The Vanuatu study shows that violence against women is prevalent:
- Among women who have ever had an intimate sexual relationship with a partner, 60% experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime; 68% experienced emotional violence; 28% were subjected to several forms of control by their partner, 69% experienced at least one form of coercive control, and most of these were living with physical and sexual violence.
The Samoan study shows that violence against women is prevalent:
- 37.6% of women who have ever been in a relationship are likely to have experienced physical abuse by their partner.
- 18.6% of women are likely to have experienced emotional abuse by their partner.
- 19.6% of women are likely to have experienced sexual abuse by their partner.
- Of women have experienced physical abuse by their partner, 23.8% had been punched, kicked or beaten while they were pregnant.
This report provides findings from a study conducted with men in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea on their use of violence against women. The study questioned 10,000 men in nine sites in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea. Men were asked about their use and experiences of violence, gendered attitudes and practices, childhood, sexuality, family life and health.
Lessons from the UNFPA’s process of conducting researching violence against women in Kiribati and Solomon Islands included:
- There is overwhelming evidence that the studies in the Solomon Islands and Kiribati were generally been carried out appropriately and effectively.
- There is an overriding sense of achievement, all field workers came back safely and intact, a phenomenal job was done and an enormous amount of data was collected with high response rates and disclosure rates.
This research resource document provides guidance on how to best measure women’s and girls’ empowerment in impact evaluations, based on the experiences of J-PAL affiliated researchers around the world. This research resource document offers practical tips for measuring women’s and girls’ empowerment in impact evaluations. It is designed to support the work of monitoring and evaluation practitioners, researchers, and students.
This is a global annual report for the UN Trust Fund to End Violence againts Women. Global statistics include:
- 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual imtimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence.
- About 7 % of women have been sexually assaulted by someone other than their partner.
- More than 125 million women and girls alive today have undergone some form of female genital mutilation.
- More than 700 million women worldwide alive today were married before their 18th birthdays.
This annual report notes that the eyes of the world were focused on Samoa and the wider region for the Small Islands Developing States Conference and UN Women’s Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo Nguka’s first visit to the Pacific.
Highlights from the year included:
- The launch of UN Women’s Markets for Change project.
- A highly visible 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence campaign.
This short policy brief states women’s empowerment is important because:
- Women’s empowerment contributes to economic growth.
- Marginalisation of women in Pacific island labour markets reduces the labour ‘talent pool’.
- The high level of violence against women is a major barrier to development.
It suggests a number of actions that can be taken:
- Temporary Special Measures to raise women’s political participation can increase women in decision making which can result in broad gains in women’s empowerment.
Key findings of the research note are:
- In 2010 the Pacific region lost 65 percent in potential human development due to gender inequality. But this average hides considerable regional differences.
- Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have high gender inequality, but perhaps surprisingly, so do the Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru.
- Polynesia averages the same as high human development nations, with an average loss of 57 percent in potential human development due to gender inequality.
This paper discusses Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3 to ‘Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women’. It examines the appropriateness of the sole indicator for political progress, the number of women elected to national political office, in the context of a future evaluation around MDG3 to be conducted by the Australian Government’s Office of Development Effectiveness.
This report focuses on the experiences of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood. It highlights the challenges that adolescent mothers face when pregnant and as mothers.
Over the last decade, young women’s fertility rates (ages 15-19) across the Pacific have declined in eight countries. However, in five countries (Marshall Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) rates have remained high, at over 50 of births to women 15-19 years per 1,000 women 15-19 years.
This review involved a desk review of policies and project documents and consultations with Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility (PRIF) agency representatives and staff from other agencies working in the Pacific. It:
- Collates information about how gender concerns are considered and managed in PRIF Infrastructure programs.
- Identifies areas of good practice.
- Identifies lessons to enhance gender-responsive planning and management in Pacific infrastructure projects.
This study deals with research on eight critical areas of concern covered in the Revised Pacific Platform for Action 2005-2015: education, health, climate change and environment, economic empowerment, gender mainstreaming, leadership and decision-making, violence against women and human rights.
While gender research on each issue exists in one way or another in the Pacific, there are many unknowns as to the scope, nature, and quality of this research. This study therefore:
- Maps and provides a gap analysis of existing gender research in the eight thematic areas.
This mapping paper examines the environment for women’s leadership in the Pacific. It looks at the key international and regional gender equality instruments, domestic laws, regulations and policies and development programming. These cover:
- Women’s leadership in politics and government.
- Women in the civil service and on boards.
- Women’s leadership for economic empowerment.
- Women’s leadership to improve women’s and children’s safety.
- Leadership and young women.
Lessons learned are:
This paper encourages a more targeted focus on women’s economic empowerment through private sector development partnerships, not least through a greater mutual allocation of funds, and design effort.
The findings suggest that the ECF has contributed both to women’s economic advancement and perhaps to a lesser extent, to women’s power and agency.
ECF has increased women’s access to employment, training and income, and access to markets, and supported women-owned enterprises to expand their businesses. Specific initiatives that have affected women include:
Pacific Women program activities support the Bougainville Gender Investment Plan, which prioritises the following objectives:
- Reducing family and sexual violence and assist survivors of violence.
- Strengthen women’s leadership.
- Improve women’s economic opportunities.
This report includes the following highlights:
This report contains highlights for the Pacific Women in Papua New Guinea program, including the conclusion from the mid-term evaluation that the program is on track to achieve its objectives, and that the program uses evidence to inform policy and practice.
Other highlights include:
The Community Healing and Rebuilding Program addresses the risk factors of violence and strengthens the protective factors against it. The program draws on group therapy, community healing, and community development approaches. The program will be delivered within four Peer Support Circles in each community:
1) Women’s Peer Support Circle.
2) Young Women’s Peer Support Circle.
3) Men’s Peer Support Circle.
4) Young Men’s Peer Support Circle.
FemLINKpacific is a local, regional, and national catalyst for change through the use of accessible media and information. This is FemLINKPACIFIC’s policy brief from May 2014, providing information and data from the region and updates on the organisation’s programs.
Highlights of the Policy Brief include:
This report contains population and demographic data and development profiles for 15 Pacific countries.