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Melanesian Spearhead Group and SPC sign project to support women's rights and gender equality
A project to support Melanesian women entrepreneurs, increase equity across Members of Parliament (MPs), and end violence against women and girls is expected to get off the ground soon.
Promoting Melanesian Women to Enable Social and Economic Empowerment, known as the Promoting Melanesian Women project, will soon come to fruition with the co-signing of a Grant Agreement by the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat and the Pacific Community (SPC) on 5 August 2024.
Central to the project is enhancing youth and women’s contribution and leadership in the MSG development process.
SPC’s contribution to the joint project is through the Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme, supported by the Australian Government. The joint project is valued at AUD577,000, with funding from the Pacific Women Lead at SPC (PWL at SPC) programme of over AUD400,000 and in-kind contributions provided by the MSG Secretariat valued at over AUD170,000.
The Promoting Melanesian Women project focusses on Gender Equality and three related components: namely Trade and Women’s Empowerment; Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG); and Women in Leadership (WIL).
For EVAWG, the project will support the development of an MSG Sub-Regional Plan to eliminate sexual and gender-based violence, as recommended at the Inaugural MSG Ministers for Women Meeting and the Senior Officials Conference MSG Women Minister’s Conference held in Fiji in 2020. The sub-regional plan for EVAWG aims to accelerate MSG Member governments’ commitments to EVAWG and contribute towards the potential reduction of the statistics on violence against women and girls in Melanesia.
For leadership, the project will strengthen research capacities to empower all Members of Parliament (MPs) in MSG countries (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) to influence change and elevate the status of women parliamentarians at national level. This will be achieved by supporting Research Officers to support MPs, especially women MPs, with research on bills, amendments, and legislative matters to better equip MPs to contribute significantly to gender equality and women’s empowerment debates in parliament.
Women’s economic empowerment training, mentoring, coaching and business planning will be provided to 20 Melanesian women entrepreneurs so they benefit from trade facilitation and market access pathways through the MSG Trade Agreement.
Australia’s Acting High Commissioner to Vanuatu, Jon Philp said supporting women and promoting gender equality is not only the right thing to do it is also the smart thing to do.
“Australia’s support for this important project is a great example of how the MSG and Australia are working together to reach new heights in our partnership,” Mr Philp said.
Director General of the MSG Secretariat, Leonard Louma OBE, said the MSG is grateful for this timely support from the SPC for this Project on “Promoting Melanesian Women to Enable Social and Economic Empowerment”.
“It demonstrates, in a manifestly practical way, our shared commitment and resolve to do what is right by our womenfolk in the gender space. This is an encouraging step in the right direction in our MSG/SPC joint efforts to empower women, support Member’s commitments to address Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and enhance women in leadership roles in Melanesia,” DG Louma stated.
SPC’s Principal Strategic Lead – Pacific Women and Girls, Mereseini Rakuita, praised the joint project and how it is “owned and led by Melanesian leaders.”
“The announcement of this project comes at a critical time as just last month MSG Ministers for Women resolved that a Melanesian Gender Equality Framework is needed,” Ms Rakuita said, adding that Micronesia is also advancing a sub-regional framework and Polynesian leaders are considering it.
“Taking a sub-regional approach to gender equality is essential if we are to realise our whole-of-region aspirations under the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration, with actions guided by the Pacific Platform for Action for which SPC is custodian,” she said.
Expected final results of the project including the empowerment of women entrepreneurs, improved social development indicators for MSG member countries along with improved commitments and actions to accelerate ending violence against women and girls.
