The top findings of the evaluation of the Breakthrough Project are:
1. Global Fund grantmaking contributed to impact at three levels: on the individual lives of over half a million women and girls, their families and communities, on the sustainability and capacities of the grantee organisations and networks, and through concrete political and economic gains for gender equality.
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.
The reproductive risk index ranks 21 of the 22 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) according to ten key sexual and reproductive health and rights indicators. In doing so, the RRI provides a comprehensive overview of the sexual and reproductive health and rights environments in individual PICTs, how these compare to each other, and combines them to build a clear regional picture of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
In the lead-up to the Beijing Conference, the Pacific Islands region adopted the Pacific Platform for Action (PPA). Its purpose was to identify regional issues and priorities within those Critical Areas and to put them into a local context. The framework was subsequently reviewed and a Revised Pacific Platform for Action on Advancement of Women and Gender Equality (RPPA) was endorsed in 2004.
Highlights of this Pacific summary of the 2012 Women’s Economic Empowerment Index include:
- Fiji is the highest ranked Pacific country (81 out of 128 ranked countries).
- Solomon Islands (125/128) and Papua New Guinea (126/128) are in the bottom five, ranked lower than all Sub-Saharan African countries except Sudan.
The overall goal of the Gender Equality in Political Governance program was to advance gender equality in political governance in the Pacific and its objective was to increase political participation by women as active citizens and leaders. Important strategies employed by the programme include building broad base support for women’s participation in political governance through the development of community-base level education and the introduction of temporary special measures.
The Australian Government is committed to the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – agreed targets set by the world’s nations to reduce poverty by 2015. The MDGs include halving extreme poverty, getting all children into school, closing the gap on gender inequality, saving lives lost to disease and lack of health care, protecting the environment and working on a global partnership for development. Gender equality is central to achieving these goals.
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:
In rural Papua New Guinea, where over 80 per cent of the population live, nearly 50 per cent of women birth outside of a health centre. One out of 25 women dies of pregnancy related causes and 52 babies out of every 1000 born die before their first birthday. For every woman who dies in childbirth or pregnancy, another 30 will suffer lifelong pain or disability from pregnancy-related complications. These alarmingly high death rates are partly the result of health centres being many hours walk away from remote communities and lacking in basic drugs, supplies and suitably trained staff.
This review found that UNICEF’s Child Protection Programme is aligned with Pacific country commitments to upholding children’s rights, and its approaches largely target regional priorities, structures and gaps. Specific findings included:
- There is a need to better contextualise child protection system strengthening approaches to national and local circumstances, and to sharpen messages so that the goals are explicitly communicated and the intended impact is more in focus.
The purpose of the workshop was to share findings from the review of the Pacific Women Fiji Country Plan and the Pacific Women Year Three Evaluation and consider the implications of findings for future Pacific Women programming in Fiji.
The workshop was designed to maximise input from local experts, as well as provide the opportunity for peer sharing. In addition, exercises were developed to ensure partners strengthened or developed new relationships with each other.
This internal end of project review evaluates the effectiveness of the Community Workshop Series and found evidence of contributing to positive changes in community and individual gender roles, norms and sexual reproductive and maternal health related attitudes and behaviours. The review also makes recommendations for adapting the Community Workshop Series to better incorporate family and sexual violence and to be taken to scale.
Key findings from the evaluation include:
- Family and Sexual Violence Units (FSVUs) are highly relevant for expanding services to survivors of family and sexual violence (FSV).
- The effectiveness of FSVU services is constrained by internalised gender norms of male dominance and authority and women’s dependence and obedience. These internalised gender norms have a profound impact on the quality of services offered to FSVU survivors.
The Pacific Community (SPC), in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and UN Women conducts assessments of national governments’ capacity to conduct gender mainstreaming of programs and policies. The purpose of gender mainstreaming is to promote good governance and sustainable development through the integration of gender analysis at all levels of government.
The Pacific Community (SPC), in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and UN Women conducts assessments of national governments’ capacity to conduct gender mainstreaming of programs and policies. The purpose of gender mainstreaming is to promote good governance and sustainable development through the integration of gender analysis at all levels of government.
The Pacific Community (SPC), in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and UN Women conducts assessments of national governments’ capacity to conduct gender mainstreaming of programs and policies. The purpose of gender mainstreaming is to promote good governance and sustainable development through the integration of gender analysis at all levels of government.
The Pacific Community (SPC), in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and UN Women conducts assessments of national governments’ capacity to conduct gender mainstreaming of programs and policies. The purpose of gender mainstreaming is to promote good governance and sustainable development through the integration of gender analysis at all levels of government.
The findings from this study about community views about women in politics and leadership more generally provide important information about current attitudes, how these vary across the population in Fiji, and where change is happening.
This report contains population and demographic data and development profiles for 15 Pacific countries.