22 results
 Pacific Data Hub

The Pacific Women Regional Learning Forum on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) aimed to:

- Contribute to and build Pacific understanding and knowledge of women’s economic empowerment and approaches.

- Build on regional research, practitioner expertise and the experiences of women in the region to adapt and improve the Pacific Women approach to WEE.

- Strengthen relationships between development partners working on WEE and catalyse increased communication and more coordinated action.

 Pacific Data Hub

This report summarises the workshop approach, objectives, key learning outcomes and participant recommendations of the third Pacific Women and Fiji Women’s Fund Fiji Annual Reflection and Planning Workshop.

The workshop objectives were to:

- Enable Fiji Government, civil society and stakeholders to reflect on overall progress and key issues to advance gender equality in Fiji.

- Update grantees of the Fund on findings from its six-monthly report analysis.

 Pacific Data Hub

Poverty data in Fiji is derived from household income and expenditure data, collected via periodic Household Income and Expenditure Surveys. Given gender inequality within households can be significant, assessing individual poverty by using household data and then assuming all household members have the same access to resources and opportunities is problematic. Household-level measurement also means accurate disaggregation of data is impossible. This makes the work of policy makers and advocates harder, masking differences rather than revealing them so they can be addressed.

 Pacific Data Hub

This study analysed a random selection of 908 cases from seven Pacific Island countries, including 111 domestic violence cases and 787 sexual assault cases. Each case is analysed to determine whether gender stereotypes, customary reconciliation (e.g. apology, forgiveness) or other contentious factors were considered during sentencing. Contentious factors are those factors which, when used in mitigation by the court, discriminate against the victim on the basis of her gender.

 Pacific Data Hub

This research project was aimed at synthesising and integrating various experiences and perspectives on poverty held both by poor women and men and by professional poverty experts. The project team began with a review of the professional knowledge contained in the vast multidisciplinary literature on gender and poverty, gender and development, and gender-sensitive measures of poverty.

 Pacific Data Hub

This short paper reports on planned research in Fiji, the first country in the Pacific to pilot a measure of poverty at an individual level from a gender perspective.

 Pacific Data Hub

This review looks at major trends in spending (comparing women and men), the chief barriers to women having more income and control of their finances, and the key opportunities for programs to address economic empowerment of women at household and community levels.

 Pacific Data Hub

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.

 Pacific Data Hub

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.

 Pacific Data Hub

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.

 Pacific Data Hub

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.

 Pacific Data Hub

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.

 Pacific Data Hub

At the opening of the 2014 State of the Pacific Conference organised by the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop noted the Australian Government’s commitment to expanding the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP) and the contribution that labour mobility could make to development in the Pacific. In the minister’s words, ‘some seasonal workers have earned up to $12,000 in Australia, and have been able to remit about $6,000 over a six month placement, the scheme is having flow-on benefits.

 Pacific Data Hub

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 Data Hub

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:

 Pacific Data Hub

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:

 Pacific Data Hub

Since 2009, Australian funding has supported:

- 10 000 survivors of family violence to receive legal assistance and counselling services. 132 women from Vanuatu have benefited from the Australia Awards scholarship program.

- 2,400 women have been trained through Australian Government funded TVET Centres.

- 130 women from the justice sector have been coached and mentored in decision-making skills.

 Pacific Data Hub

Employing an established survey treatment to subtly alter respondents’ perception of their relative economic wellbeing, it was noted that increased feelings of relative poverty make both women and men significantly more likely to support girls’ schooling and women’s paid employment, suggesting that relative economic insecurity can prompt support for women’s economic participation. However, increased feelings of relative poverty may trigger greater intra-household tension.

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A multidonor initiative, the Second Rural Development Program (RDP II) was designed to improve basic infrastructure and services in rural areas and to strengthen the linkages between smallholder farming households and markets. Amongst other objectives, the program supports farming households to engage in productive partnerships with commercial enterprises.

 Pacific Data Hub

This report looks at how gender-differentiated domestic work burdens impact the ability of women to allocate their labour to the cultivation, harvesting and processing of coffee and cocoa.
The report identifies gender-disaggregated trends in time allocation and links these patterns to household welfare outcomes. The note also outlines recommendations to improve outcomes for women in Papua New Guinea within these two sectors.