77 results
 Pacific Data Hub

This brief provides examples of gender transformative changes achieved by initiatives in Papua New Guinea. It describes practical, proven approaches for gender-transformative change and highlights the importance of:

- Program design explicit in its aim to reshape gender norms and power relations.

- Working in partnership with organisations and community groups to create change.

- Drawing on community strengths, customs and practices.

- Clearly aligning activities to support government policy commitments and strengthen government systems.

 Pacific Data Hub

Balance of Power is an innovative approach to supporting Pacific Island countries achieve their objectives of inclusive and effective leadership in line with national policy frameworks. Specifically, Balance of Power aims to contribute to a ‘better balance’ in women’s and men’s leadership roles and opportunities. Building on lessons learned on what works and what doesn’t in the Pacific context, the innovation is in three key parts:

 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 primary objectives of the workshop were for participants to:

- Reflect on overall progress in advancing gender equality at various levels.

- Share experiences and lessons learned in promoting women’s economic empowerment, enhancing women’s leadership opportunities and capabilities, ending violence against women and coalition building.

 Pacific Data Hub

The Pacific Girl Inception Workshop was held from 21–25 October 2019 in Suva, Fiji. The week-long workshop comprised the following meetings:

- One-day Girls Pawa Toktok with adolescent girls from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu.

- Two-day Partners Meeting with selected civil society organisation partners from Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

- The Pacific Girl Regional Learning Network meeting.

 Pacific Data Hub

This document provides details about the Australian Government’s investment in supporting adolescent girls in the Pacific. It includes information about:

 Pacific Data Hub

This toolkit provides sequential activities to support organisations to ensure that gender equality and the empowerment of women are integrated into their programming. The activities are: 1. Exploring Our Own Expertise About Gender and Diversity. 2. Social and Personal Identity Wheel. 3. Exploring Our Diversity. 4. The Story of Joana and Jona. 5. Choosing the sex of your child. 6. Ideal Man, Ideal Woman. 7. Pressures and Privileges of Being a Man/Woman. 8. Definitions. 9. The New Planet. 10. Group Activity. 11. Power Walk. 12. Power Role Play. 13. The Gender Equality Framework. 14.

 Pacific Data Hub

This paper examines the experience and lessons of three projects implemented by CARE International in Papua New Guinea to inform best practice in inclusive governance programming in the future. CARE’s governance work enables citizens (the “grassroots”) and government (representative as well as the civil service) to come together, disrupting negative or destructive cycles of distrust, inaction and disempowerment.

 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

The Voter Education Project was targeted at the ‘lost generation’ of Bougainville (people aged 35 to 45 years). Over 20 months, the Bougainville Women’s Federation and International Women’s Development Agency provided education about voting rights and responsibilities to 22,463 women and female youth, including 206 with disabilities and 21,368 men and male youth, including 383 with disabilities and another 53 people with disabilities. These voters were able to use these skills in the 2017 Papua New Guinea national elections.

 Pacific Data Hub

The case studies of coalitions in Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Tonga highlight four influential factors in the formation and functioning of coalitions:
Formative events: What brought people together to ‘do something’ in a concerted way? For example, the torture and death of a woman in a sorcery-related violence incident generated the impetus for the formation of the Papua New Guinea coalition examined in this study. Whether formative events are locally or externally driven appears to mould the future shape of a coalition and how it functions.

 Pacific Data Hub

Numerous studies show obvious links between alcohol abuse and violence in Melanesia. In Papua New Guinea, alcohol is incorporated into sociality involving gift exchange and distribution practices associated with the ‘big man’ culture.

 Pacific Data Hub

The 2015 Bougainville election saw a record number of women candidates, and a record number of women were elected. While one in three open constituencies had at least one woman candidate, overall the results for most women in the open seats were disappointing.

This paper reports on an in-depth study of women candidates in the 2015 Bougainville election: their profiles, motivations and campaign strategies. It analyses the impacts of three issues that emerged as common themes in discussions around women’s participation in political decision making in Bougainville:

 Pacific Data Hub

For this research, 12 young Bougainvillean women were trained in research methods. Six teams of two women then undertook research in six districts, covering the three regions of Bougainville (North, Central and South). The teams conducted 52 individual interviews and 49 group discussions. Field researchers participated in an initial analysis workshop and the lead researcher was mentored as a co-author of the research report.

 Pacific Data Hub

This research shows that the young women who are part of the Young Women's Parliamentary Group are working to advance women’s participation and leadership in a range of ways in Solomon Islands. They are not exclusively or even primarily focused on increasing women’s representation within the National Parliament. The young women’s intuition that they can achieve more outside or on the edge of the political realm than within it, provides an interesting perspective on how formal politics is viewed by young women in Pacific nations.

 Pacific Data Hub

This short paper reflects on the experiences of 38 young, educated women in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It finds that:

- Young women in Melanesia are subject to intimate forms of control. However educated and able they may be, family members continue to exert or seek to exert control over their behaviour and choices.

 Pacific Data Hub

The Autonomous Region of Bougainville introduced the Pacific’s first parliamentary reserved seats for women system in 2004. While the system guarantees a minimum level of representation for women in the Bougainville House of Representatives, concerns have been raised that the reserved seats act as a ceiling for women’s representation and prevent women from successfully contesting other seats. No women candidates contested the 33 open seats in the 2005 election. In the 2010 election, five women contested open seats.

 Pacific Data Hub

In Papua New Guinea, it is primarily through being ‘good’ wives, mothers and household managers that women become valued. This situation can leave young women and those who do not become wives and mothers with limited options for gaining respect and a voice, while potentially also constraining the opportunities for women to participate in other spheres.

 Pacific Data Hub

This literature review identifies assumptions underpinning key questions relating to the appropriateness of donor assistance to activities and programs designed to support democratic governance in East Timor, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. The extract commences with a discussion of some underpinning themes and then moves to particular issues relating to the promotion of women into political leadership. The review concludes with a full bibliography of sources used.

 Pacific Data Hub

This short paper looks at the example of women parliamentarians in Kiribati and Samoa to identify common characteristics of women who have been successful at being elected:

- Coming from a large and influential family provides an important ‘base vote’, willing campaign helpers, and potential financiers. Women MPs also tend to come from political families. That is, one or both of their parents, uncles or brothers have tended to have been in politics and they often act as patrons and mentors.

 Pacific Data Hub

Outside of national politics, Pacific women are often visible as leaders. The study found that Pacific women from places as far afield as Bougainville and Samoa are leaders in diverse fields including local government, civil service, private business, and civil society.