The fifth Pacific Women in Papua New Guinea Annual Learning Workshop offered an opportunity for Pacific Women-funded and non-funded partners to come together to discuss their work and research and to share lessons about what is working, the challenges, and the opportunities for promoting gender equality in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific.
The fourth Pacific Women in Papua New Guinea Annual Learning Workshop provided an update on activities, research, innovation, and good practice undertaken by Pacific Women and its partners in 2017-2018 in the areas of:
- Increasing women’s leadership and decision making.
- Increasing economic opportunities for women.
- Reducing violence against women and expanding support services.
The Pacific Women Advisory Group on Research is comprised of specialists in gender research expertise who have interest in the Pacific region including representatives of research institutions, development partners, civil society organisations, regional organisations, governments that are engaging in gender research as well as individual research practitioners. Guided by the Research Strategy, the Advisory Group provides advice to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the strategic direction of the Pacific Women research program.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The first woman to be elected to local government in Fiji was Mrs Maureen Wright in 1967 who then went on to become the Mayor of Lautoka City Council in 1970. Since then the progress of women in local government has been frustratingly slow. Despite 40 years of institutional development, the number of women elected into municipal councils has only increased by a marginal 4% to 14.5% in 2008.
Despite the existence of affirmative action measures at the sub-national level in almost all Pacific island countries (a little known fact), women’s political representation at this level continues to remain significantly low. Nevertheless, regional trends indicate that women’s political representation at the sub-national level is gradually increasing and in most cases is higher than at the national level.
In 2010, the Cook Islands National Council of Women in partnership with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum Pacific set down an ambitious program to begin to work with women entering decision making positions in the Pa Enua (Island) Governments. There are over 50 seats in local councils throughout the country. The key aims of the Akateretere Anga Tau O Te Pa Enua (meaning leadership in the Islands) Program is to:
- Establish island women in local government networks and coalitions to help drive gender equality goals.