The first meeting of the PPWE was held in San Francisco, California, United States in September 2011. Member economies discussed the four policy areas to increase women’s economic participation: (i) Access to Capital; (ii) Access to Markets; (iii) Capacity and Skills Building; and (iv) Women’s Leadership. It adopted its Terms of Reference and endorsed the San Francisco Declaration at the end of the High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy held under the Chairmanship of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Dialogue also introduced discussion on Individual Action Plans to monitor progress as a way forward.

In particular, the San Francisco Declaration called for APEC members to take concrete actions to realize the full potential of women, integrate them more fully into APEC economies, and maximize their contributions towards economic growth. This includes removing barriers that restrict women’s full economic participation. The declaration therefore seeks to improve women’s access to capital and markets, build their capacity and skills to better accrue the benefits of global trade, and boost their representation in leadership roles in both the private and public sectors. These policy recommendations will be delivered at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In September-October 2010, the APEC Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit was held in Gifu, Japan. The Summit provided recommendations that were presented at the APEC Leaders Meeting in Yokohama, Japan in November 2010 – and the importance of women’s economic participation in the Asia Pacific region was reemphasized.

Through the work of the GFPN, a greater awareness of gender issues in APEC economies and groups is engendered. In particular gender-related concepts are increasingly understood as economic and social issues of national and regional importance in APEC economies. Many new policy issues relating to women and a gender-differentiated perspective have been put on the agendas of APEC economies as a result of the GFPN’s initiatives.

The efforts of the GFPN have increased the economies and decision-making participation of women within APEC. In 2005, the GFPN recommended to senior officials to increase women’s participation in the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). Since then, several economies have lobbied to appoint a women member as one of the three persons appointed to ABAC from each member economy.

The GFPN’s gender integration initiatives have had significant influence on the gender policies of member economies, if not on the activities of all APEC groups. This can be seen as the beginnings of a regional APEC community of gender experts and gender aware officials and citizens, a community that is promoting and advancing the economic interests of women for the benefits of all APEC economies.