52 results
 Pacific Data Hub

This report details data from 6,176 icidents of gender-based or sorcery accussation-related violence collected by seven women’s and human rights defenders’ organisations working across five provinces in Papua New Guinea. These organisations provide safe houses, counselling and crisis support to survivors of violence. The data analysis seeks to understand the type of violence inflicted, who is affected and who are reported as the perpetrators.

 Pacific Data Hub

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.

 Pacific Data Hub

Key findings from this research into women’s and girl’s experiences of menstruation in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands are:

- Adolescent girls and women face a number of challenges that influence their ability to manage menstruation effectively and with dignity; these challenges interact, and have the potential to negatively influence physical and emotional health, participation at school, work and in the community, and impact the environment.

 Pacific Data Hub

Key findings from this research into women’s and girl’s experiences of menstruation in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands are:

- Adolescent girls and women face a number of challenges that influence their ability to manage menstruation effectively and with dignity; these challenges interact, and have the potential to negatively influence physical and emotional health, participation at school, work and in the community, and impact the environment.

 Pacific Data Hub

Key findings from this research into women’s and girl’s experiences of menstruation in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands are:

- Adolescent girls and women face a number of challenges that influence their ability to manage menstruation effectively and with dignity; these challenges interact, and have the potential to negatively influence physical and emotional health, participation at school, work and in the community, and impact the environment.

 Pacific Data Hub

Key findings from this research into women’s and girl’s experiences of menstruation in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands are:

- Adolescent girls and women face a number of challenges that influence their ability to manage menstruation effectively and with dignity; these challenges interact, and have the potential to negatively influence physical and emotional health, participation at school, work and in the community, and impact the environment.

 Pacific Data Hub

Key findings from this research into women’s and girl’s experiences of menstruation in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands are:

- Adolescent girls and women face a number of challenges that influence their ability to manage menstruation effectively and with dignity; these challenges interact, and have the potential to negatively influence physical and emotional health, participation at school, work and in the community, and impact the environment.

 Pacific Data Hub

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.

 Pacific Data Hub

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.

 Pacific Data Hub

The research demonstrated that, in general, women’s increased involvement in community financial management and income generation has not necessarily led to a redistribution of caring work or other unpaid household and community responsibilities.

 Pacific Data Hub

This monograph describes an approach to farmer learning and agricultural extension known as the ‘Family Teams’ approach used in a project to improve the uptake and impact of training and small business development for women smallholder food crop producers in three regions of Papua New Guinea. The Family Teams approach enables farming families to explore issues of gender and culture within families, seeking to encourage more effective, sustainable and gender-equitable farming and business practices.

 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

Findings from participatory action research undertaken with family and sexual violence service providers, advocates, businesses, and their employees in Papua New Guinea strongly indicate that workplace strategies should be modified to reflect cultural and other contextual specificities. In particular, workplace strategies should reflect local understandings about what constitutes family and sexual violence; who may perpetrate it and who may be victimised by family and sexual violence; and what supports are available to victims of family and sexual violence.

 Pacific Data Hub

This study analysed a random selection of 908 cases from seven Pacific Island countries, including 111 domestic violence cases and 787 sexual assault cases. Each case is analysed to determine whether gender stereotypes, customary reconciliation (e.g. apology, forgiveness) or other contentious factors were considered during sentencing. Contentious factors are those factors which, when used in mitigation by the court, discriminate against the victim on the basis of her gender.

 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

Samoan women have achieved approximate equality to men in most modern spheres of government and the economy, but have never succeeded in winning more than five seats in the 49-seat parliament. Samoa has been among the countries ranked lowest in the world for women’s representation in parliament: in 2015 it ranked 128 out of 140 countries.

This comprehensive research consisted of:

- A nationwide survey of women’s participation in political and economic village-based organisations, covering all villages and sub-villages in Samoa.

 Pacific Data Hub

This research project was aimed at synthesising and integrating various experiences and perspectives on poverty held both by poor women and men and by professional poverty experts. The project team began with a review of the professional knowledge contained in the vast multidisciplinary literature on gender and poverty, gender and development, and gender-sensitive measures of poverty.

 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 link between women’s economic empowerment and the elimination of violence is pertinent in Papua New Guinea. Significant and persistent gender disparities limit the capacity of all Papua New Guineans to benefit from the country’s wealth of natural and human resources. Highlighting the costs of not supporting women, including those who are living with violence and those who are prevented from progressing in their careers, this short paper confirms the potentially transformative possibilities of gender-sensitive and affirmative action policies within the formal employment sector.

 Pacific Data Hub

The study unearthed a large amount of information about the delivery of adult literacy programs in rural communities, as well as finding some significant gaps in available information.

There is some incongruity between how adult literacy programs are typically described and perceived in Solomon Islands and the reality on the ground.

There is a wealth of knowledge amongst several key actors in the sector that could be harnessed more effectively to improve the delivery of adult literacy programs.