29th March, 2012
Gender Gaps Still Remain
Gender inequality was the topic of discussion by a group of panelist during the launch of the “World Development Report 2012 on Gender Equality and Development.”
The panel discussion on the theme, “Towards Gender Equality in the Pacific” was held at the University of the South Pacific’s Laucala Campus in Suva.
The panelist included representatives from AusAID, Ms Susan Ferguson, United Nations (UN) Women, Ms Elzira Sagynbaeva,
and the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM), Ms Tara Chetty. The discussion was chaired by Senior Lecturer in History at
USP, Dr Alan Max Quanchi.
Ms Sagynbaeva, the Regional Programme Director for UN Women highlighted that, “Gender gaps still exist today and in
particular in the Pacific, even though a lot of the countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) around 15 to 25 years ago.”
CEDAW is an international human rights treaty that focuses on women's rights and women's issues worldwide developed by
the United Nations. The Convention addresses the advancement of women, describes the meaning of equality and sets forth
guidelines on how to achieve it.
Ms Sagynbaeva shared that countries like Samoa committed to the international treaty in 1992 and Fiji and Papua New
Guinea in 1995, however there is still a long wait to ensure alignment of national policies to that of the requirements
in the CEDAW.
“One example of non compliance is the lack of women’s political participation across the Pacific. There is very low
level of participation of women in Parliaments. In the Pacific there are only about 3% of women who are represented in
Parliament compared to the world’s average of around 15%,” she said.
She pointed out that the linkages between the lack of access to economic empowerment for women and domestic violence was
evidently reflected in the WDR 2012.
For gender equality to become real, Ms Sagynbaeva added that there is a real need for broad based national inclusive
economic growth policies.
Ms Chetty, who is the Programme Manger at FWRM, explained that FWRM is working at the local community, national,
regional and international levels in trying to bridge the gender gaps that exist.
“The World Bank in our region has played different roles at different times and so it’s quite encouraging to see now
their Report focusing on gender equality and doing some comprehensive job in discussing some key areas of women’s
equality in our region,” she said.
Ms Chetty elaborated that FWRM tries to give the young women of today a space in which they can voice their opinions,
their thoughts and ideas of what they feel about life and more so about the gender inequalities that exist.
The third panelist, Ms Ferguson, Gender Advisor at AusAID expressed similar sentiments. Ms Ferguson shared that in the
Pacific, there is still a need to break traditional barriers in order to bring about economic empowerment to women in
order to end violence against women.
“In the Pacific, it is important to create initiatives to break traditional barriers. In countries where women are less
represented in decision-making bodies, more barriers will continue to be experienced,” she said.
Ms Ferguson noted that AusAID was appreciative of the fact that the WDR 2012 focused a lot on household issues.
“The World Bank is talking about personal issues. Personal is political. The fact that women have the double or triple
burden of running a household and keeping a job is a critical development and human rights issue,” Ms Ferguson added.
The panel discussion was attended by members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of international and regional
organisations, members of the USP community, and the media.
ENDS