Empowering women and girls is critical to ending violence and creating safer, more inclusive communities. In Tonga, where traditional gender roles often limit opportunities for women, the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Pacific Organic Learning Farms Network (POLFN) Project is working with farmers across Tonga, with special attention on women in agriculture to enhance women’s economic opportunities through organic farming and agroecology, and more importantly, challenge the systemic inequalities that potentially perpetuate gender-based violence.
As part of the global call to action under the 2024 theme for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence——SPC’s work in Tonga underscores the vital connection between organic agriculture and women's economic empowerment.
Economic dependence is a significant driver of gender-based violence, leaving women vulnerable in relationships and limiting their ability to make autonomous decisions. Through POLFN’s Mahuleva Organic Learning Farm Centre on Tongatapu and the Ovava Organic Learning Farm Centre on Vava’u Island, women are accessing critical resources, training, and mentorship to build sustainable livelihoods in organic agriculture. These centres provide women with more than just practical skills in value-adding – organic farming methods, and Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification; creating a safe space for women to connect, collaborate, and support one another as farmers, mothers, sisters and contributing members of their communities.
In Tonga, cultural and systemic barriers, like land ownership norms, have long limited women’s participation in agriculture. Through partnerships with local stakeholders such as the Tonga National Youth Congress, POLFN has reframed farming as a family-oriented enterprise, ensuring women are recognised as key contributors. This inclusive approach challenges stereotypes and power imbalances that fuel violence against women.
POLFN Project Manager, Mr Timoci Nakalevu, says, “By encouraging trans-generational change and farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, POLFN’s networks provide mentorship, solidarity, and a sense of community—breaking the isolation that often traps survivors of violence.”
Aligned with the objective of 16 Days of Activism to end gender-based violence, POLFN demonstrates how organic agriculture can unite economic empowerment and social inclusion, creating a future where women can thrive free from gender-based violence, which includes family violence and sexual violence such as marital rape. For each woman embracing organic farming, she plants not just crops but also seeds of resilience, hope, and a world where violence has no place.
The POLFN Project is funded through the multi-donor agency, the Kiwa Initiative. The Kiwa Initiative is funded by the European Union, AFD - Agence Française de Développement, Canada’s International Development – Global Affairs Canada, the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
About POETCom
The Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community is the peak body for the organic movement in the region, a not-for-profit organisation with active members, farmer associations, farmer support organisations, NGOs, the private sector, research institutions and works with governments across the Pacific Island region. POETCom is hosted by the Land Resources Division (LRD) of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Suva, Fiji.
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