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.
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.
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.
The Solomon Islands study shows that violence against women is prevalent:
- 64% of ever-partnered women aged 15–49 reported experiencing physical or sexual violence, or both, by an intimate partner.
- Women in Solomon Islands are more likely to experience severe forms of physical partner violence, such as punching, kicking, or having a weapon used against them, rather than just moderate violence.
- 56% of women aged 15–49 who had ever been in a relationship reported experiencing emotional abuse by a partner at least once.
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.
Each year, businesses and the public sector in Fiji are losing an average of 12.7 workdays per employee due to the responsibilities of working parents. Limited, unregulated and inaccessible childcare options for children aged zero to five result in absenteeism, lateness, low productivity, distraction, exhaustion and stress for working parents.
A report from Femili PNG and the Australian National University (ANU) shows that the issuing of protection orders by the Lae District Court is becoming more efficient. The data, was collected by Femili PNG and analysed by the ANU, covered almost three years from August 2014 to May 2018. The data showed that the average time taken to get an interim protection order (IPO) is 15.9 days. Almost one fifth (18%) were issued on the same day, and around half (51%) were issued within a week.
A report from Femili PNG and the Australian National University (ANU) shows that the issuing of protection orders by the Lae District Court is becoming more efficient. The data, was collected by Femili PNG and analysed by the ANU, covered almost three years from August 2014 to May 2018. The data showed that the average time taken to get an interim protection order (IPO) is 15.9 days. Almost one fifth (18%) were issued on the same day, and around half (51%) were issued within a week.
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.
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.
This study was a collaborative effort between the Tuvalu Ministry of Home Affairs, the Gender Affairs Department of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Fusi Alofa Association of Tuvalu (Tuvalu’s Disabled Persons’ Organisation).
This study was a collaborative effort between the Tuvalu Ministry of Home Affairs, the Gender Affairs Department of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Fusi Alofa Association of Tuvalu (Tuvalu’s Disabled Persons’ Organisation).
This study was a collaborative effort between the Tuvalu Ministry of Home Affairs, the Gender Affairs Department of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Fusi Alofa Association of Tuvalu (Tuvalu’s Disabled Persons’ Organisation).
The State, Society and Governance in Melanesia program at the Australian National University and the International Women’s Development Agency undertook the Do No Harm research project in Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea to understand whether and in what ways economic inclusion and empowerment initiatives affect women’s experience of violence.