Growing world-wide recognition of the unequal participation of women in development culminated in the declaration of 1975 as International Women’s Year and of the subsequent ten years as the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace (1976-1985).
Subsequent to these events, the Mid-Decade World Conference on the United Nations Decade for Women, held at Copenhagen in 1980, formulated the Programme of Action for the Second Half of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, with the sub-themes of employment, health, and education.
Various organs of the United Nations system were within this context, mandated to review the extent and depth to which the goals of the United Nations Decade for Women had been achieved and obstacles encountered, so as to strengthen future efforts. At the global level, these reviews converged in the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, held at Nairobi in 1985.
As part of the preparatory activities for the Nairobi World Conference, the ESCAP secretariat formulated a set of indicators that should be sensitive to the situation of women in Asia and the Pacific, based on the priorities of the world and regional programmes of action.
A regional survey based on these indicators was undertaken and presented by ESCAP at the Regional Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting for the Nairobi Conference, held at Tokyo in 1984. This survey was incorporated into the world-wide survey on the status of women conducted by the United Nations Centre for Social Develop­ ment and Humanitarian Affairs (UNCSDHA) and presented at the Nairobi Conference.