be used to navigate to specific sections of IGTN-Asia's organizational structure

• Advocacy
• Research
• Economic Literacy
• Membership
• Planning

Since the last Steering Committee Meeting held in Geneva in March 2004, IGTN-Asia has been quite active in pursuing advocacy, literacy and research activities around the region and within the Philipines where its secretariat is based

Advocacy

In the area of advocacy, IGTN-Asia is linked to major initiatives in the region. It participated in the South East and South Asia Trade Strategy Meeting as well as the Our World is Not For Sale (OWINFS) meetings in Bangkok held in April-May 2004. IGTN-Asia was focal point and coordinator for the seminar-workshops on women and the economy at the Asia Pacific NGO forum on Beijing + 10 that was held in Thailand, July 1-3, 2004. It participated in discussions on trade at the Asia Europe People's Forum held in Hanoi City, Vietnam in September 2004.  IGTN-Asia continues to be an active member of the Asia Pacific Network on Food Sovereignty (APNFS) and co-sponsored with APNFS, Third World Network (TWN) and Oxfam-Hong Kong (Oxfam-HK) a conference on trade and agriculture in East Asia that was held in Hong Kong in January 2005.  IGTN-Asia has established links with the Migrants Forum Asia for discussion and possible joint lobbying on Mode 4 and migrants' rights.  

Research

In the area of research, IGTN-Asia associate Marina Durano has been contracted by Oxfam-HK to draw up two overview papers examining the ASEAN+3 initiative in trade. Between October 2004 and January 2005, Marina Durano was based in United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(UNESCAP) where she wrote "Women in International Trade and Migration:  Examining the Globalized Provision of Care Services" (ESCAP Gender and Development discussion Paper Series No. 16) that was distributed at the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting on Beijing + 10 in March 2005. 

Economic Literacy

In the area of literacy, IGTN-Asia recently came out with its literacy packet on GATS focused on Mode 4 and the privatization of services. Soon to be released is the 5^th literacy packet on trade and investments. It also recently concluded its engagement with Network Women in Development Europe (WIDE) on the testing of an economic literacy module in two workshops held in Cha-am,Thailand and in Chennai, India. All of the women involved in the WIDE/IGTN-Asia training workshops – Sheelu Francis, Lek Yimprasert and Gigi Francisco - were present at a project meeting convened by WIDE in Ostende, Belgium in early June 2004. Ongoing is a 5-month graduate certificate course for NGOs, parliamentarians and labor groups in the Philippines, on the "Emerging Legal Regime for Foreign Investments." Finally, a small popular education project on women and the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) which is a collaboration between IGTN-Asia and the Heinrich Boll Foundation is being carried over from last year, and a samll training on gender and trade is being discusses with the Hong Kong Peoples Alliance on the WTO (KHPAWTO) as part of the capacity building in trade advocacy for Hong Kong-based women's groups and networks.  A regional training on gender and trade for negotiators, policymakers and NGOs in the least developed countries (LDC) in Asia will be held in June 2005.

Membership

At present, the IGTN-Asia technical resource group includes: