Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697630222367.pdf (Australia)
Submission to Sub-committee on Human Rights1 Human Rights for women and girls in the Indian Ocean (Asia Pacific region) Introduction This paper provides a pacific context to the barriers and impediments to enhancing the human rights of women and girls and its impact on women’s socio-economic opportunities.
It looks critically at the current policy agendas of Pacific Island states, and selected economic and social realities in the region, and seeks to incorporate the vision of Pacific NGOs working for economic and social justice.

The paper attempts a rights-based approach in proposing what its author consider relevant to securing the future Pacific women want.
Pacific leaders at the 43rd Pacific Islands Forum, held in late August 2012 in the Cook Islands, directed the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) to work closely with governments, UN agencies and regional organizations to develop a Pacific Position on the Post-2015 Development Agenda/Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Significantly, the leaders also adopted the Pacific Gender Equality Declaration, committing themselves to implementing specific national policy actions to progress gender equality, including through gender responsive budgeting, CEDAW-compliant legislative and policy reforms, temporary special measures to increase women’s participation in government and the private sector, increased employment under better conditions, and expanded entrepreneurship opportunities.2 Australia’s announcement at the meeting of a new 10 year grant of AUD320m for the Pacific Gender Equality Initiative, in the presence of US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and UN Women’s head, Michelle Bachelet, comes at a time of heightened concern within the region over both the development path being taken by Pacific Island states, under the guiding hand of Australia and all other donors, and the geo-political implications for Oceanic states of the current China/US struggle for dominance in the Asia Pacific region.
Lessons from the Pacific’s MDG Performance Progress on the MDGs is admitted to be ‘slow and uneven’3 with distinct variations in performance evident among the 3 sub-regions: Micronesia is not on track for any of the goals and off track for the goal of reducing poverty; Melanesia is off track on all of the goals, but on track in meeting MDG 4 – reducing child mortality - if PNG is excluded.
Polynesia is performing best, on track to achieve four of the goals (achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and ensuring environmental sustainability).

The Pacific’s overall MDG rating is said to be negatively affected by Papua New Guinea’s ‘off-track’ performance on all goals.
Yet, even for goals on which some PICs appear to be on track, positive indicators are questionable due to the absence (or paucity) of data and disagreements over the existence, 1 Submission made by Dr Priya Chattier, Pacific Research Fellow at the State, Society & Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) program at the Australian National University.

Prior to joining SSGM early this year, Dr Chattier headed the Gender Studies department at the University of the South Pacific.
2 Pacific Island states, and the geo-political implications for Oceanic states of the China/US struggle for dominance in the Asia Pacific region.

3 Sato Kiliman (2012) Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals and Post 2015, High Level Meeting, PIF Leaders and UN Secretary General, September 2012, NY.
1 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 nature and extent of poverty, the quality of primary education, and the significance of gender parity in education given women’s continuing under-representation in national decision- making and the prevailing culture of gender-based violence.
The region’s inclusion of a target on Non-Communicable Diseases, which have reached epidemic levels in some states, posing a major public health and development crisis, underscores the inadequacy of the MDGs and their failure to address country or region-specific development challenges.4 Other limitations of the MDG project in the Pacific region have recently been highlighted including the framework of inappropriate economic policies under which they are being pursued, social and environmental policy deficiencies, inadequate governance and weak public service capacity, political instability and conflict, and the form of aid and aid administration (Naidu 2012).5 Economic and public sector reforms pushed by international and regional financial institutions and donors over the last two decade have reduced state revenue by as much as 40% for some PICs and weakened state capacity for both social provisioning and infrastructure development, while the emphasis on export production or trade-led growth has encouraged extractive industries (mining, logging and fishing) (ibid) whose destructive social and environmental impacts, including widening gender disparities in income, a rise in transactional sex, increased corruption, social conflict and violent repression, are disproportionately borne by women and girls.
The emphasis on extractive industries has also encouraged the neglect of agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture which supports 75% of the region’s population (ibid) and is primarily undertaken by women.

There is no doubt that the social costs of the following growth models of development are disproportionately borne by women and girls.
Extractive industries have not only been environmentally destructive, they have also widened gender disparities in income, encouraged transactional sex with all its associated health risks, bred corruption and social conflict and encouraged the enactment of laws designed to protect foreign investors at the expense of local landowners and their communities.6 The irony of mineral-rich Papua New Guinea performing worst in achieving what are minimalist development goals underscores the fallacy of an automatic link between economic growth and improved development outcomes.
The following sections will highlight issues of particular relevance and concern to the human rights of women and girls in the Pacific region and the development agenda, under two broad headings of inclusive social development, and inclusive economic development.

A. Inclusive Social Development Addressing inequalities in the post-2015 development agenda means looking at both equality of opportunities (or lack thereof), and entrenched structural factors, including discrimination, all 4 Kiliman (ibid).
For details of the limited relevance to Pacific Island states of MDG targets and indicators see Terence Wood and Vijay Naidu (2008) A Slice of Paradise?

The Millennium Development Goals in the Pacific: progress, pitfalls and potential solutions, Oceania Development Network Working Paper 5 Naidu, V (2012) “Thoughts on Pacific Post-2015 Development Framework: what future do Oceanians want?”9pp.
6 For instance, PNG government’s amendment of the Environment Act in 2010, protected investors in resource projects from all litigation, whether over the destruction of the environment, labour abuse or landowner exploitation.

See Rowan Callick (2010) ‘PNG law to shield resource giants from litigation’ in The Australian, June 02, 2010.

2 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 of which effect equality of outcomes.
Most of Pacific Island’s poor women occupy disadvantaged social positions, which impede the development of their capabilities (as defined by Amartya Sen and others) as well as their ability to capitalize on opportunities.

This section will focus on three main issues including women’s rights to food security, universal access to quality education, and social protection systems as vital for inclusive social development.
Adequate investments in these areas will be needed to facilitate sustainable economic growth and close the gaps in human capabilities.

Food Security Hunger is not acknowledged to be a major issue in the Pacific, mainly as a result of high subsistence production and traditional social protection systems.

With the exception of PNG, the region is reportedly on track to halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger and most countries are reported to have a generally low level of food poverty.
Yet poverty and malnutrition are growing concerns in many parts of the region.

Statistics provided by Abbott and Pollard (2004) indicated that basic needs poverty ranged from 12% in Cook Islands, above 50% in Kiribati, over 40% in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and PNG and 35% in Fiji.7 UNICEF has reported 35% of Pacific children with stunted growth.8 Girl children and women in poor households are included in the hunger vulnerable group in the region.

Food security is a major challenge.


Traditionally, PICs achieved food security through sustainable agricultural and fishing practices and a reliance on local food staples but imported foods are now filling the growing demand for more and greater variety of foods.

Environmental degradation due to mining and unsustainable logging practices are having a negative impact on food security.
As primary food producers and family caregivers, Pacific women are likely to be those most affected by challenges of food security, particularly by the effects of floods and droughts on crop production, changes in the availability of coastal fish and shellfish from increasingly degraded coral reefs, and the greater risks of damage to their houses from more intense tropical cyclones and rising sea levels, changing rainfall patterns and the ensuing water shortages.9 Rural women across the Pacific region play a critical role in supporting the three pillars of food security - food production, economic access to available food and nutritional security - for the members of their households, in normal times as well as during periods of stress.
However, their roles generally are constrained and undervalued usually in the face of enormous social, cultural and economic constraints.10 The majority of households and communities in the Pacific region manage their rural production systems based on socially accepted gender divisions of labour that affect food security achievements.
Given the semi-subsistence and communal nature of local PIC economies, women and girls have always played an integral role in family production and resource management systems.

A lack of awareness and lack of appreciation of rural women’s productive roles in many PICs have historically undervalued their contribution.

The result is enduring discrimination in women’s access to resources and opportunities.
Given the role of women in achieving food security for their families, meeting the world’s food needs post 2015 will depend even more 7 Abott, David and Steve Pollard (2004).

Hardship and Poverty in the Pacific.

Available from http://www.paddle.usp.ac.fj/collect/pad- dle/index/assoc/adb004.dir/doc.pdf 8 PIFs (2012) 2012 Pacific Regional MDGs Tracking Report, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Suva.

9 UNFPA.

(2009).

State of world population 2009: Facing a changing world: Women, population and climate.
http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2009/en/pdf/EN_SOWP09.pdf 10 SPC (2010) Beijing + 15: Review of progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action in Pacific Island countries and territories, Human Development Programme (SPC), Noumea: New Caledonia.

3 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 than it does now on the capabilities and resources of women.
Sustainable food security can only be achieved with the full participation of women as equal partners and, as such, it is essential to fully understand women’s roles and responsibilities in the household, community and local economy, as well as the range of constraints and inequalities they face on a daily basis.

However, the lack of current sex-disaggregated data that reflect urban-rural and gender- differentiated considerations is a critical impediment in this regard.
It is essential that Australia’s aid programme for the Pacific examine the situation of rural women in the Pacific region and identifies and pursues opportunities to analyze and integrate gender dimensions and strategies to empower rural women in all aspects of agricultural and rural development.
Women’s concerns and knowledge on food security could be better signposted in other programmes concerned with climate change mitigation, adaptation, awareness raising and sustainable resource management, all of which impact on women’s lives.

Access to Education The Universal Declaration of Human Rights endorsed free education as a fundamental human right.
The positive correlation between women’s education and poverty reduction is well documented in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) and Revised Pacific Platform for Action (RPPA).11 Gender equality in access to education has been achieved or is close to being achieved in primary and secondary schooling in most Polynesian and Micronesian countries of the Pacific, while some disparities still exist in the Melanesian sub-region as well as in Cook Islands (primary), Niue (secondary) and Tuvalu (primary).12 More girls than boys are in secondary schooling in the Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Tokelau and Tuvalu.
Tertiary enrolment varies by country and territory: in some cases women are under- represented; among the notable exceptions are USP, where recent statistics show female students are enrolling in equal if not higher numbers than males and particularly in study by extension mode, and the University of Guam which has 60% female enrolment.13 However, girls are still disproportionately losing out on positive advances in universal primary education and completion of secondary school.
In Vanuatu the gender parity index at primary school is almost equal but at post-secondary level, young women have far less access to educational opportunities.14 In many PICs, the lack of priority given by parents to investing in their daughter’s education, girls’ heavy domestic workloads, early marriage and teenage pregnancy, the prevalence of gender-based violence and mistreatment of non-conforming girls by families, and poor infrastructure and transport variously work to deny girls the right to education.
11 The main educational mandates observed by PICTs are the Forum Basic Education Action Plan (FBEAP 2009) as agreed to by the Forum Leaders, and UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA).

PICs have also endorsed the MDGs and other UN agreements such as the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, the UN Literacy Decade and the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action on Disability (Asia-Pacific) (ESCAP 2002).
The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW) has also referenced the needs of older and aging women in education and training.

National governments have begun reporting back on these issues and commitments as a matter of policy.

12 PIFs (2012) 2012 Pacific Regional MDGs Tracking Report, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Suva.
13 SPC (2010) Beijing + 15: Review of progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action in Pacific Island countries and territories, Human Development Programme (SPC), Noumea: New Caledonia.

14 Freeland, N. & Robertson, K. (2010) ‘Social Protection in the Pacific-Focal Country Study: Vanuatu’, AusAID, Canberra, Australia.
4 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 Another major constraint is that available educational data relate almost exclusively to access.

Scarcer is the data on the quality of education, including the extent to which it may be perpetuating gender stereotypes.

Primary and secondary school enrolment as an indicator obscures the fact that girls are more often likely than boys to have poor attendance at school once enrolled.
Better gender-disaggregated data needs to be collected on quality of education taking into consideration the barriers to education and training faced by girls in this region.

Likewise, gender parity in primary and secondary school enrolments in PICs, does not translate into women’s participation in paid employment.
Men outnumber women in paid employment outside the agricultural sector, approximately twice as many men than women.15 The public sector is usually the largest employer, with most women occupying lower level positions (Ibid.).

In Samoa, preliminary findings from a UNDP study indicate that gender parity index for public sector is currently 97.
Cook Islands and Niue are the only countries where women account for more than 50 percent of employment in the non-agricultural sector.16 However, women in Fiji dominated jobs in the collapsed garment industry and the declining manufacturing sector where already low wages had shrunk further in response to the loss of overseas markets.17 For many women in the informal sector, the only alternative was sex work (Ibid.).
To achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people, education and training need to be better tailored towards Pacific realities.

Given the importance of agriculture in Pacific economies and livelihoods, technical support and advancement in this area are key for post 2015 development and women’s empowerment.
Ensuring women have access to agricultural education and information should be a priority for any post-2015 dialogue on development and sustainable agriculture in the Pacific.

There is a need for multi-level and community-wide strategies to change long-held discriminatory attitudes so as to increase women’s choices and participation in education and address persistent gender disparities in primary, secondary and tertiary education in the Pacific.
Poverty and Social Protection Poverty in the PICs is generally viewed as hardship or an inadequate level of sustainable human development evidenced by lack of access to basic services, opportunities and resources (including cash) to meet the basic needs of the household or the customary obligations to the extended family, village community, and/or the church.18 It is estimated that 75 percent of the region’s poor reside in PNG with the remaining PICs accounting for roughly 600,000 of the poor, half of whom live in Fiji.
A recent study of wages in Fiji found that a primary cause of the increase in poverty was the failure of tripartite wage regulation machinery to raise workers’ wages in unorganized industries over the last 35 years.19 In 2005, 44% of women in the labour force in Fiji were earning wages below the poverty line of $60 a week, and a sizeable 15 SPC (2010) Beijing + 15: Review of progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action in Pacific Island countries and territories, Human Development Programme (SPC), Noumea: New Caledonia.
16 SPC (2010) Beijing + 15: Review of progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action in Pacific Island countries and territories, Human Development Programme (SPC), Noumea: New Caledonia.

17 Kidd, S., Samson, M., Ellism F., Freeland N. & Wyler, B.

(2010) ‘Social Protection in the Pacific- A Review of its adequacy and role in addressing Poverty’, AusAID, Canberra, Australia.

18 Abott, David and Steve Pollard (2004).

Hardship and Poverty in the Pacific.


Available from http://www.paddle.usp.ac.fj/collect/pad- dle/index/assoc/adb004.dir/doc.pdf 19 Narsey, Wadan (2006) Just Wages in Fiji: lifting workers out of poverty, Ecumenical Council for Research and Advocacy (ECREA), Suva.
5 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 negative gender gap (-19%) existed in overall average incomes.20 Rapid urbanization has also spurred the growth of informal settlements, which is a consequence and visible demonstration of poverty in the Pacific.21 In Port Moresby and Suva, the two largest cities in the region, settlements house more than half the urban population (Ibid).
However, certain sections of populations are more susceptible to poverty than others.
Women, particularly in rural areas, are increasingly vulnerable to poverty and the effects of poverty, as they have a higher risk of poverty linked to labour force discrimination, lack of property rights, and heavy responsibilities with regard to subsistence farming, the household and the community.22 Much of women’s work is in the informal sector, such as markets and roadside selling, which yields low returns, often unsafe and is unprotected by labour laws.
Accompanying hardship and poverty is a developing sex industry, with a particular prevalence of sexual exploitation in the logging, fishing and mining industries in countries such as PNG, Solomon Islands and Kiribati (Ibid).

In the squatter settlements, women and families experience cash poverty/hardship as a result of unemployment and underemployment, while having little land for cultivation or access to fishing grounds (Ibid).
Therefore, social protection policies in PICs need to take into account the unique circumstances and vulnerabilities faced by women.

In the Pacific region, women’s activities related to their household management and caring responsibilities, assigned on the basis of traditional gender roles, act as significant default contributions to social protection when formal systems are inadequate.
During recent periods of economic crises in particular, the burden of family survival has often fallen largely upon women, who have had to increase their unremunerated family caring and domestic activities to compensate for loss of income and managing financial pressures.

Women are more likely to enter fragile and insecure forms of employment in the formal sector, to be overrepresented within informal sector employment, and liable to lose their jobs during periods of economic hardship.
The overrepresentation of women in activities outside of the formal economy means that, under contributory systems, women can be unprotected or poorly protected as secondary beneficiaries.

This reinforces their dependence upon primary male beneficiaries, which in turn plays a key role in limiting their full participation in society and the economy.

The reduction of social inequalities in PICs is essential to a vision of inclusive sustainable development.
A system of social protection should be based on rights and inclusiveness – on what each citizen is entitled to and how her or his rights are to be protected and made viable.

It is equally important that avenues exist for the poor and civil society to make claim to social protection through a rights-based framework.

A robust system of social protection not only fulfills people’s basic rights, it also establishes a firm platform for both social and economic development.
With a more secure foundation, and with greater security against the risk of failure, women and their families can invest in their own futures and have greater confidence to 20 Narsey, Wadan (2007) Gender Issues in Employment, Underemployment and Incomes in Fiji, Vanuavou Publications, Suva.

21 Connell, John (2011).

Elephants in the Pacific?

Pacific Urbanisation and its Discontents.

Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol.

52, No.

2, August 2011.


Available from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ j.1467-8373.2011.01445.x/pdf 22 SPC (2010) Beijing + 15: Review of progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action in Pacific Island countries and territories, Human Development Programme (SPC), Noumea: New Caledonia.
6 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 engage in economic activity beyond ensuring basic economic survival for themselves and their families.

For instance, since 1996, VANWODS Microfinance in Vanuatu has delivered microfinance services to poor and disadvantaged women to assist with income- earning activities and to encourage savings.
23 In Fiji, the Foundation for Rural and Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND), works with the rural and marginalized communities to alleviate poverty through social and economic empowerment.
24 In Samoa, Women in Business Development Incorporated (WIBDI), committed to poverty alleviation and sustainable development, assists individual families use local products, traditional knowledge, technology and trade to generate income.25 Highest priority should be given to addressing both gender inequalities and women’s disadvantage and inequalities and disadvantage faced by other marginalized social categories.
Removing social, cultural, legal, administrative and financial barriers in access to services such as education, food security, economic resources and social protection mechanisms is a necessary first step.

The Pacific development agenda should seek not only to address and monitor the elimination of specific gender gaps, but also to transform the structural factors that underpin women’s rights to inclusive social development as centre-pieces of the post-2015 agenda.
Inclusive Economic Development Inclusiveness in post-2015 economic development will require a broad approach to macroeconomic policies: an approach that aligns the imperatives of macroeconomic stability and financial sustainability with broader structural development policies enabling adequate generation of productive employment and decent work, reduction of poverty and inequalities.26 Coherent macroeconomic and development policies with emphasis on job creation and decent jobs for women, with adequate financing for development, and a fair and stable global trading system should be key components of inclusive economic development in the Pacific.
Macroeconomic & Development Policies Most Pacific Island Countries’ (PICs’) progress is constrained by several factors, including generally low or negative economic growth, lack of employment prospects and rising prices.
In the last five years, the negative repercussions of the international food/fuel crises and the global financial crisis, contributed to the majority of PICs’ poor economic growth outcomes.27 The effects of the ‘Triple F’ (food, fuel and finance) crisis were felt in the Pacific by late 2008 and throughout 2009 with declining economic growth rates across the PICs.

However, the retention 23 Suen, Vanessa and Patricia Fred (2010).

VANWODS Microfinance Impact Assessment December 2010.
Available from http://www.

microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.9.52065/VANWODS%20 Impact%20Assessment%202010.pdf 24 Foundation for Rural and Integrated Enterprises and Development (2012).

Who We Are.

Available from http://www.friendfiji.com/in- dex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=105 25 Women in Business Development Incorporated (2012).

About WIBDI.
About WIBDI.

Available from http://www.womeninbusiness.ws/About/ tabid/2871/language/en-US/Default.aspx 26 UN (2012) Realizing the Future We Want For All: Report to the Secretary General, United Nations, New York.

27 PIFs (2012) 2012 Pacific Regional MDGs Tracking Report, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Suva.
7 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 of customary land tenure systems under which rural populations enjoy semi-subsistence livelihoods, saved PICs from more serious impacts of the global financial crisis, a fact which should inform land-use, agriculture and investment policy-making in the region.
Narrow natural resource bases mean PICs can only specialize in a few commodities, which increases their vulnerability to natural disasters and adverse changes in their terms of trade.

The overexploitation of natural resources, mainly forestry and fisheries, is threatening the sustainable management and growth of these sectors, particularly with logging in Solomon Islands.

These economic constraints are compounded by land-lease problems and insufficient FDIs.
With subdued economic growth performances, job creation is increasingly difficult.
Although data is not available for most countries, anecdotal evidence suggests that unemployment rates, particularly youth unemployment rates, are increasing.28 Fiji’s unemployment rate doubled between 1996 and 2007, from 3.7 percent to 8.6 percent,29 while the unemployment rate in the RMI is estimated at 30.9 percent.30 In fact, PICs are generally off -rack to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people, with the exception of Palau, Samoa and Tonga, which recorded mixed progress, and Cook Islands and Niue, the only countries on track to achieve this MDG Target 1.B.31 However, it should be noted that Palau, the Cook Islands and Niue have high levels of both imported labor and outward migration.
Generally, women’s labor force participation rates are lower, with significant disparity recorded in Solomon Islands, Fiji, PNG, RMI and Samoa where the men’s participation rate is almost double that of women’s in the formal labour market (Ibid.).

Similarly women in the private sector are often confined to areas considered to be ‘women’s work’ and in the informal sector.
This reflects women‘s lower skills levels in general as well as their lower access to assets, lower access to credit and socio-cultural norms that contribute towards labor market discrimination.

Women’s contribution to the economy through subsistence production remains invisible in systems of national accounts.

There is insufficient gender data in the Pacific, including on wage/income disparities and time use.
The Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM), the major regional meeting for economic management and development, which provides advice to Forum Leaders on national economic development strategies, has done little to analyze gender and the economy or to support women’s economic rights.32 Ensuring the equal participation of women and the integration of women’s economic participation and rights, as priority areas in regional research, processes and forums on economic development and growth are most needed for the region.
Prioritizing the collection of gender data, such as wage gap statistics and time use surveys would allow for proper gender analysis of the economy.

28 Noble, Cameron (2011) Urban Youth in the Pacific Increasing Resil- ience and Reducing Risk for Involvement in Crime and Violence.

Available from http://www.undppc.org.fj/_resources/article/ files/UrbanYouth_in_the_Pacific.pd 29 Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics (2009).

2007 Census of Population and Housing, Labour Force, Employment and Unemployment.
Statistical News No.

09/2009, 27 February 2009.

Available from http://www.spc.int/prism/country/fj/stats/Census2007/Re- lease%202%20-%20Labour%20Force.pdf 30 ADB (2011) Asian Development Outlook 2012.

South-South Economic Links.

Available from http://www.sacc.ch/upload/Out- look_2011_535.pdf 31 PIFs (2012) 2012 Pacific Regional MDGs Tracking Report, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Suva.
32 SPC (2010) Beijing + 15: Review of progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action in Pacific Island countries and territories, Human Development Programme (SPC), Noumea: New Caledonia.
8 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 With respect to women and the economy, UN Women in the Pacific is working in Vanuatu, PNG, Solomon Islands and Fiji to strengthen Pacific women’s economic security and rights with a focus on women in the informal economy, including human rights of women vendors in traditional and emerging markets, trade and micro-businesses (Ibid.).
Providing targeted opportunities for women in the informal sectors offers an important consideration for an employment strategy in many Pacific countries with a gender-sensitive and rights-based dimension to growth and employment.
The macroeconomic policies for PICs should take into account the special circumstances and problems of women, including measures aimed at shifting women from invisible to visible work, from low income employment in agriculture, to higher income sectors, and from low wage and no social security to higher wage with social security.
More specifically such policies should include provisions for access to credit for women entrepreneurs both in the formal and informal sectors (including home-based workers) and identify specific sectors that are women dominated for special measures to improve decent work.

The promotion of women‘s productive employment would need specific policy recommendations, which include creating an enabling environment for women‘s work, through family friendly policies and equal opportunity legislation and action.
Also social provisioning, such as investments in education and health that enhances the capabilities of the poor and of women should be seen as an investment by economic policymakers, rather than a cost.

Women should be seen as dynamic economic agents in their own right with access to decent and productive employment and entrepreneurship.
Temporary migrant labour schemes, as well as the more traditional skilled workers in seafaring, the security and healthcare sectors provide increasingly valuable employment options for women as well.

PIC governments should strengthen domestic training and skills development programmes to ensure that Pacific Islander women and men reach the required standards and are competitive in the international market for such employment opportunities in neighboring developed countries of the region.
Inclusive Trade Agreements Trade negotiations theoretically offer potential benefits to PICs.

The mainstream view is that in the medium to long-term trade liberalization helps promote economic growth at national and global levels.

It is acknowledged that there may be significant human costs as economies of PICs adjust to new trading environments, but such costs are said to be outweighed by the benefits of free trade.
Concluding WTO accession processes, and the series of trade agreements PICs are/will be negotiating on an Economic Partnership Agreement with EU, a Pacific Agreements for Closer Economic Relations (PACER-plus) with Australia and New Zealand, and an extended Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA) with each other, would all present challenges in terms of adjustments in legislation, revenue streams and industrial/ commercial policies to maximize potential benefits and minimize transaction and transition costs for each PIC under the new agreements.
investment, However, the supposed benefits of liberalized trading regimes for PICs, namely increased trade labour mobility, and ultimately economic growth and accompanying and development are questionable.
Substantial revenue losses from reduced tariffs that are unlikely to be adequately recouped through consumption taxes, together with reduced policy space as a result of binding agreements/laws, will undermine the social provisioning responsibilities of the state, and deprive PICs of the right of economic self-determination.
From a human rights perspective, the social impacts of free trade, particularly loss of livelihoods through job losses in uncompetitive industries, land loss, environmental degradation and accompanying social 9 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 tensions/conflict with new investments in extractive industries, and the absence of democratic accountability in trade treaty-making, especially where there is no parliamentary scrutiny or public debate, are matters of deep concern that need addressing in the post 2015 development agenda.
Financing For Development In the Pacific the collective efforts of PICs and development partners to achieve the partnerships for development envisaged under MDG 8 are framed in the context of the Pacific Plan, the Cairns Compact, and the Pacific Principles of Aid Effectiveness and through a series of bilateral and multilateral agreements.
Historically, PICs have received large flows of Official Development Assistance (ODA) when measured in per capita terms; estimated at about seven times the average for all developing countries.

ODA to Oceania has doubled since 2002 to US$1.6 billion in 2009, with donor countries accounting for 82 percent of the ODA.33 The largest donor in the region is Australia, with net ODA disbursements of US$704 million in 2009.
Other major donor countries are the US, EU, NZ and Japan, which together account for 98 percent of ODA by donor countries to Oceania (Ibid.).

Total multilateral aid to the region was US$295 million in 2009, of which ODA from UN agencies constituted 36 percent (ibid.).

The European Development Fund, GFATM and GEF comprised the major sources of multilateral aid to the region.
However the Pacific region’s share of global development assistance is declining overall.34 Melanesia receives the bulk of ODA, led by PNG and Solomon Islands, which together accounted for around 82 percent of the ODA to the sub-region in 2009.

In Micronesia, almost half the aid flows are to FSM, with ODA to Polynesia comparatively lower than the other two sub-regions.

Aid flows to Melanesia and Polynesia almost doubled from 2002 to 2009, while a modest increase was recorded for Micronesia (Ibid.).
Approximately two-thirds of ODA to PICs is towards the social infrastructure and services sector, which includes education, health and water supply and sanitation.

Overall, the significant increase in ODA was instrumental in the progress that PICs made against the MDGs.

However, much more work is needed in the area of gender equality.

Less attention has been paid to infrastructure, agriculture and finance, although these are critical for women’s economic advancement in the Pacific.
Financing for gender equality should be a critical part of the discussion on financing for development in the PICs.

For economic growth and human development to be sustainable women’s full participation in the economy is required, making it necessary to tailor development finance to the needs of both women and men.

Aid flows are generally considered to be among the most volatile of macroeconomic variables.
In PICs that are heavily dependent on ODA, this threatens the continuity of development interventions, particularly for long-term goals such as gender equality.

Therefore, it is paramount that ODA flows to the region are sustained.

Work under the Forum Compact on Strengthening Development Coordination in the Pacific is important to ensure aid and development effectiveness.
Leaders seem to be committed to ensuring that gender analysis is factored into sustainable development discussions, country programming, and policy decisions.

With Australia’s Pacific Gender Equality Initiative and commitment of A$320m in new funding over ten years, mechanisms are required at the national level to ensure sufficient resources flow to gender equality programmes and accountability for results can be upheld.
This will require gender analysis, strategies, gender disaggregated data and also gender-responsive budgets as a 33 PIFs (2011) 2011 Pacific Regional MDG Tracking Report, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Suva.

34 Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (2010) 2010 MDG Tracking Report.

10 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55 key part of economic governance approaches designed to foster accountability.
Gender-specific outcome indicators can measure how domestic and international resource allocations are advancing gender equality, assisting countries to comply with CEDAW.

With many countries experiencing serious budget constraints of their own, there is an urgent need for PICs to give greater attention to ensuring improved aid effectiveness and the realization of positive and measureable development outcomes.
Conclusion While MDGs have certainly galvanized action in the Pacific region to reach certain development targets, there is a strong view within the region that the goals have been very limited, and have failed to address the region’s specific development challenges.
This paper raises attention to some of the more pressing of these challenges, specifically those related to social and economic development needs of women which are absolutely critical to realizing development goals in Pacific Island states; and equally importantly, some of the peculiar challenges which continue to impede or thwart Pacific efforts towards realizing the goal of gender equality.
Governments in the Pacific, in partnership with donor countries like Australia have the opportunity to address gender inequality and exclusion of women through an inclusive and rights-based approach to sustainable economic development.

If inclusive economic development is universal and rights-based the benefits will not only stimulate short-term economic activity but also improve resilience in a manner that strengthens prospects for long-term economic growth and development for the region.
Inclusive social and economic development will also depend on ensuring women’s access to employment and decent work, fair-trading arrangements and financing of development towards gender equality and justice.

11 | P a g e Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 55