Discrimination against women has cost Asia-Pacific billions of dollars every year. The Economic and Social Survey for Asia and the Pacific 2007, launched on 18 April 2007 by the United Nations regional arms, has found that barriers to employment for women cost the region $42 billion to $47 billion annually. A further $16-$30 billion a year is lost through gender gaps in education.

When the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) decided to undertake research on the costs of gender inequality, the aim was to build a bridge between social and economic policies. It wanted to demonstrate that restricting women's access to work, education and health services, so often seen in human rights terms, also comes at significant economic costs. For example, the Survey finds that if female workforce participation in India were on a par with that in the United States, the country's gross domestic product would be lifted by 1.08 percentage points-a gain of $19 billion. Significant gains could also be achieved in Malaysia and Indonesia, but less in China, where female labour force participation is already high.

Education is another area where there could be huge potential economic gains from eliminating gender discrimination. In the Asian and Pacific region, female primary school enrolment is as much as 26 per cent lower than that of males. Yet, the returns from educating women are higher: when you educate a man, you educate a person; when you educate a woman, you educate a whole family. Women tend to invest more in children's health and education.

Women's inadequate access to health services also extracts an alarming toll. In some countries in Asia and the Pacific, one in every 10 girls dies before reaching her first birthday, while one in every 50 women dies during pregnancy or delivery. It is true that the region has made significant progress over the course of the past half century. The average life expectancy of women has risen from 44 years during the period 1950-1955 to 70 years in the period 2000-2005. Infant mortality has fallen from 171 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1955 to 52 deaths in 2000. Adult female mortality has dropped by over 40 per cent since 1960 for most countries in the region.

Other positive developments include rising literacy rates among women, as well as growing political participation, with a 50-per cent increase in the number of women parliamentarians since 1997. For example, India has enacted legislation which requires 33 per cent of elected seats at local levels of government to be reserved for women. Great progress has been made since the law was passed.

But much more needs to be done, and a lot could be achieved by taking fairly simple and low-cost steps, especially where parents hesitate to send daughters to school. These steps include locating schools close to villages, providing separate toilets and wash areas for girls, and allowing more women to enter the teaching profession. After all, education for girls is one of the best paths to freedom for women.

To improve health services for women, it is critical that we address malnutrition and infant and maternal mortality. Providing free lunch at school for children and special nutritional packages for pregnant women will go a long way in improving their health. Mobile clinics in remote areas and community-based emergency transport could drastically reduce maternal and infant deaths. Women are often denied access to health services because of cultural practices and misconceptions. Implementing legislation to ensure equal rights to basic health services is therefore crucial.

To reduce discrimination against women in recruitment, wages and promotions, Governments should take the lead, with the public sector acting as a role model. Legislation against harassment at the workplace needs to be in place. In our quest to reduce such discrimination, we must change the attitude and behaviour of men--and this has to start early, in childhood. Enlightened fathers, husbands and brothers are more likely to respect daughters, wife and sisters.

Professor Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate in Economics, observed in a meeting with UNESCAP staff in March that, while social progress could be served by economic growth, the reverse was equally true-economic growth could be spurred on by advances in social policy. Indeed, if financial and social policymakers could see the complementarity of their interests, then there might be a better future, not only for women and girls but for everyone across the Asia-Pacific region.