Pacific Women Shaping
Pacific Development
Fiji Country Plan Summary
April 2014
Pacific Women Shaping Pacific
Development: Fiji Country Plan
Summary
Background
Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women) was launched by the Australian
Government at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in August 2012. Pacific Women is a
ten-year, $320 million program, funded through Australian aid, which aims to improve the
political, economic and social opportunities of Pacific women. Pacific Women will support
countries to meet the commitments they made in the Pacific Leaders’ Gender Equality
Declarations. Pacific Women will work with all 14 Pacific Island Forum countries.
After ten years, it is expected that Pacific Women will have helped to:



Increase the effective representation of women, and women’s interests, through leadership
at all levels of decision-making.
Expand women’s economic opportunities to earn an income and accumulate economic
assets.
Reduce violence against women and increase access to support services and to justice for
survivors of violence.
An important element of Pacific Women is delivering of support through individual country plans
for the 14 Pacific Island Forum countries. These country plans provide the detail on what will be
funded and how these funding decisions are made. Country plans represent locally relevant
responses and align with country-specific gender policies and priorities.
Introduction
Through Pacific Women, the Australian Government will spend approximately $19.5 million over
10 years on initiatives supporting women’s empowerment in Fiji. The first country plan includes
activities valued at $6.7 million funded through a combination of regional and bilateral funds
(see Table 1 for details).
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Activities in the first country plan will:

Enhance knowledge and evidence to inform policy and practice

Increase women’s economic opportunities

Improve women’s participation in leadership and decision-making

Strengthen women’s groups and coalitions for change

Improve gender outcomes within existing Australian funded bilateral aid programs.
Rationale
Fiji is a multi-cultural society with varying traditions and values within ethnic groups. Strong
patriarchal practices dominate decision making structures with little to no participation of
women in decision making and formal planning. High rates of violence against women continue
to persist. According to latest statistics from the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (2013), 64% of
women who have ever been in an intimate relationship have experienced physical and/or
sexual violence by a husband or intimate partner in their lifetime.
Analysis of gender inequality in Fiji highlights the need for a multi-pronged approach to
addressing such a complex issue. These approaches include targeted interventions with
individuals, families and communities through to strategies that address formal systems and
structures at the national level that discriminate against women.
The 2012 DFAT Gender Stocktake of the Australian Government’s Fiji Country Program found
that the program is performing well in relation to promoting gender equality. The focus on real
poverty reduction and access to basic services such as health and education automatically
benefits many poor women and girls since they are overrepresented within the ranks of the
poor.
A cornerstone of Australia’s support to eliminating violence against women is its long-term
commitment to the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) to provide advocacy, counselling and
access to justice to address and prevent violence against women. Through DFAT funding, FWCC
is now also working with other regional Pacific women’s crisis services.
Recognising that advancing gender equality requires long term investment, the Fiji Country Plan
will build on existing Australian bilateral programming to address current activity gaps, and
respond to emerging issues through support for innovative approaches.
In 2013, consultations were held over a six-month period with a broad range of stakeholders
including; civil society organisations, non-government organisations, private sector, Australian
Aid bilateral programs and a number of other development partners. Close to 50 stakeholders
were consulted and a small round-table meeting was held in-country focusing on women’s
economic empowerment. This was supplemented by an analysis of previous program
experience supporting gender equality in Fiji, and the identification and application of lessons
learned, informed by the 2012 DFAT Gender Stocktake of the Australian Government’s Fiji
Country Program.
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In line with Australia’s Foreign Aid Policy on enhancing relationships between the Fiji and
Australian governments, in 2014, consultations have also commenced with the Fiji Ministry of
Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation. This parallel process will complement previous
consultations held with non-government organisations to ensure that the Fiji Government is a
partner to, and endorses, the first Fiji Pacific Women Country Plan. The Fiji Country Plan will
seek to support the Government of Fiji’s newly endorsed Fiji National Gender Policy and explore
opportunities for further collaboration.
The Fiji National Gender Policy, launched in March 2014, reflects the Government of Fiji’s
commitment to promote gender equality, social justice and sustainable development in Fiji. The
policy has a specific focus on the promotion of women’s human rights and gender
mainstreaming across development planning and decision making processes within
government. There is also a focus on addressing structural and social barriers that impede
gender equality including review of relevant legislation and access to social justice systems.
The Fiji National Gender Policy and Pacific Women share a commitment to the realisation of the
full and meaningful participation of women in the development process. There is a mutual focus
on the need to improve the policy environment for greater gender equality while ensuring the
immediate needs of women at the community level are met.
Further design work will be carried out in the second half of 2014 to inform a detailed program
of support of Pacific Women in Fiji. This will include additional resourcing to existing Fiji country
programs which can demonstrate increased positive outcomes for women, and support for new
innovative strategies that address current gaps within existing bilateral programs.
This design work will support a women’s economic opportunities scoping study to inform the
selection of viable, culturally appropriate and safe opportunities to increase women’s economic
opportunities in Fiji. The design work will also look at optimal ways to partner with women’s civil
society organisations in Fiji, supporting them to operate sustainably and implement high quality
work in support of gender equality. Opportunities to support additional resourcing on the
prevention of violence against women will also be explored.
The first Fiji Country Plan will aim to build an evidence base to improve knowledge and
understanding of women’s experiences of poverty. Activities will commence in the 2014-2015
financial year and will gather information on the gender dimensions of poverty in Fiji, which will
seek to change the way poverty is defined and measured so that it genuinely reflects the
realities of both women and men.
A finding from the in-country roundtable meeting on women’s economic empowerment
highlighted the need to assist women to increase their income earning capacity. The Fiji Country
Plan, through the regionally funded UN Women ‘Markets for Change Project’, will provide
support to empower female market venders to work together to lead market reform. By
improving infrastructure, systems, relations, and services in the markets, the program will
support the economic and social empowerment of women market vendors. The Fiji Country Plan
will also support Fiji’s Women in Business to develop mentoring and other programs that can
assist women in executive and leadership roles in the private sector. Through the women’s
economic opportunities scoping study, further analysis will be conducted to identify the most
strategic approach for enhancing women’s economic empowerment.
Improving women’s participation in leadership and decision-making will be a focus of the Fiji
Country Plan. This will include support to ensure that more women have access to safe spaces
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to practice leadership and build confidence to influence national policy processes. During 2014,
further opportunities that contribute to an enabling environment that supports women’s
participation in community, local and national level leadership will be explored.
The Fiji Country Plan will work with the Fiji Ministry of Women, Social Welfare and Poverty
Alleviation in leading the government’s efforts to implement its National Gender Policy. Specific
support will be identified during the national consultation process. Forthcoming support
includes the provision of a volunteer to assist with the monitoring and evaluation of women’s
resource centres in Fiji.
Finally, building on the recommendations of the 2012 DFAT Gender Stocktake of the Australian
Government’s Fiji Country Program the Fiji Country Plan will strengthen gender mainstreaming
efforts within the current bilateral programs. This may include specific gender expertise to
ensure that design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation properly address the needs
of women and men.
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Table 1: Three-Year Plan 2014-2017
Activity Name
Activity Summary
Expected Outcomes
Timeframe
Value
Enhancing knowledge and evidence to inform policy and practice
Survey on multi-dimensional
and gender-sensitive measure
of poverty (International
Women’s Development
Agency)
›
›
Provision of gender-sensitive poverty baseline
data to measure change over time.
›
Gender sensitize the way poverty is defined
and measured so that it genuinely reflects the
realities of both women and men.
Market’s for Change is an initiative that
responds to women’s needs for enhanced
influence, infrastructure and security in
the marketplace. The program focuses on
economic security, the strengthening of
local government institutions and
procedures and the design and building of
gender-responsive infrastructure.
›
Improved economic security of women market
vendors.
A participatory Scoping Study on options
for expanding women’s economic
opportunities; consultations will include
government, women, men and family
groups across urban and rural sites.
This project builds on the World Bank’s
Poverty Mapping Study completed under
the Fiji Country Strategy and provides the
opportunity to identify the gendered
aspects of poverty in communities. This
will inform the delivery of subsequent
activities under the Fiji country plan.
2014-2015
$250,000
Increased economic opportunities for women
Markets for Change (UN
Women)
Women’s Economic
Opportunities Scoping
Study: to support the
identification of economic
opportunities for women
›
›
›
Local governments and market management
agencies are gender responsive, effective and
accountable to the needs of women market
vendors.
›
Improved infrastructure which is safer and
more accessible for women.
›
The Scoping Study will present options for
expanding women’s economic opportunities
for Fiji. The Scoping Study will also investigate
how women can be supported to move from
small to medium business.
›
Increased numbers of women have access to
safe spaces to practice leadership and build
confidence to influence national policy
processes.
2014-2019
2014-2015
$4,674,843
(regional funds)
$50,000
(regional funds)
Improving women’s participation in leadership and decision-making
Enhancing women’s
participation in decisionmaking through strengthened
community radio transmission
(FemLINKPACIFIC)
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›
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Up-grade community radio infrastructure
to increase transmission and reach of
femTALK’s 98FM radio transmission.
2014-2016
$186,000
Strengthened women’s groups and coalitions for change
Institutional strengthening of
› Targeted capacity building support to
women’s civil society
women’s civil society.
organisations and small-grants
› Targeted small-grants to implement
gender equality programs aligned with
Pacific Women Key Result Areas.
›
Increased capacity of women’s civil society.
›
Civil society organisations, with a particular
focus on women’s organisations, have access
to funding to directly address issues of gender
inequality in line with Pacific Women’s
objectives.
2014-2017
$80,000
2014-2017
$1,500,000
Improving gender outcomes within existing Australian funded bilateral aid programs
Gender mainstreaming of
Australian funded bilateral aid
programs
›
Resource technical assistance to ensure
that design, implementation and
monitoring and evaluation properly
address the needs of women and men.
›
Improved outcomes for women and girls in
sector programs.
›
Improved quality and quantity of gender
sensitive M&E data.
Funding for activities under this plan is subject to budget availability.
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