The pandemic highlighted the immense challenges that women face in their health, safety and livelihoods. Many women, especially those in vulnerable communities, have lost a generation’s worth of economic gains. With the increase in gender-based violence and the reversal of decades of advancement for women in the workplace, we have reached an inflection point for gender equality. More
1 - 20 of 22 Results
Date:
This brief summarizes the key gender equality issues and key commitments in Vanuatu. Thematic areas covered in the brief include Women’s Human Rights, Women’s Representation and Leadership, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Education, Health/Sexual and Reproductive Health, Ending Violence against Women and Girls, and Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action.
Date:
Before, during and after disasters and conflicts, people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) experience discrimination, violence and exclusion. This report explores what inclusion truly means according to key frameworks and tools in the humanitarian and disaster risk reduction systems. At the same time, it serves to identify gaps within these systems and generate a clearer understanding of how and why these gaps exist.
Date:
The Pacific region has some of the highest rates of violence against women recorded in the world – twice the global average with an estimated two in every three Pacific women impacted by gender-based violence.
Date:
Gender equality lies at the core of human rights and is the bedrock from which sustainable development can be achieved. Women and girls represent 50 per cent of the world’s population, yet are often excluded from the political arena, and shut out of decision-making that directly affects their lives. Increasing women’s political participation and leadership are vital mechanisms that support women to realize their human rights. Increasing women’s participation...
Date:
Historically, gender norms, behaviours and social relations have played a big part in disadvantaging women economically. Institutions, systems and structures often restrict women’s economic opportunities, while gender roles and status can limit women’s voices and choices when it comes to household and community decisions. Participating in economic activities allows women to effect positive changes in their own lives, and communities, contributing to positive effects for the whole...
Date:
16 things you can do to help end violence against women and girls
Date:
This report provides a summary of the key findings and recommendations from the rapid safety and discrimination assessments carried out in 22 market locations across Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The assessments revealed challenges faced by women market vendors around their personal safety. Safe, accessible and inclusive work places are critical for women’s economic empowerment. The assessment results are meant to inform a range of Markets for Change (M4C) project stakeholders...
Date:
This study set out to map, document and understand the relative vulnerability of municipal markets and their vendors, farmers and wider communities to climate change risks. The outcomes are practical measures and policy recommendations that can be implemented by UN Women’s Markets for Change project, municipalities and other relevant stakeholders to reduce this vulnerability and to prepare for disasters.
Date:
Time to Act on Gender, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction. An overview of progress in the Pacific region with evidence from The Republic of Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa. Gender equality and the empowerment of women become ever more important as the frequency and severity of storms, floods, drought and other climatic hazards increase in the Pacific region. Due to prevailing gender inequalities and social norms, women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change and disaster...
Date:
In 2009, the Vanuatu Women’s Centre (VWC) in partnership with the Vanuatu National Statistics Office (VNSO) completed the first Vanuatu National Survey on Women’s Lives and Family Relationships. This survey found alarmingly high rates of violence against women and girls in Vanuatu: (*) “60 per cent of women in a relationship experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their husband/partner in their lifetime, and 44% suffered from either or both of these forms of violence in the last 12 months.” (*) “The prevalence of sexual violence...
Date:
A snapshot of UN Women’s Markets for Change project in Vanuatu delivered by the Fiji Multi-Country Office. Funded largely by the Australian Government, the project works with three major markets in Vanuatu, as well as five ring road markets in Shefa Province. The project also works in 12 other sites in Fiji and Vanuatu, to help ensure they are safe, inclusive and non-discriminatory. Markets are an essential source of income for many Vanuatu households and women make up the majority of...
Date:
A snapshot of UN Women’s Markets for Change project delivered by the Fiji Multi-Country Office. Funded largely by the Australian Government, the project works with 20 market sites across Fiji Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to help ensure they are safe, inclusive and non-discriminatory. Markets are an essential source of income for many Pacific households and women make up the majority of market vendors; despite this women are not usually involved in the decision-making processes that shape...
Date:
Increasing women’s participation in leadership and decision-making is not only critical for achieving gender equality, it is also essential for general economic and social development. Studies have found that longer exposure to women’s political representation increases women’s overall labour force participation, the share of public employment opportunities allocated to women and women’s increased access to public goods such as roads and health services. The Pacific...
Date:
A snapshot of UN Women’s Ending Violence against Women and Girls programme delivered by the Fiji Multi-Country Office. Covering 14 Pacific countries and territories, the programme supports Pacific-led activities to improve the policy environment on ending violence against women and girls as well as to meet the immediate needs, at a community level, of women who are experiencing violence. It supports Pacific organisations in delivering services that meet survivors’ needs, as well as...
Date:
A snapshot of UN Women’s Increasing Community Resilience through the Advancement of Women to Address Climate Change and Natural Hazards (IREACH) programme delivered by the Fiji Multi-Country Office. Covering 14 Pacific countries and territories, the programme is designed to ensure that Pacific women become full, equal partners in, and beneficiaries of, all disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, as well as overall sustainable development.
Date:
Violence against women and girls in the Pacific region is a serious and complex issue requiring urgent action. After years of advocacy by women’s rights and civil society organisations, Pacific Island governments have begun to adopt laws and policies to address this issue. However, governments and civil society organisations continue to face a number of barriers, including access to funding and resources, as well as a need for capacity building in key areas of project design and...
Date:
There has been progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Pacific, but it still remains a key challenge. The Millennium Development Goals have helped create awareness and gain political support for efforts to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development across the globe. However, with the Millennium Development Goals coming to a close in 2015, the Pacific region’s progress towards achieving targets has been slow and uneven and many gender disparities still...
Date:
Violence against girls is also a serious problem in the Pacific. In Vanuatu and Solomon Islands more than 30 per cent of women reported they had been sexually abused before their 15th birthday. In Kiribati and Fiji the number was 20 per cent. Gender-based violence brings with it a raft of consequences for the individuals involved, their families and communities, as well as at regional and national levels. It has a substantial economic impact through increased healthcare, social services, and policing costs....
Date:
UN Women Pacific Newsletter Issue# 3
Date:
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign is an international campaign that began in 1991. From November 25th, the International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women, to December 10th, International Human Rights Day...