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.
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.
Fiji has one of the highest rates of domestic and sexual violence in the world with almost two-thirds of the country’s women experiencing domestic or sexual violence during their lifetime. This has serious negative impacts on individuals, families, communities and workplaces. For the three companies included in this study, the high rates of domestic and sexual violence translate into lost staff time and reduced productivity that is equivalent to almost 10 days of lost work per employee each year.
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.
This research, exploring connections between women’s economic empowerment initiatives and increased violence against women in Solomon Islands, found that any equation between women’s economic empowerment and domestic violence is not always straightforward.
This research, exploring connections between women’s economic empowerment initiatives and increased violence against women in two provinces of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, found that the economic advancement that many women are achieving rarely translates into actual empowerment, because they are rarely able to negotiate a decrease in domestic workloads when they bring income — often the only income — into the household.
This research, exploring connections between women’s economic empowerment initiatives and increased violence against women in two provinces of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, found that the economic advancement that many women are achieving rarely translates into actual empowerment, because they are rarely able to negotiate a decrease in domestic workloads when they bring income — often the only income — into the household.