This report presents lessons learned from menstrual health actors working in the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on the local context of island-based nations. It is a unique case-study that captures the specific menstrual health challenges faced by countries with dispersed populations across large geographic locations with limited income and commercial access. The report explores how innovative investment can be a means of facilitating a new market opportunity, enabling improved access to necessary healthcare products, and support venture creation for women-led businesses.
Findings from the study include:
- Girls in Kiribati lack knowledge about menstruation and reproductive health as they transition into adolescence and adulthood.
- Poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) contributes to girls being unable to manage their menstruation in Kiribati schools.
- It is often considered taboo for men and boys to talk about menstruation or interact with menstruating girls and women.
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.
To better understand the nature and availability of counselling services for gender-based violence, a survey involving a self-assessment questionnaire was conducted to map counselling service providers across 14 Pacific Island countries. This was followed up with 47 key stakeholder interviews and nine focus group discussions. In-country consultations were also conducted in Fiji and Vanuatu. Fiji was selected because it has a wide range of counselling services and Vanuatu was selected as it provided an opportunity to review a model for delivering services across a dispersed island group.
This volume critically interrogates the relation between gender violence and human rights as Fiji, Papua New Guinea nad Vanuatu and their communities and citizens engage with, appropriate, modify and at times resist human rights principles and their implications for gender violence. It is grounded in extensive anthropological, historical and legal research.
Chapter titles are:
- Villages, Violence and Atonement in Fiji.
- ‘Lost in Translation’: Gender Violence, Human Rights and Women’s Capabilities in Fiji.
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.
Similarities across the situation analyses in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tonga include:
- Women with disabilities make significant contributions to their communities. However, while they have similar talents, skills and experience as other women, they may be more often underrecognised and have fewer opportunities.
- Each country has a committed and active disabled persons organisation and a family health association that are in a good position to increase their focus on disability and sexuality.
This checklist proposes actions in five specific areas:
- Learn from women’s experience and support their leadership.
- Develop and implement gender-sensitive responses to COVID-19.
- Support women’ economic security.
- Prioritise support to domestic violence survivors.
- Ensure continued access to health services.
This study was commissioned to increase the visibility of young persons with disabilities to policymakers and advocates. It provides:
- An up-to-date analysis on the situation of young persons with disabilities concerning discrimination and sexual violence, including the impact on their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
- A detailed assessment of legal, policy, and programming developments and specific good practices in service delivery along with best-standard prevention and protection measures.
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.
The Revised Pacific Platform For Action is a regional charter developed and agreed to by representatives from all Pacific Island countries and territories. It has four strategic themes:
- Mechanisms to promote the advancement of women.
- Women’s legal and human rights.
- Women’s access to services.
- Economic empowerment of women.
Health pandemics have specific and severe impacts on the lives of women and girls. Since the COVID-19 outbreak first had reported cases, the gendered impacts began being documented in the Pacific and across the world. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by crises. Existing gender inequalities are exacerbated during a crisis, with the result that women and girls face even higher rates of violence, sexual abuse and control from their husbands, partners and families.
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 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.
This report contains population and demographic data and development profiles for 15 Pacific countries.
This Thematic Brief discusses five key messages about the emerging impacts of COVID-19 on adolescent girsl in the Pacific:
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 findings this study into HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), called Kauntim mi tu – Port Moresby, provide an improved roadmap for treatment, care and provision of other services to key populations affected by HIV in Port Moresby.
The findings this study into HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), called Kauntim mi tu – Port Moresby, provide an improved roadmap for treatment, care and provision of other services to key populations affected by HIV in Port Moresby.