Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697636959650.pdf (Australia)
1 Human Rights of Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific Region: Barriers, Achievements and Reccomendations ActionAid Australia’s submission to the inquiry into the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific Region ActionAid Submission Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 2 I.
INTRODUCTION ActionAid has prepared this submission in response to the Australian Government’s inquiry into human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Pacific Region.

The submission draws upon ActionAid’s firsthand experience in over 45 countries working to advance women’s human rights, including insights and learnings from Australian Government and private‐donor funded programs in the Indo‐Ocean Asia‐Pacific region.
This submission specifically focuses on violence against women and women’s economic empowerment.

These are priorities within the Australian Government’s new development agenda, as well as the two mission objectives for ActionAid Australia’s development work, which is delivered across South Asia, South East Asia and Eastern Africa.
This experience of both challenges and achievements in women’s human rights has informed a series of recommendations made to strengthen the effectiveness of Australian Government‐ funded programs in the region.

Women’s rights are at the heart of ActionAid’s human rights‐based approach.

ActionAid believes that poverty and injustice will be eradicated only when gender equality and women’s rights are secured.
ActionAid’s theory of change underpinning its work with local communities focuses on empowering women to increase their rights awareness, strengthening their ability to take control of their lives through greater knowledge and solidarity with others, and advocating for changes in policies and systems that disadvantage them.
ActionAid focuses on the most vulnerable groups of women experiencing poverty and disadvantage, including those affected by violence against women in conflict and disasters, and women smallholder farmers in order to strengthen their profitability, resilience and access to markets.

Within this focus, women with disabilities are frequently represented in ActionAid’s work.

II.
II.

CONTEXT As signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979), and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), the Australian Government has committed to address women’s rights in all initiatives.

This commitment to gender equality has been firm and persistent over the years, and has been a critical cross cutting theme across the aid program.
Three of the ten development objectives under the previous aid policy, An Effective Aid Program for Australia, specifically addressed gender equality and the empowerment of women.

In 2011, gender equality and women’s empowerment accounted for 56 percent of Australia’s bilateral commitments, and around five percent of this was principally focused, with gender equality an explicit objective of the activity and fundamental in its design.
ActionAid would like to recognise the Australian Government’s stated commitment to women’s empowerment and gender equality specifically the three priorities that Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has highlighted in various speeches as: ending ActionAid Submission Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 violence against women; women’s economic empowerment; and women’s leadership.
The Australian Government has committed to a more strategic and targeted focus to address the slow progress in these areas of gender equality.

However, ActionAid would like to emphasise that existing initiatives under the Australian Aid Program are already making important contributions in this area and sustained resourcing over the longer term is essential to demonstrate impact on women’s empowerment over the longer term.
With foreign aid spending cut by $7.6 billion over the next five years, and a $5 billion cap over the next two financial years, Australia’s commitment under the Millennium Development Goals to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on effective aid by 2020 will not be met.

ActionAid is particularly concerned about how this will impact on efforts to advance gender equality and women’s rights.
The two Millennium Development Goals which address gender gaps (3 and 5) are the least achieved goals (UN, 2013), highlighting that progress for women’s rights is lagging and has not been sufficiently resourced or prioritised by the world’s governments.
In the context of the expiration of the MDGs in 2015, the Beijing+20 review and the development of the new post‐ 2015 development paradigm, ActionAid strongly encourages the Australian Government to ensure women’s empowerment and gender equality initiatives are well‐resourced within the aid budget; setting global leadership and ensuring commitments are matched with resources.
Women make up 70% of the world’s poor and should be a priority for aid investment if progress is to be made on poverty reduction, human rights and gender equality.

In this context, ActionAid encourages Australian development assistance to include both a cross cutting approach to gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as a dedicated thematic focus.

This includes ensuring adequate human and financial resources are allocated to achieve progress in both areas.
In order to accelerate progress on women’s rights and empowerment, ActionAid encourages clear targets for bilateral investments on gender equality as well as a minimum of AUD $100 million dedicated to cross‐regional thematic initiatives.

ActionAid also encourages the Australian Government to mainstream gender across all initiatives under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including ensuring the collection, analysis and dissemination of gender disaggregated data.
This includes gender responsive budgeting, which means collecting and allocating public resources in ways that are effective and advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, based on carefully identified, effective interventions focused on implementing policies and laws that advance women’s rights.
In the context of the recent aid budget cuts, it is essential to increase transparency of funding for gender equality and women’s rights to ensure that these important efforts are not adversely affected by overall reductions in aid funding.

In developing the policy framework for the Government’s new development paradigm, ActionAid encourages the government to take a systemic focus on gender inequality and the removal of barriers that perpetuate inequality.
This is particularly important in the context of a shift toward aid policies that promote private sector partnerships and economic growth as an engine for poverty reduction.
In defining Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region 3 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 this new paradigm, the Australian Government should ensure that such partnerships promote decent work for women across the formal, informal and farming sectors and uphold respect for human rights, including land and property rights.
Further information in relation to these issues are outlined below and in ActionAid’s separate submission to the House of Representatives Inquiry into Private Sector Engagement in Development.

However, ActionAid would like to emphasise that Australian aid should not undermine efforts to achieve human rights for the most vulnerable and marginalised women and girls in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Region.
These overarching recommendations above are put forward as part of creating an enabling environment for the advancement of women’s human rights in the region.

III.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS In terms of violence against women and girls, ActionAid is primarily concerned with violence that takes place in the context of disasters and conflict, where women face heightened vulnerability.
Of particular concern is the gap between international conventions and the reality on the ground, as well as the lack of involvement of women in peace, reconciliation and transition processes.

With an expected rise in disasters in the region, there is an urgent need to build capacity and resources to strengthen the protection of women’s rights in these contexts.
Adopting a human rights based approach is important in this context, and particularly one that builds women’s leadership, agency and resilience as outlined below.
Barriers and Impediments Violence against women and girls in humanitarian emergencies and conflict Under various human rights instruments, including CEDAW (1979), violence against women is formally recognised as a human rights violation, and states are required to give attention to eliminating all forms of discrimination in law and practice (UN, 2012).
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is usually a result of unequal power relations between men and women and is fuelled by cultural attitudes and practices.

Globally the World Health Organisation (2013) estimates that 35% of women have experienced intimate partner or sexual violence in their lifetime; and among countries within the region, rates of VAWG can be as high as 87.2% of the female population in Afghanistan and 75% of women in Papua New Guinea (UN Women, 2013).
In humanitarian settings, particularly during disasters and conflict, this vulnerability to violence increases as women are more exposed to situations that lack safety and security.

These forms of violence can be a direct consequence of conflict or disaster, or pre‐existing violence that is exacerbated as a result of crisis.

In most contexts, the cycle of poverty that already exists ‐ with women comprising the majority of the world’s poor ‐ contributes to the inequalities and injustices women experience.
ActionAid Australia 4 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 Given the expected rise in natural disasters in the Indian Ocean Asia‐Pacific region, with 10 out of the top 15 countries most at risk from disasters in this region, addressing VAWG in humanitarian settings is crucial to ending the cycle of vulnerability, marginalisation, exclusion and poverty faced by women (ACFID, 2014).
While limited data is available in the region on links between VAWG and disasters, reports from other areas are instructive.

For example, eighteen months after the earthquake in Haiti, women and girls reported having experienced widespread sexual abuse and exploitation as they struggled to obtain the basic goods and services needed to survivei.
There is an urgent need for governments, including Australia, to prioritise the response to VAWG in emergencies, as well as to invest in improved research to document women’s experiences of violence in the aftermath or disaster or in conflict settings to inform appropriate responses.

ActionAid also highlights concern that many humanitarian agencies often lack the capacity to address women’s human rights in these settings.
Beyond immediate relief and support for women, they are not equipped or mandated to respond to VAWG in disaster and conflict settings.

In this context, the response to violence against women in emergencies is often viewed as an afterthought and therefore not adequately resourced as part of an effective humanitarian response.

Furthermore, the response to VAWG as a war tactic has been insufficiently prioritised on the ground as part of emergency response.
While the United Nations has recognised VAWG as a war crime with various resolutions including UNSCR 1325 recognising the state’s role in protecting the rights of civilian women and girls during armed conflict, the uptake of this resolution has been slow by member states and inadequately resourced (UN, 2000).

From ActionAid’s experience in humanitarian settings, the first weeks and months of an emergency are essential for establishing adequate mechanisms for the protection of women’s rights and safety.
Another barrier to achievement of human rights in humanitarian settings is the exclusion of women’s voices from peace, reconciliation and transition processes.

Too frequently, governments and the international community overlook the direct experiences of women survivors of sexual violence in conflict.
However, a new partnership between ActionAid Australia and Sydney University, which is funded through the Australian Government’s Australian Development Research Award Scheme (ADRAS) program, is providing opportunities to understand women’s interpretation of justice and to gain first‐hand information about access to justice for survivors.
For example, women who were forcibly abducted and recruited as child soldiers during the civil war in Uganda have shared that they are seeking reparations from the government in the form of education for their children, as this was a right that they were denied as children.
In most contexts, development assistance has looked to the formal transitional justice system to deal with post‐conflict human rights abuses, however the research has found that it is largely through informal justice mechanisms at community levels that women are able to engage.

Informal justice systems form a key part of communities’ experience of justice and rule of law, with over 80 percent of disputes resolved through the informal systems in most countries (ActionAid, 2012).
Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region 5 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 Another issue that has emerged from ActionAid’s experience is that women who attempt to engage in peace building at community level in post conflict contexts face many barriers including persistent threats of intimidation and violence fuelled by long‐term conflict, lack of access to justice and education and economic inequality.1 A theme that is emerging from research in these contexts is the disconnect that exists between national peace building and decision‐making processes, and local communities.
Women’s peace building activities at a community level have little direct influence over national level processes.

Research findings will be available in early 2015 and can assist in guiding future interventions around access to justice for survivors of sexual violence.

Achievements Responding to VAW ActionAid’s approach to conflict and emergencies can provide a model for responding the women’s rights in conflict and emergency settings, and particularly violence against women.
Using a human rights based approach, ActionAid puts the most vulnerable at the centre of the response and supports them to analyse the dynamics of power, inequality and discrimination, laying the foundations for long term interventions aimed at addressing underlying inequalities.
Vulnerabilities in these contexts are primarily caused by social exclusion and lack of skills, assets and access to basic services; factors that impact significantly on women, and are further exacerbated in humanitarian crises (ActoinAid, 2013).
Therefore, ActionAid has focused on building women’s leadership and agency in contexts such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Philippines, Kenya and Uganda, among others, to advocate for protection and to demand increased accountability of governments and other actors to end violence.

ActionAid’s program in Afghanistan supported through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program provides an example of this work.
It gathers information directly from women who have experienced violence in the context of the conflict in order to identify their needs.

Providing a safe space for women to gather, learn about their rights, discuss violations and other issues affecting their lives has empowered the women involved and established support networks for survivors.
Women trained as paralegals under this program have led this work and strengthened women’s organising and leadership at community level through their outreach efforts.

Through the program, paralegals have established a district wide federation that enables them to organise their work and be a visible entity recognised by communities and the State; thus supporting both women’s agency and their direct engagement with actors in the justice system such as court authorities and justice departments.
From the most recent report, 108 cases of violence against women were identified and attended to by the paralegals, of which 40 cases went to court and gave access to legal justice for women.
One paralegal has reported that that: ActionAid Australia 6 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 ‘I never thought that I would have the knowledge and confidence on women’s rights issues and violence against women to share widely for the benefit of other women’.

These are promising steps in responding to violence against women in a conflict setting.
However, ActionAid would like to emphasise the importance of long term commitments in addressing complex social change and reducing violence against women.

In Afghanistan, ActionAid has witnessed a transformation in power relations with women’s increased confidence and knowledge having an influence on the relationship between men and women at a familial and community level.

Significantly, women’s conflict mediation in the domestic sphere is being recognised by male members of the community.
These are small steps but important in contributing to ActionAid encourages the Australian Government to identify existing programs with promising results in addressing investment and/or women’s human opportunities for replication or scaling up.

issues, and ensure sustained longer term change.

rights ActionAid would like to acknowledge the Australian Government’s progress toward addressing violence against women in conflict and post conflict states.
The National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security is a step toward implementing the UNSC Resolution 1325, and underlines the essential role of women in conflict prevention, management and resolution.

ActionAid encourages the Australian Government to continue to make progress in addressing violence against women in conflict and post conflict contexts and to scale up transitional justice initiatives.
This can be achieved by supporting coordination between different actors to facilitate holistic and integrated multi‐sector approaches.

Building Resilience Vulnerability is at the foundation of understanding resilience.

Factors affecting a person’s vulnerability include social exclusion; lack of skills, access to basic services and economic opportunities; and lack of assets and access to natural resources – all of which are barriers to women’s human rights.
ActionAid’s approach towards building resilience provides sustainable long‐term solutions for people and communities, who are the most vulnerable, and whose lives and livelihoods are under constant threat of destruction.2 ActionAid’s work to enhance resilience in 5000 communities has helped communities and countries to be prepared when natural, human and economic shocks and stresses strike, supporting them to emerge with minimum human, economic and social costs.
In rural Nepal, ActionAid has found that it is primarily women in the community who lack decision making power, ownership of assets, access and mobility, and are disproportionally overloaded with the burden of unpaid work.

This exacerbates the vulnerability of women, which in turn increases their exposure to the negative effects of any disaster.
Whilst men are able to seek cover or move away when they see certain signs of impending disasters, women will often stay behind to safeguard 2 http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/actionaids_discussion_paper_on_resilience_‐ _16_may_2013.pdf Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region 7 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 their assets, children and the elderly.
When women’s resilience is not adequately supported, this increases their vulnerability, leaving them exposed during disasters and potentially mentally and physically harassed.

ActionAid is currently developing a Gender Sensitive Resilience Index that will measure and quantify the resilience of countries in South Asia, with a particular bias towards the resilience of their women.

This is supported by the Australian Government and being developed in partnership with the Economics Intelligence Unit.
The index will identify the existing country strengths and weaknesses in creating resilience to disasters, and provide policy direction and influence to create positive changes that will enhance women’s resilience during disasters.

Through positive changes in national policy, ActionAid hopes to secure a better environment for women to express their rights before, during and after disasters, and ensure that women are recognised and supported in their role within the community.

IV.
IV.

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT ActionAid’s experience consistently demonstrates the power of economic participation for women, and its possibilities for strengthening women’s position within households and communities and as leaders.

Yet women in the Indian Ocean Asia‐Pacific region face a range of challenges affecting their capacity to earn, control or expand their incomes and livelihoods.
A lack of education, lack of freedom, inadequate legal protections, values which relegate women to the home and lack of exposure to information, knowledge, networks and markets all play a role in limiting women from being able to realise their potential and fulfil their rights.

ActionAid is highlighting the issues of land rights, unpaid care and tax justice as areas where the Australian aid program has opportunities to make a profound difference and strengthen women’s rights.
Barriers and Impediments Land Rights ActionAid has recently completed a major study into the scale and impact of corporate ‘land grabs’ on the world’s poor, and particularly women, made in the name of economic development.

“The Great Land Heist” reports that over 1,600 large‐scale land deals have been documented since the year 2000, affecting more than 60 million hectares and displacing many thousands of smallholder farmers, who lack the power to confront major corporate or government interests.
Many more undocumented acquisitions have undoubtedly also taken place.

The majority of documented large‐scale land deals in these developing contexts have occurred in Africa (41 percent of total land grabs) and South East Asia (32 percent of total land grabs).

Women often fare the worst from land grabs.

Women make up the majority of the world’s smallholder farmers yet land laws frequently do not recognise their ownership.
Low levels of political participation and leadership by women further ActionAid Australia 8 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 compounds their vulnerability to losing their land.

When large‐scale agriculture businesses commence in communities due to land grabs, women are often assigned the worst jobs in cash crop production, such as spraying chemicals with inadequate protective clothing or awareness of side‐effects.
When women migrate to cities to take up jobs in factories, they are often employed under unsafe, exploitative conditions and experience increased vulnerability to violence in unsafe and unfamiliar urban environments.

Preventing women from accessing land limits the amount of food they can produce for themselves and their families, and the amount of produce they have available for sale.
It can limit the level of assets they possess, negatively affect their standing within their communities and it denies them access to crucial natural goods such as firewood and water.

Protection of women’s rights to land will play a significant role in ending poverty and the violation of other women’s rights.
Yet Australia is one of a number of countries currently supporting the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, which provides private sector companies seeking access to African markets with start‐up grants of between USD 150,000 and $2.5 million.

The fund supports significant land deals, for example for maize production in South Sudan3.

While not all land deals are ‘land grabs’, where such deals occur, they often lead to highly unequal outcomes that undermine the rights of local communities.
ActionAid encourages the Australian Government to strengthen transparency over land deals funded through the scheme; and to ensure that they include consultation with local communities, free and informed prior consent, as well as adequate compensation for affected families.
ActionAid also calls for funding to be redirected to supporting women smallholder farmers to build their profitability, productivity and resilience, with a particular focus on ensuring that services respond directly to needs and priorities explicitly identified by women.

An improvement in women’s land rights combined with the ability to access resources and decision‐making power (to decide what to grow, when to grow it, and what to do with it) would enable poor and excluded women to fight hunger.
FAO calculates that with the same resources as men, the agricultural output in developing countries would increase between 2.5 to 4 percent.
‘Increasing production by this amount could reduce the number of undernourished people in the world in the order of 12–17 percent’.4 Evidence also suggests that when women own land, their family’s health and education attainment improves by .5 This has long term impact on a country’s human capital and economic growth.6 ActionAid encourages the Australian Government to support the securing of land tenure for impoverished, rural communities in the region.
This is a fundamental 3 Great Land Heist, p24 4 FAO (2011) ‘State of Food and Agriculture, Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gap for Development’ http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2050e/i2050e.pdf 5 Smithv Smith, L.C., Ramakrishnan, U., Ndiaye, A .,Haddad, L. & Martorell, R .

(2003) ‘The importance of women’s status for child nutrition in developing countries’.

Research Report No.

131.

Washington, DC, IFPRI.
(2003) in SOFA report 2010-2011, FAO, Rome, 2011 p43-44 6 SOFA report 2010 – 2011, FAO, Rome 2011.p.45 Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region 9 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 component of dignified, sustainable development and a crucial step towards reducing poverty and inequality.7 Unpaid Care CEDAW (1979) recognises that women’s unpaid burden of care impacts on the fulfilment of women’s rights, affecting their participation in education, employment and other activities related to their personal development.
Unpaid care work is not captured in data, is not discussed in national debates and is usually not considered when designing and implementing economic and social policies.

It represents the gendered division of labour, whereby ‘men’s work’ is paid and given value, and ‘women’s work’ in the home is unpaid and undervalued.
In poor rural and urban areas, women work longer hours than men, spend more time on unpaid care work and subsistence agriculture, and have less time to engage in paid work and social and cultural activities.

Through a time use survey of men and women Nepal, ActionAid has found that women work 1.4 hours for every one hour worked by men with household work taking up most of their time.
Overall, men tend to spend longer than women in paid economic activities, while women tend to spend longer than men on unpaid work, including caring responsibilities and the collection of water and wood.

This suggests a division between women’s main area of operation being in the home, and men’s main area outside the home; which arguably contributes to men’s domination of public decision making.
Access to a sustainable source of water is one of the most time consuming, unpaid tasks for women, particularly those living in rural communities.

Water is essential for both domestic and agricultural activities, both of which form part of women’s responsibilities.

In Kenya, for example, women spend almost 100 minutes a day collecting fuel or water.

Improved access to water can reduce women’s workload significantly and reduce women’s time spent on unpaid tasks.
The right to water is enshrined in a number of international human rights treaties and governments remain accountable for ensuring the fulfilment of this right.
However, large scale water privatisation and increasing ‘user pays’ systems in some developing countries impact many communities, particularly in rural areas, where the level of poverty is too high for people to pay for water and thus denies their right to water.8 This has negative impacts on health and nutrition, particularly that of indigenous women in affected communities.
Many poor women have relied on these water supplies to sustain their family’s needs and livelihoods; and are forced to pay for water that was previously free or to walk for longer periods in search of water.

Tax Reform ActionAid recognises the Australian Government’s leadership in promoting international tax reform through the G20 process as this is critical in alleviating women’s unpaid burden of care.
Exploitation of tax loopholes by foreign companies operating in lower income countries cripples the revenue and capacity of these governments to provide vital social infrastructure to their populations.

This impacts 7 The Great Land Heist; How the world is paving the way for corporations 8 Making Care Visible: women’s unpaid care work in Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya.

ActionAid, February 2013.


ActionAid Australia 10 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 most significantly on women, whose pick up the gap in public services through their unpaid care work.

From ActionAid’s estimates lower income countries lose over US$138 billion in corporate tax incentives and between US $120 and US$160 billion a year in revenue owing to money hidden in tax havens.
This is significantly more than the funds lower income countries receive in official development assistance, which continues to be in decline.

If the G20, under Australia’s leadership, is able to unlock tax havens and address tax loopholes through its tax reform agenda, then this should occur alongside the promotion of good governance to ensure that new revenues are redistributed to impact the lives of the most vulnerable in society.
A first priority for increased tax revenues should be to support government provision of public services, such as education, health services and aged care.

Without this vital public infrastructure, women will continue to bear the unfair burden of looking after the sick, elderly and children, which limits their capacity to engage in activities which generate an income.
Achievements ActionAid’s experience repeatedly proves that women’s economic empowerment is critical for the realisation of women’s rights, building communities and economies.

When women have the opportunity to build their skills, access to resources and the power to negotiate, they are able to increase their income, which becomes a tool for increasing participation in household and community decision‐making and, ultimately, leadership.
ActionAid’s DFAT funded program under the Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES) demonstrates the possibilities for advancing women and girls’ human rights through agriculture, including promoting women’s land rights.

ActionAid recommends that the Australian Government sustains support for this program, which is demonstrating promising results from its mid‐term review.
Targeting women smallholder farmers in some of the poorest districts in Africa, the program provides valuable insights for programming elsewhere.

In 2012‐2013, AACES helped improve the food security of over 33,000 people through a comprehensive agriculture program with a strong focus on building women’s awareness of rights to land, supporting women to organise and providing inputs and training to build women’s technical farming skills.
Partnerships between governments, NGO’s across Africa and communities have been critical in enabling women to define their own futures.

Through ActionAid’s work at community level, AACES has provided women with spaces to come together, reflect on the systems that oppress them, understand their poverty as a denial of human rights, and empower them to collectively bargain and advocate with the government to fulfil their rights.
This is contributing to the evidence base around the importance of enabling women to organise for change9.

At household and other levels, women draw strength from each other to challenge gender injustice and confront inequalities which are a major barrier to realisation of women’s rights.
9 Pathways of women’s empowerment, “Empowerment: A Journey not a Destination” , https://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/SynthesisReport12DecR.pdf , June 2012 Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region 11 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 In Cambodia, an ActionAid project in Oddar , funded by DFAT, is supporting communities, particularly women, to improve their livelihoods through sustainable agriculture.
The project activities include community land use planning; the critical first step for communities to gain formal land tenure and a measure of formal protection against land grabs.

This has been shown to be of critical importance in recent months, as land grabbing has been documented on a large scale in the province, by sugar companies and other actors granted Economic Land Concessions which have dispossessed many thousands of households10.
Such activities in support of small scale and vulnerable women and men farmers make an enormous contribution to the protection of rights in contexts where economic growth is outpacing the necessary changes in governance and regulation.

IV.

WOMENS LEADERSHIP ActionAid recognises that women are among the most vulnerable and affected by poverty, and that investment in women’s leadership is a critical driver in the sustainability of development outcomes.
ActionAid has used different participatory methodologies for raising critical consciousness among women and analysing power.

In contexts where it is rare to find women in leadership positions, it is essential for the Australian Aid Program to support programming in women leadership that starts from the ‘bottom up’, particularly if the desired result is long term change in gender relations.
This is particularly needed in the region, where we see women holding only 7 percent of ministerial positions in South Asia, for example, and comprising 15 percent in national parliaments (UN, 2011).

The situation for women is even worse in some Pacific island nations, where in the Solomon Islands as another example, there is no female representation in the national parliament.
Reflection‐Action is a practice, developed by ActionAid, which has become the bedrock for developing women’s agency, building self‐worth and making women aware of their potential as agents for change.

Furthermore, the toolkits used in the reflect process are developed with community members and for community members, so there is a high level of community acceptance.
Under the AACES program in Uganda, ActionAid has engaged with thousands of women farmers through Farmer Reflect Groups, which has resulted in their engagement with government to promote agricultural forums.

Women report now feeling confident enough to speak in public and voice their concerns as well as hold positions of leadership.

This is an important pre‐cursor to building women’s leadership in public decision making, and particularly ensuring access to power goes beyond elites.
ActionAid has also supported protection programs for women in Kenya in drought‐ affected areas, where violence is prevalent.

Policy makers and women from affected areas have been brought together to discuss women’s experiences of justice and what is needed to prevent sexual violence in disaster affected communities.
This is 10 Oxfam Australia, “Banking on Shaky Ground”, https://www.oxfam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/site-media/pdf/2014- 47%20australia's%20big%204%20banks%20and%20land%20grabs_fa_web.pdf , April 2014 ActionAid Australia 12 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 an example of a participatory policy conversation, which builds women’s leadership and agency to advocate for protection and demand increased accountability from governments and other actors.
As a result, women who have been disempowered by disaster, conflict and violence are able to engage in consultation with local leaders and demand increased recognition of their rights.

From ActionAid’s experience, dialogue and engagement at community level, led by local women, is essential in creating sustainable improvements in women’s rights, as change is led from within.
Women living in poverty and facing marginalisation require an enabling space to nurture their leadership in public roles, influence decision‐making and bring about lasting change in their livelihoods and status in communities.

From ActionAid’s experience women are proficient in adapting to changing social and natural environments, collectively addressing problems, drawing on traditional knowledge and improvising when facing difficulties.

This is most evident in disaster settings.


Putting women at the centre of disaster risk reduction and humanitarian interventions can provide the space for transformational change to address gender inequality and power disparity.

Evidence of this can be found in Bangladesh, whereby ActionAid facilitated women‐ led emergency response after Cyclone Mahasen hit the south‐central region of the country in May 2013.
Community women led an initiative to assess the impact of the disaster and to identify solutions that reflected the needs of the entire community.

Women were involved in all aspects of the recovery, including budgeting to rebuild shelters and procuring construction materials.

They overcame initial negative reactions to their leadership and demonstrated their efficiency in rebuilding the community resilience to disasters.
From ActionAid’s experience, investing in women’s leadership as first‐responders equips them to not only lead in disaster response but to take up broader leadership roles within their communities over the longer term.

V. IMPLICATIONS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Women’s Potential Economic and development literature demonstrates that removing barriers to human rights and gender equality can enhance economic efficiency and improve development outcomes (World Bank, 2012).
The barriers and impediments that have been identified in this submission prevent women from realising their human rights and improving their productivity (such as engaging in education, economic opportunities and productive inputs).

Women perform 66% of the world's work and produce 50% of the world’s food, but earn only 10% of the income and own only 1% of the property (UN Women 2008).
Across the region, limits on women’s participation in the workforce, many of which have been identified in this submission, cost the regional economy an estimated US$89 billion every year (UN, 2011).
Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region 13 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 ActionAid strong believes that addressing women’s equality through a human rights based approach which addresses structural barriers, including women’s right to land and position in the value chain, will lead to improvements in women’s recognition as productive members of society and broader development outcomes.
Evidence suggests that when women own land, their families’ health and education attainment improve (Smithy, 2003) and that this has long‐term impact on a country’s human capital and economic growth (FAO, 2011).

The Cost of Gender Inequality Gender inequality imposes economic costs on families, communities, and states.

Limitations on women’s economic opportunities, including laws that prohibit women from owning property, can have long‐term implications worth millions of dollars.
At a national level, for example, gender inequalities cost the Asia and Pacific region an estimated US$47 billion every year.

In an increasingly globalised world, gender inequality makes countries less competitive, and the cost of systemic and persistent gender inequality is rising.

Investing in disaster risk reduction (DRR), through a women’s rights perspective, can protect long‐term development gains and also reduce the increasing costs of responding to disasters and conflict.
Given that women are amongst the most vulnerable in disaster and conflict situations and poverty becomes further entrenched in these contexts, it is in the best interest of women for governments to prioritise investments in DRR.

As mentioned, the Indian Ocean and Pacific region is home to 10 of the top 15 countries most at risk from disasters (ACFID, 2014).
Dependent on the disaster and the context, $1 invested in appropriate evidence‐ based DRR has been shown to save as much as $80 in avoided or reduced disaster response and recovery costs (Vorhies, 2012).
DRR activities at the community level can have a range of extended economic benefits, which go beyond the more measurable direct economic benefits, including improving women’s participation in community level activities.11 ActionAid encourages the Australian Government to increase its investment in women‐led DRR activities, with the aim of creating an enabling environment for women to secure the rights and increase their resilience to disasters and conflict.
Development as Growth ActionAid is concerned with the Australian Governments prioritisation of public‐ private partnerships and aid for trade as cornerstones of Australia’s new development paradigm.

Extensive evidence demonstrates that while investing in the empowerment of women and girls leads to gains in economic growth overall, investing in economic growth alone does not correlate with improved gender equality (Kabeer, 2013).
Therefore policies that encourage aid for trade must consider the societal norms and structures that subordinate women and impede realisation of their human rights, including their economic participation.

According to the World Development Report (World Bank 2012), without a focus on gender equality, economic growth can temporarily exacerbate gender inequality in ActionAid Australia 14 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 some countries.
Private sector development can have negative impacts on marginalised communities, making women more vulnerable to violence.

This is most evidently seen where poor women are given sub‐humane working conditions in factories with frequent violations of their rights.

Economic growth can promote equality for women by increasing economic opportunities and independent income for women, and by improving the services and infrastructure that women require.
However, this is only possible when women have access to economic opportunities that adhere to decent work standards, as well as access to and control over productive inputs and control over their incomes.

VI.

RECCOMENDATIONS Based on this submission, ActionAid Australia makes the following recommendations to the Australian Government in considering women’s human rights in the Indian Ocean Asia‐Pacific region: 1.
Respect for human rights and gender equality should be central to the Australian Government’s aid program.

Performance benchmarks for the aid program should ensure that human rights and gender equality are actively addressed in all aid program investments, particularly those with objectives for improving economic growth and aid for trade (please refer to ActionAid’s separate submission on performance benchmarks).

2.
2.

ActionAid encourages the Australian Government to develop a new thematic strategy for Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment and Women’s Rights in the aid program that responds to women’s human rights challenges in the region.

This should include increasing DFAT’s capacity to critically examine women’s rights issues and the need for targeted gender training programs that will in turn improve program quality.
A new gender policy should be a central tenet of this, which promotes gender mainstreaming and gender disaggregated data collection, as well as targeted women’s empowerment initiatives.

3.

The Australian Government should reinstate funding to the aid program to meet Australia’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and particularly MDGs 3 and 5, by increasing ODA to 0.5% of GNI by 2015.

4.
4.

The Australian Government is encouraged to make specific commitments around gender‐responsive budgeting including ensuring: a.

Specific thematic funding for gender equality and women’s empowerment in the aid program to $100 million per annum, in support of cross regional initiatives that advance knowledge and learning on effective strategies that support women and girls claiming their rights.

b.
b.

Specific funding for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment across the aid program (measured by the OECD DAC gender policy marker for principal objective) to $500 million.

Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region 15 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 5.
The Australian government should promote ethical tax behavior amongst Australian corporations, supporting lower income countries to reform and strengthen their tax systems and working with the international economic community to improve international standards.

This should include active promotion of ensuring any new tax revenues are directed to social infrastructure to reduce women’s unpaid burden of care.

6.
6.

Australia’s aid program should take a more systemic focus on gender equality through collecting and assessing information in countries with gender gaps that capture women’s leadership and economic contributions at the local level, in the informal economy, and outside the economic structure.

Aggregate gender equality measures fail to adequately capture impediments to realising women’s human rights in these contexts.

7.
7.

The Australian Aid Program should continue investments in existing women’s empowerment projects funded by DFAT that are demonstrating effectiveness on the ground, noting that women’s empowerment requires long‐term engagement for sustainable development results.

This includes, but is not limited to the Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme.

8.
8.

The Australian aid program should not ignore the impact that climate change is already having on women’s and girls’ human rights in the region, and should ensure better integration of climate change and DRR in aid programs and allocate additional funding to women‐led DRR initiatives given the potential this has in transforming gender relations, supporting women’s leadership and reducing the impact of disaster on women’s poverty and inequality.

9.
9.

The Australian Government should work with governments and agencies responsible for Land, Agriculture and Justice in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Region to implement policies and laws that protect and promote women’s land rights.

This includes commitments to support the dismantling of all discriminatory policies and legislation that impede women’s rights to land and legal systems.

10.
10.

The Australian Government should ensure that international frameworks are adopted and implemented to ensure that foreign companies and private funds involved in large scale land deals in lower income countries do not violate the rights of women and the vulnerable.
This should include supporting governments in region to develop and implement tenure governance frameworks that recognise and protect women’s legal and legitimate tenure rights to land, and ensure that communities, including women, are adequately consulted, provide free and informed prior consent and receive sufficient compensation for any land deals.

11.
ActionAid encourages the Australian Government to prioritise regional leadership in disaster management and humanitarian response, including ensuring a dedicated focus on the protection of women’s rights in emergency ActionAid Australia 16 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 and crisis contexts and supporting research initiatives that provide evidence of the links between disasters and increased incidence and vulnerability to violence against women and girls.
12.

The Australian Government should support initiatives in the Indian Ocean – Pacific Region that make women’s unpaid care work more visible and central to demands for quality public services, financed through more progressive domestic resource mobilisation, including tax revenues.

13.
13.

The Australian Government should support innovative projects in the Indian Ocean – Pacific Region that put women’s voice and agency at the centre of its programming as part of a long term strategy for poverty reduction and gender equality.

14.

The forthcoming Global Summit on Sexual Violence in Conflict provides an opportunity for the Australian Government to provide leadership in the response and renewal of commitments under the UNSCR 1325 National Action Plan.
Australia should commit to concrete actions to promote women’s access to justice, protection of women’s rights in conflict settings and the promotion of women’s leadership in peace, reconciliation and transitional processes.
Human Rights Confronting Women and Girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific Region 17 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 BIBLIOGRAPHY ACFID (2014) Humanitarian Action for Results: Strengthening Australia’s approach to preventing and responding to disasters and conflict overseas, ACFID Policy Paper ActionAid Australia Strategy 2012‐2017 ActionAid (2012) People’s Action in Practice – ActionAid’s Human Rights Based Approach 2.0 ActionAid (2013) Discussion Paper on Resilience, May ActionAId (2012) From the Ground Up: Women’s roles in Local Peace‐building in Afghanistan, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan and Sierra Leone ActionAid (2013) Afghan Women’s Rights Beyond 2014 ActionAid (2014) Position on Women’s Right to Land, May ActionAid (2014) The Great Land Heist ActionAid (2013) From Marginalisation to Empowerment: The potential of land rights to contribute to gender equality – observations from Guatemala, India and Sierra Leone ActionAid (2013) Making Care Visible: Women’s Unpaid Care Work in Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya, February ActionAid (2011) What Women Farmers Need: A Blueprint for Action, February ActionAid (2012) A Theory of Change for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, November ActionAid UK (2013) Bringing Taxation into the Post 2015 Development Framework AusAid (2011) Promoting Opportunities for All – Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme Annual Report 2012 – 2013 Booz & Co (2012) Empowering the Third Billion – Women and the World of Work in 2012 Food and Agriculture Organization (2011), Sustainable Development Department, Women and Sustainable Food Security ActionAid Australia 18 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 29 Kabeer, N. and Natali, L. (2013) Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Is there a Win‐Win?
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