Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694859591523.pdf (Australia)
Supplementary Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry into the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific Region July 2015 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Index Index Overview Evaluation of gender equality in the aid program Aid architecture The gender equality target The gender spend: performance against the Gender Equality Marker How does Australia rate against other OECD DAC members?
Reporting on gender equality in the aid program Results Education and Health Supporting women’s and girls’ right to education Supporting women’s and girls’ right to health Additional resources Additional reports evaluating aspects of Australia’s aid program from a gender perspective Research and prevalence surveys on violence against women Links to OECD DAC publications on gender equality Summary of key and useful human rights and gender equality documents Data sets with key indicators for countries where Australia works Approaches to promoting gender equality of other donors Examples of gender equality programs Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women) Pacific Regional Ending Violence against Women Facility Fund PNG Gender Equality/Gender Based Violence Program Femili PNG: The Lae Case Management Centre PNG Oxfam Repatriation and Reintegration Program PNG-Australia Law and Justice Partnership Solomon Islands Gender Equality Program Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Pacific Women (Vanuatu) Empowering Indonesian Women for Poverty Reduction (Maju Perempuan Indonesia untuk Penanggulangan Kemiskinan or MAMPU) Timor-Leste Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) Timor-Leste National Program for Village Development (PNDS) Cambodia Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Program Vietnam ADS – PREP Afghanistan Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) Program Challenging Gender Based Violence Program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh Provinces (Pakistan) SRSP Livelihood Strengthening Programme in KPK Combating Acid and Burn Violence in Bangladesh Evaluation Example Smart Economics: Evaluation of Australian aid support for women’s economic empowerment Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Overview In May 2014, the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) provided a written submission to the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry into the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific Region (Attachment A).
The submission provided detailed information on the terms of reference along with illustrations and examples of how DFAT is supporting efforts to improve the human rights of women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific region through its aid program and foreign policy engagement.

Since then, DFAT officials have appeared before the Sub-Committee on several occasions to provide further information supporting DFAT’s submission.
This additional submission to the Sub-Committee has been prepared in response to a request from the Sub-Committee Chair and provides: - - - - - a summary of examples of programs that specifically target gender equality and women’s empowerment; additional information on how effectiveness on gender equality is measured; additional reports evaluating aspects of Australia’s aid program from a gender perspective; links to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Co-operation Directorate’s publications on gender equality; and details of publications that may be of use to the Sub-Committee.
Supplementary Submission 3 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Evaluation of gender equality in the aid program Aid architecture Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is a development policy priority of the Australian Government.

DFAT is developing a Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy to implement this commitment.

It will be available in the second half of 2015.


Released in June 2014, the aid policy, Australian aid: promoting prosperity, reducing poverty, enhancing stability, sets out six investment priorities: 1.

Infrastructure, trade facilitation and international competitiveness 2.

Agriculture, fisheries and water 3.

Effective governance: policies, institutions and functioning economies 4.

Education and health 5.

Building resilience: humanitarian assistance, disaster risk reduction and social protection 6.
Gender equality and empowering women and girls.

The development program takes an explicitly twin track approach to implementing this priority.

In the first track, gender equality must be considered in developing and implementing all activities across the aid program.
This is given effect through the performance framework, Making Performance Count: enhancing the accountability and effectiveness of Australian aid, which requires all investments, regardless of their objectives, to address gender issues effectively in their implementation as one of the ten high level targets to assess the aid program against key goals and priorities: 1.
Promoting prosperity: Promote economic development by increasing Australia’s aid for trade investments to 20 per cent of the aid budget by 2020.

2.

Engaging the private sector: All new investments will explore innovative ways to promote private sector growth or engage the private sector in achieving development outcomes.

3.
3.

Reducing poverty: By July 2015, all country and regional programs will have Aid Investment Plans that describe how Australia’s aid will promote economic growth in ways that provide pathways out of poverty.

4.

Empowering women and girls: More than 80 per cent of investments, regardless of their objectives, will effectively address gender issues in their implementation.
4 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission 5.

Focusing on the Indo–Pacific region: Increase the proportion of country program aid that is spent in the Indo–Pacific region to at least 90 per cent from 2014–15.

6.
6.

Delivering on commitments: From July 2015, progress against mutual obligations agreed between Australia and its key partner governments and organisations will form part of program performance assessments.

7.

Working with the most effective partners: By July 2015, design and apply new systems to assess the performance of the aid program’s key delivery partners and ensure stronger links between performance and funding.

8.
8.

Ensuring value-for-money: Deliver high standards of value-for-money in at least 85 per cent of aid investments.

Where standards are not met and improvements are not achieved within a year, investments will be cancelled.

9.

Increasing consolidation: Reduce the number of individual investments by 20 per cent by 2016–17 to focus efforts and reduce transaction costs.

10.
10.

Combatting corruption: Develop and implement new fraud control and anti-corruption strategies for all major country and regional programs by July 2015.

Target four requires that at least 80 per cent of DFAT’s investments that are monitored annually through aid quality checks, regardless of their objectives, will effectively address gender issues in their implementation and receive a rating of 4 out of 6 or above.

This is a whole-of-DFAT aid target.


Meeting this target may take time with the likelihood that changes will be needed in partners’ systems as well as in the design and implementation of many programs.

The annual Performance of Australian Aid report outlines DFAT’s progress towards reaching this target.

The internal Aid Operations Report provides regular reporting to the Departmental Executive on this and the other targets in the performance framework.
The second track of DFAT’s twin-track approach to implementing gender equality and women’s empowerment in the aid program commits Australia to invest, where there are persistent challenges and slow progress, in three key areas:  enhancing women’s voice in decision-making, leadership and peacebuilding;  promoting women’s economic empowerment; and  ending violence against women and girls.

The gender equality target The gender equality target in Making Performance Count is ambitious.
In 2013-14, 74 per cent of investments across the department reported effectively integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment and this figure represents the baseline from which progress will be measured in the future.
Supplementary Submission 5 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Gender equality ‘satisfactory’ average quality rating in 2013-14, by Division Division Indonesia Papua New Guinea South East Asia Mainland (excluding Indonesia) South East Asia Maritime and Regional Pacific (excluding PNG) South West Asia Middle East and Africa Other Source: DFAT Budget and Statistics, 2014 91% 78% 67% 76% 66% 80% 73% 75 % The majority of the 26 per cent unsatisfactory investments in 2013-14 were in the Pacific (45 per cent).
As part of the quality assessment process, all these investments were required to identify actions to improve their rating over the coming year.

During preparation of aid quality checks reports for 2014-15, the department focussed on ensuring the ratings were robust.

Six propositions guide program managers in assessing their performance on gender equality.

 Analysis of gender equality gaps and opportunities substantially informs the investment.
 Risks to gender equality are identified and appropriately managed.

   The investment is making progress as expected in effectively implementing strategies to promote gender equality and women's empowerment.

The Monitoring and Evaluation system collects sex-disaggregated data and includes indicators to measure gender equality outcomes.

There is sufficient expertise and budget allocation to achieve gender equality related outputs of the investment.
 As a result of the investment, partners increasingly treat gender equality as a priority through their own policies and processes.

Results from the 20104-15 assessments are currently being finalised and will be available in the next Performance of Australian Aid report.
The gender spend: performance against the Gender Equality Marker In addition to the aid target, the aid program monitors the proportion of funding aimed at supporting gender equality by reference to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) 6 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Gender Equality Marker.
The Gender Equality Marker identifies whether an individual aid activity targets gender equality as one of its policy objectives.

The Gender Equality Maker is used by the OECD, OECD members and DFAT to analyse and compare aid flows.

An activity is classified as gender equality focussed if it is intended to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment or reduce discrimination and inequalities based on sex.
This includes programs that:  reduce social, economic or political power inequalities between women and men, girls and boys, ensure that women benefit equally with men from the activity, or compensate for past discrimination; or  develop or strengthen gender equality or anti-discrimination policies, legislation or institutions.
Activities are classified as targeting gender equality as either:  a principal objective where gender equality is an explicit objective of the activity and fundamental in its design;  a significant objective where gender equality was an important, but secondary, objective of the activity; or  not targeted where the activity was screened for promoting gender equality, but was not found to have targeted it.
DFAT’s ODA with a principal or significant gender equality objective 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Australia $1,866M $2,160M $2,110M $2,192M Source: DFAT Budget and Statistics, 2014 AUD2.2 billion – 55 per cent of DFAT’s aid expenditure – was spent in 2013-14 by DFAT on investments that targeted promoting gender equality as either a principal or significant objective.1 In 2013-14, South and West Asia was the region where the greatest percentage of DFAT’s aid expenditure targeted addressing gender equality, at 60 per cent of all DFAT’s aid to the region.
In South East Asia it was 55 per cent of all aid, followed by Pacific at 54 per cent of all aid.
1 http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/documentupload/Aid%20in%20Support%20of%20Gender%20Equality%20and%20Wom en’s%20Empowerment%20-%20Donor%20Charts.pdf Supplementary Submission 7 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission 2013-14 DFAT’s ODA by Region, investments that identify gender equality as an objective (%) Health and Education investments have been the most likely to promote gender equality, with it identified as a priority in 80 per cent of all investments (by value) in those sectors.
Agriculture, infrastructure and governance have been the least likely.

Only 30 per cent of aid for trade expenditure targeted promoting gender equality in 2013-14.
2013-14 ODA by Sector, of investments that identify gender equality as an objective ($m) 8 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission The value of the investments in 2013-14 with a principal gender equality objective was $202 million, or five per cent of DFAT’s investments.
DFAT’s major spend is in investments that have mainstreamed2 gender equality and DFAT has $1.9 billion in investments that include promoting gender equality as a significant objective.

This covers 50 per cent of DFAT’s investments.

The combined total of investments with a principal and significant objective of promoting gender equality is $2.2 billion.

How does Australia rate against other OECD DAC members?
For the period 2012 to 2013, an annual average of USD25 billion per year was committed by OECD DAC members to promoting gender equality.

In this period, 30 per cent of total bilateral aid from DAC members (that was screened with the OECD DAC policy marker for gender equality) identified gender equality as a principal or significant objective.

Education and health sectors received the highest amount of aid with an objective to promote gender equality.
Australia’s rate of targeting at 59 per cent3 of aid is significantly stronger than many other donors.

Australia’s total expenditure also ranks highly, in the top ten donors by expenditure across 2012 and 2013.

Increasing the percentage of aid where gender equality is a principal or significant objective of assistance will strengthen Australia’s international leadership on these issues.
Given the focus on gender equality in the aid policy, we expect the proportion of investments with gender equality as a principal or significant objective to increase over time as new investments are introduced.
DAC Members: Aid in support of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (2012-13 average) Country Australia Austria Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark EU Institutions Finland France Germany Greece USD million Gender equality as a% of aid screened 1883 72 470 1423 5 676 4281 229 1038 4275 42 59 15 68 64 15 51 34 49 19 44 93 2 Gender mainstreaming refers to the integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment into all development planning, policies and programming, regardless of sector or area of focus, and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in decision-making.
3 The OECD standardises calculations of spending across donors drawing on data sets provided by donors.

Hence it has calculated Australia’s gender spend (principal and significant objective) on average across 2012-13.

DFAT’s calculation of Australia’s gender spend being 55% for 2013-14 is not directly comparable with the OECD calculation.

We have used the OECD calculation here to be able to compare Australia’s spending with that of other donors.
Supplementary Submission 9 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Country Iceland Ireland Italy Japan Korea Luxembourg Netherlands New Zealand Norway Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States USD million Gender equality as a% of aid screened Source: OECD DAC Aid in Support of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment- Donor Charts March 2015.
Note these calculations are prepared by the OECD to standardise across donors, and so do slightly vary from the DFAT calculations.

10 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Reporting on gender equality in the aid program The following table sets out DFAT’s performance reporting and how gender equality is assessed in each report.
DFAT’s aid performance framework can be found at http://dfat.gov.au/aid/Pages/australias- aid-program.aspx.
DFAT’s performance reporting of gender Performance report Performance of Australian Aid Aid Program Performance Reports (APPRs)4 Partner Performance Assessments (PPAs) (ie Performance assessments of multilateral and other programs) Multilateral Performance Assessments (MPAs) (ie Performance assessments of multilateral and other programs) Consideration of gender equality Annual assessment and report on the whole of the aid program, including humanitarian assistance.
Gender equality is reported on as a development policy priority and one of the 10 strategic targets for the aid program.

Annual report on each country or regional program.

The report must include analysis of progress made in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

Annual assessments of how well implementing partners (including NGOs, commercial suppliers and multilateral organisations) are delivering services.

Also applies to humanitarian assistance.


PPAs include an assessment as to whether the partner has taken appropriate account of DFAT’s policies on gender equality.

Multilateral Performance Assessments, conducted every three years, assess the performance of key multilateral partners in relation to core funding provided by DFAT.
MPAs assess whether the programs of a multilateral body align with Australia’s priorities, including whether it has effective policies and programs to promote gender equality and empower women and girls.

Also applies to humanitarian assistance.

Release Public Public Internal - shared with implementing partner.

Results reported cumulatively in relevant APPRs Internal – shared with multilateral organisation Results reported Performance of Australian Aid report.
4 http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Pages/aid-program-performance-reports.aspx Supplementary Submission 11 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Performance report Periodic strategic evaluations by the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE)5 Aid Quality Checks (AQCs) Humanitarian Response Aid Quality Checks (HAQCs) Independent operational evaluation6 Consideration of gender equality ODE monitors the performance of the Australian aid program, including humanitarian assistance, evaluates its impact and contributes to international evidence and debate about aid and development effectiveness.
ODE evaluations of programs and sectors consider gender equality as a cross-cutting theme.

ODE also conducts evaluations focussed specifically on the gender equality work of the aid program.

Annual assessments of individual aid investments, valued over $3 million.

Gender equality is one of the eight assessment criteria (see section below).

Humanitarian Response Aid Quality Checks differ slightly to other AQCs to reflect the nature of humanitarian responses.
Gender equality is one of nine assessment criteria.

Measures to prevent and respond to gender based violence are also considered as part of the protection criteria.

Evaluation of an individual aid investment valued over $10 million conducted once per life of an aid investment.

This must consider whether the aid investment responded to gender equality and how well this was done.

Independent evaluations also apply to humanitarian assistance.
Release Public Internal Results reported cumulatively in relevant APPRs Internal Public Assessment criteria DFAT uses Aid Quality Checks (AQCs) to assess how well aid investments are performing during implementation and strengthen management and performance of investments.

It is mandatory to complete an AQC for all investments with a total value over $3 million, except for investments of an administrative nature or for core contributions to multilateral organisations.
Investments are required to be rated against the following criteria: 1.

Relevance – Is this still the right thing to do?

2.

Effectiveness – Are we achieving the results that we expected at this point in time?

3.

Efficiency – Is the investment making appropriate use of Australia’s and our partners’ time and resources to achieve outcomes?

4.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) – Is the M&E system generating credible information and using it for program improvement, learning and accountability?

5.
5.

Sustainability – Will the benefits last?

5 http://dfat.gov.au/aid/how-we-measure-performance/ode/Pages/the-office-of-development-effectiveness.aspx 6 http://dfat.gov.au/aid/how-we-measure-performance/ode/odepublications/Pages/operational-evaluations.aspx 12 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission 6.
Gender equality – Is the investment making a difference to gender equality and empowering women and girls?

7.

Risk management and safeguards – How is risk being managed?

8.

Innovation and private sector Results In 2014, DFAT reported on Aggregate Development Results (ADRs) and, with sex-disaggregated data, was able to highlight results that specifically address women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Aggregate Development Results Number of women survivors of violence receiving services such as counselling 2011-12 14,855 2012-13 24,772 2013-14 66,349 Additional births attended by a skilled birth attendant 232,925 304,934 Number of additional girls enrolled in school 240,592 498,332 Number of additional women and girls with increased access to basic sanitation 167,679 512,846 889,067 446,289 311,654 Number of additional poor women able to access social transfers Number of women awarded tertiary scholarships Number of women and girls provided with disability services like prostheses and assistive technology Number of women and girls with increased access to safe water Number of women and girls with increased knowledge of safe hygiene practices Number of poor women who gain access to agricultural technologies Number of poor women who increase their access to financial services Number of poor women with access to increased incomes Number of female school officials trained Number of female teachers trained Number of female public servants trained Number of female students provided with additional financial or nutritional support Number of girls vaccinated Number of vulnerable women and girls provided with lifesaving assistance in conflict and crisis situations 534,366 3,711,009 1,806,752 1,015 579 2,236 57,589 2,325 52,381 93,272 240,562 759,304 523,046 634,790 823,016 70,067 299,412 216,118 19,319 82,782 255,242 29,707 52,876 140,017 38 526 - 10,159 17,659 76,167 7,593 33,738 20,872 188,179 213,739 117,878 - - 33,979 62,248 1,675,834 3,726,581 The Aggregate Development Results have included the percentage of representatives on water and sanitation management committees that are women, this indicator will not be collected in future.
Source: DFAT Results Bank, 2014 Supplementary Submission 13 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission These results show that over time, more programs have collected and reported on sex-disaggregated data.

There is also degree of variation that reflects the fact that programs at different stages of development and implementation.

Further detail would be required to ensure valid comparison can be made.
Due to limitations on availability of sex-disaggregated data, the figures are unlikely to fully capture the support provided to women and girls, for example, in 2013-14 over 2.3 million children were vaccinated with the support of the Australian aid program.

This is still an issue that requires attention.

For 2014-15 these ADRs have been reviewed to align with the government’s development policy agenda and streamline collection and quality assurance processes.
Future Performance of Australian Aid reports will reflect this.
Number of women survivors of violence receiving services: Aggregated Development Results Results Program Australian NGO Cooperation Program Bangladesh Cambodia Fiji Nepal Pacific Regional Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands Sri Lanka Sub-Saharan Africa Timor-Leste UNHCR Vanuatu Total Source: DFAT Aggregate Development Results by Indicator 2011-12 966 2012-13 9,243 - 239 2,697 - - 3,244 284 63 2,832 505 - 4,055 14,885 - - 2,098 100 - 6,289 286 350 1,132 1,349 - 3,925 24,772 2013-14 19,746 811 479 791 - 715 5,946 282 326 3,950 1,582 27,784 3,737 66,349 In 2013-14, the results on access to services for women survivors of violence came from 11 country programs,7 with highest results coming from investments in Papua New Guinea, Sub-Saharan Africa, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu, as well as two of DFAT’s global programs, Australia NGO Cooperation Program and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
There have been significant improvements in these ratings over the last three years.

This is a result of programs supporting new investments addressed at eliminating 7 This result was reported by the following programs: Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP), Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Nepal, Pacific Regional, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sub Saharan Africa, Timor Leste, United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Vanuatu.
14 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission violence against women, and an improvement in the ability of health sector investments to report on this indicator.
Supplementary Submission 15 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Number of additional births attended by a skilled birth attendant: Aggregated Development Results Results Program Afghanistan Australian NGO Cooperation Program Bangladesh Cambodia Fiji Indonesia Myanmar Nauru Nepal Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines Samoa Solomon Islands Sub-Saharan Africa Timor-Leste Vanuatu 2011-12 - 2,186 146,660 15,704 949 41,176 3,502 123 4,578 - 9,691 - 233 4,558 449 1,945 1,171 2012-13 283 18,180 98,859 17,502 1,282 34,051 5,725 150 4,704 62,058 19,823 229 407 4,650 32,460 2,572 1,999 2013-14 - 74,204 574,184 10,450 - 97,419 5,439 - 6,924 33,818 9,150 - - 5,508 71,972 - - Total* 232,925 304,934 889,067 Source: DFAT Aggregate Development Results by Indicator.
The number of additional births attended by a skilled birth attendant recorded in the Aggregated Development Results increased in 2011-12 from 233,925 to 889,067 in 2013-14.

The greatest increase was seen in Bangladesh.


16 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Education and Health During DFAT’s appearance before the Committee on 15 May 2015, the Committee asked DFAT to provide further information relating to support for girls’ education through the aid program.
This section also provides information on support for women’s health, as a major issue in delivering women’s rights.

DFAT’s first submission (Attachment A) to the Committee provided advice on our approach to the three priority areas of women’s leadership, women’s economic empowerment and ending violence against women.

As such, this information is not repeated here.

Education and health are critical to improving livelihoods, enabling poor people to participate in the economy and lifting living standards.
They are identified as an investment priority for the Australian aid program in the aid policy, Australian aid: promoting prosperity, reducing poverty, enhancing stability.

In addition to being a human right, access to education and health services can improve women’s and girls’ ability to participate actively in their communities and contribute to the economic growth of their countries.
Supporting women’s and girls’ right to education Education empowers women and girls, men and boys to lift themselves out of poverty.

Education helps create informed and engaged citizens who are able to contribute to their communities.

Educating girls and reducing the gender gap promotes democracy and participation of women and girls in decision-making processes.
Globally, the number of girls not in primary school halved between 1999 and 2010, while the number of teenage girls out of school fell by over a third.

Despite this, 32 million adolescent girls are not in secondary school and another 31 million girls are out of primary school.

While 69 per cent of countries are expected to have reached gender parity in primary schools by the end of 2015, only 48 per cent of countries are projected to achieve parity in secondary education.
So the progress that has been made is not progress enough.

Girls face sexual violence, harassment and discrimination at school (and while travelling to and from school) which can prevent them from continuing their education.

Prevailing community attitudes can also act as a barrier where religious and cultural values deter parents from sending their daughters to school or allowing them to progress beyond primary education.
Girls in conflict-affected areas, those with disabilities and those living in rural areas face compounding and significant barriers to participating in education.

That is why education is identified as a priority of the Australian aid program.
Investments in education for women and girls contribute to some of the highest returns of all development assistance, including reduced rates of maternal mortality, better educated and healthier Supplementary Submission 17 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission children, and increased household incomes.
World Bank studies have concluded that an extra year of education beyond the average boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10–20 per cent8.

The Australian aid program supports investments in better quality education, enabling young people, including girls and those with a disability, to gain knowledge and skills to contribute productively to society.
This includes investing in programs which address barriers to education, particularly for girls, and improve participation and learning outcomes for children and adolescents.

The aid program supports quality education for girls across the region, including building and renovating facilities, and improving availability and access to community-based schools, so that more girls can go to school closer to home.
In 2014-15, investments in early childhood development, primary, secondary and tertiary education (including technical and vocational training) included:         supporting teacher training and improved learning assessment in, for example, the Pacific, Indonesia and Philippines investing in school construction in disadvantaged regions in, for example, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea increasing opportunities for girls to learn, for example, in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia supporting technical education, skills development and training aligned with labour market needs in, for example, East Timor and Vanuatu supporting inclusion of children with a disability in education in, for example, Fiji and Samoa supporting regional stability through increased access to education in conflict-affected areas, for example, in Burma, Mindanao, Afghanistan investing in research and innovative approaches with the private sector and civil society to improve access, reach and learning outcomes at a global level through, for example, the Australian Centre for Educational Research and All Children Reading partnerships strengthening the management and accountability of education policies and systems globally, to ensure the sustainability of our investments, for example, in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and through partnerships with the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education.
Supporting women’s and girls’ right to health Health is critical to improving livelihoods, enabling poor people to participate in the economy, and lifting living standards.

The Australian aid program invests in health—particularly 8 See Herz, Barbara and Gene Sperling.

2004.

What works in girls’ education: evidence and policies for the developing world.

New York: Council on Foreign Relations.

Psacharopoulos, George and Harry Anthony Patrinos.

2004.
2004.

Returns to investment in education: a further update.

Education Economics 12(2): 111-134.

18 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission strengthening health systems—so that women, men and children can achieve better health and live healthy and productive lives.

Many countries in the Indo-Pacific still have poor health indicators.
30 per cent of the global burden of maternal deaths and 40 per cent of child deaths occur in our region.

In countries such as Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Laos, over 40 per cent of children under five are stunted.

In the Pacific, it is estimated that 75 per cent of premature deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases.
Poor sanitation leads to around 700,000 premature deaths globally each year, with more than 1.5 million children dying each year as a result of diarrhoeal disease—the second leading cause of deaths for children under five.

Australia invests in health, particularly health systems, so that women, men and children can achieve better health and live healthy and productive lives.
Australia’s investments in health are an investment in the economic prosperity, poverty reduction and financial protection of our region.

Healthier adults are more able to work and children free of disease are better able to learn at school and gain the skills needed to break out of poverty.
On 15 June 2015, the Australian Government launched the Health for Development Strategy 2015-2020,9 which provides guidance for DFAT policy engagement and investment decisions in health for development to promote prosperity and economic growth.

The focus is on strengthening country-level health systems tailored to people’s needs, and regional health security to ensure effective regional solutions to trans-boundary health threats.
The strategy sets out the importance of our investments in health contributing to empowering women and girls.

This includes addressing the financial, social, and cultural barriers for women, children, poor people, and people with a disability, to access essential health services.

A priority will be to empower communities to demand better health services and to address women’s lack of decision-making power at household and community levels.
The strategy identifies a range of ways in which the Australian aid program will contribute to improving women’s and girls’ access to health services, including:   influencing behaviour change around gender, nutrition, and hygiene and supporting women’s leadership in health governance and accountability measures as a priority; strengthening civil society organisations that can be active partners and provide women’s voice in holding authorities to account for quality, accessible services;  ensuring that nutrition investments embed gender equality measures in order to respond to the disproportionate effects of poor nutrition on women and girls in many countries; and  supporting access to sustainable clean water and sanitation, including through addressing affordability issues for women and girls, in order to support economic growth and gender equality in rural and urban areas, especially in small and medium-sized towns.
9 Available online at http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Pages/health-for-development-strategy-2015-2020.aspx Supplementary Submission 19 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Additional resources Additional reports evaluating aspects of Australia’s aid program from a gender perspective Smart Economics: Evaluation of Australian aid support for women’s economic empowerment http://dfat.gov.au/aid/how-we-measure-performance/ode/odepublications/Pages/smart- economics.aspx Violence against women in Melanesia and East Timor: Building on Global and Regional Promising Approaches Report by former AusAID’s Office of Development Effectiveness which highlights promising approaches to ending Violence Against Women (VAW) across the region and proposes an Action Plan for all countries studied (East Timor, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu).
http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Pages/violence-against-women-in-melanesia-and- east-timor-building-on-global-and-regional-promising-approaches.aspx Stop Violence: Responding to Violence against women in Melanesia and East Timor This publication sets out Australia’s priorities and actions to prevent and reduce violence against women in Melanesia and East Timor.

Report prepared in response to former AusAID’s Office of Development Effectiveness report.
Violence against Women in Melanesia and Timor-Leste This report builds on an earlier report published in 2008 by the Office of Development Effectiveness of former AusAID, titled Violence Against Women in Melanesia and East Timor: Building on Global and Regional Promising Approaches.
http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Pages/violence-against-women-in-melanesia-and- timor-leste.aspx Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development – website, http://www.pacificwomen.org/ - PacificWomen.org is a website developed under the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women) to improve information sharing on gender equality in the Pacific region.
The website operates as an information portal for individuals and organisations to share and access information including news, innovative activities and analysis on responses to gender in equality in the Pacific region.
20 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Research and prevalence surveys on violence against women The Australian aid program has provided support for research, including the conduct of 10 national prevalence surveys on violence against women in the Pacific.
This research has been supported to improve the evidence base for partner governments, regional organisations and NGOs working to support survivors of violence against women.
Secretariat of the Pacific Community, 2009, Solomon Islands Family Health and Safety Study: A study on violence against women and children, http://www.spc.int/hdp/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=39&Itemid=44 Secretariat of the Pacific Community, 2010, Kiribati Family Health and Support Study: A study on violence against women and children, http://www.spc.int/hdp/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=89&Itemid=44 Vanuatu Women’s Centre, 2011, Vanuatu National Survey on Women’s Lives and Family Relationships, http://www.pacificwomen.org/resources/reports/vanuatu-womens-centre- overview-on-vaw/ Ma’a Fafine mo e Famili, 2012, National Study on Domestic Violence on Women in Tonga 2009, http://www.pacificwomen.org/resources/research/national-study-on-domestic-violence- on-women-in-tonga/ Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, 2013, Somebody’s life, everybody’s business!
National Research on Women’s Health and Life Experiences in Fiji (2010/11): A survey exploring the prevalence, incidence and attitudes to intimate partner violence in Fiji, www.fijiwomen.com Ministry of Health, Cook Islands, 2014, Te Ata O Te Ngakau - Shadows of the Heart: The Cook Islands Family Health and Safety Study, http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/pacific/?publications=12037 Republic of Marshall Islands, Ministry of Internal Affairs, 2014, Republic of the Marshall Islands National Study on Family Health and Safety: Dāpij Aenōmman Eo Ilo Mōko Imōd, http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/pacific/?publications=12038 Nauru Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Women’s Affairs, 2014, Nauru Family Health and Support Study: An exploratory study on violence against women, http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/pacific/?publications=12039 Palau Ministry of Health, 2014, Belau Family Health and Safety Study: National Research Project on Violence Against Women in Palau, http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/pacific/?publications=12040 FSM Department of Health and Social Affairs, 2014, Federated States of Micronesia Family Health and Safety Study: A prevalence study on violence against women, http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/pacific/?publications=12041 Jill Astbury and Fareen Walji, 2013, Triple Jeopardy: Gender-based violence and human rights violations experienced by women with disabilities in Cambodia, https://www.iwda.org.au/resource/report-triple-jeopardy/ Supplementary Submission 21 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Fulu, Warner, Miedema, Jewkes, Roselli and Lang, 2013, Why Do Some Men Use Violence Against Women and How Can We Prevent It?
Quantitative Findings from the United Nations Multi-country Study on Mena and Violence in Asia and the Pacific, http://www.partners4prevention.org/resource/why-do-some-men-use-violence-against-women- and-how-can-we-prevent-it-quantitative-findings UN Women, 2013, The costs of violence.
Understanding the costs of violence against women and girls and its response: selected findings and lessons learned from Asia and the Pacific, http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/~/media/Field%20Office%20ESEAsia/Docs/Publications/201 4/1/UNW_The_Costs_of_Violence_FINAL%20pdf.pdf Links to OECD DAC publications on gender equality The OECD has produced a range of publications which analyse the international situation of ODA targeted at gender equality and women’s empowerment: - Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness: Issues Brief No 2: Finding the Entry Points (www.oecd.org/dac/gender- development/41050659.pdf) - - Findings from the Gender Equality Module of the 2011 Paris Declaration Monitoring Survey (www.oecd.org/dac/gender-development/49014760.pdf) From ambition to results: Delivering on gender equality in donor institutions (http://www.oecd.org/dac/gender- development/fromambitiontoresultsdeliveringongenderequalityindonorinstitutions.htm) - Aid in Support of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/aidinsupportofgenderequalityandwomensempowerme nt.htm) Printed copies of these reports have been provided to the Committee Secretariat.
Summary of key and useful human rights and gender equality documents World Bank, 2012, World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development, http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/EXTWDR20 12/0,,contentMDK:22999750~menuPK:8154981~pagePK:64167689~piPK:64167673~theS itePK:7778063,00.html – Flagship report of the World Bank, produced annually with a different theme/focus for each report.
World Bank, 2012, Toward Gender Equality in East Asia and the Pacific: A Companion to the World Development Report, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/12598 - Companion report to the 2012 World Development Report, focussing in more detail on East Asia and the Pacific.
22 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission UN Women, 2015, Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016: Transforming economies, realizing rights, http://progress.unwomen.org/en/2015/download/index.html#report – Flagship report of UN Women, produced biennially with a different theme/focus for each report.

This report focuses on women’s economic empowerment.
Previous reports have focussed on women’s access to justice, gender equality and the Millennium Development Goals, and accountability of systems to women.

Data sets with key indicators for countries where Australia works OECD, Social Institutions and Gender Index, http://genderindex.org - The OECD’s cross-country measure of discrimination against women in social institutions across 160 countries.
World Bank, 2013, The Little Data Book on Gender 2013, http://data.worldbank.org/products/data-books/little-data-book-on-gender - Provides sex- disaggregated data for more than 200 economies on demography, education, health, labor force, political participation and the Millennium Development Goals.
Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) Program, http://www.dhsprogram.com/topics/gender- Corner/index.cfm - The DHS Program provides indicators of gender inequality, women’s empowerment and gender norms using statistics collected through DHS.

This has included conducting the DHS Domestic Violence Module in over 25 countries and the DHS Female Genital Cutting Module in 23 countries.

Using this data, the DHS Program has produced a range of country-based and international reports.
http://www.dhsprogram.com/Publications/Publication- Search.cfm?newSrch=1&srchTp=advanced&topic=21&tnm=Gender United Nations Statistical Division, Gender Statistics, http://genderstats.org/ - a database of gender statistics by country, based on 52 quantitative indicators that have been agreed by the UN Statistical Commission as a minimum set of gender indicators for national production and international compilation.
Approaches to promoting gender equality of other donors Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, http://www.international.gc.ca/rights- droits/women-femmes/equality-egalite.aspx?lang=eng Irish Aid, https://www.irishaid.ie/what-we-do/our-priority-areas/gender-equality/ United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/women-and-girls-in-developing-countries United States Agency for International Development (USAID) - http://www.usaid.gov/what-we- do/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment Supplementary Submission 23 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Examples of gender equality programs Below are details of a number of programs which either are principally focussed on gender equality or are demonstrating good gender mainstreaming practice.
These are provided to illustrate the kind of work that is being done through the Australian aid program to promote gender equality and support women’s empowerment and rights.

Given that the majority of aid programs effectively integrate gender equality considerations, providing an exhaustive summary of all programs relevant to the human rights of women and girls will not be possible.
24 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women) Countries of implementation: all 14 Pacific Island Forum countries Dates: 2012 – 2022 Investment: AUD320 million Partner Organisation/s: Pacific governments; civil society organisations; the private sector; and multilateral, regional and United Nations agencies.
In the Pacific region, women and girls face significant challenges.

Women make up less than four per cent of parliamentarians (the lowest rate in the world), compared to a global average of around 20 per cent.

Across the Pacific, men outnumber women in paid employment outside the agricultural sector by approximately two to one and women occupy only a third of formal sector jobs.

More than 60 per cent of women in some Pacific island countries have experienced physical or sexual violence.
Australia announced the $320 million ten year (2012-2022) Pacific Women program at the Pacific Island Leaders’ Forum in August 2012 to support the Pacific Leaders’ Gender Equality Declaration.

The Declaration commits leaders to a set of policy actions which directly aim to promote gender equality within the region.

Pacific Women supports improved political, economic and social opportunities of Pacific women across 14 Pacific Island Forum countries.
Pacific Women works with Pacific governments; civil society organisations; the private sector; and multilateral, regional and United Nations agencies to:  increase the effective representation of women, and women’s interests, through leadership at all levels of decision-making;  expand women’s economic opportunities to earn an income and accumulate economic assets; and  reduce violence against women and increase access to support services and to justice for survivors of violence An Advisory Board comprising prominent Pacific women and men guides the initiative.
Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls is an observer.

An independent evaluation of Pacific Women will be undertaken in mid-late 2016.

Outcomes/effectiveness Pacific Women closely aligns with Australian Government’s strong commitment to be at the forefront of efforts to empower women and promote gender equality in the Pacific region.

Since its launch in August 2012, approximately $53 million has been spent through a combination of bilateral and regional funds.
Country plans have been developed to guide program implementation in most of the 14 Pacific Island Forum countries - in close consultation with Pacific women and men, their organisations and national governments.

The total value of the country plans finalised to date is approximately $108 million, comprising around 80 activities.

[Country plans for Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and Tuvalu are being finalised, while a plan for Niue has not yet been developed.
PNG has finalised its second country plan.]

All 14 countries have received some form of support to date.

Supplementary Submission 25 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Pacific governments’ ownership of the gender equality agenda is evidenced by the recent introduction in a number of countries of legislation to criminalise domestic violence and provide greater protection for women (e.g.
Tonga, Kiribati, Samoa and Solomon Islands); reserved seats for women at the national level in Samoa and at provincial/municipal levels in Vanuatu and Bougainville; and governments’ commitments to assess and strengthen gender mainstreaming across all government programs, demonstrated through work with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) to progress gender stocktakes.
Examples of initiatives funded by Pacific Women include: Women’s economic empowerment  The UN Women Markets for Change program aims to improve infrastructure and management of produce markets in Fiji, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands so women have a safer place to work and can participate equally in local economies.

First year benchmarks included: 431 market vendors (91per cent women) participated in workshops held in 10 markets (six in Fiji, two in Solomon Islands, two in Vanuatu).
Market Vendor Associations (MVAs) were established or revived in all markets, including executive committees with strong women’s representation: MVA membership increased from 585 to 950 (73 per cent women) in Fiji with equal women and men’s representation in committees; membership of two new MVAs in Solomon Islands is 250 (90 per cent women), with 74 per cent of committee positions held by women (including President roles); and Vanuatu’s two MVA committees have women in four of the five positions, including as President.
166 women were trained in financial literacy in Suva Market.

Gender sensitive market infrastructure standards were developed and four councils in Fiji submitted cost-share infrastructure proposals for improved market spaces for women.
 Partnering with the Asian Development Bank to reduce barriers and improve economic opportunities for women, includes activities to simplify the process to register companies and a pilot program in Solomon Islands to equip women with the technical skills necessary to start a solar maintenance business and assist them to form a business, open a bank account and enter into contracts for supply of their services.
Women’s leadership  The Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships Program (PWPP) facilitates dialogue, mentoring and training between Australian and Pacific Islands women MPs and parliamentary staff to improve the capacities of parliaments to address gender equality issues.

Evidence of progress against benchmarks of improved women MP’s effectiveness and an enabling environment for Pacific women’s political participation is emerging.
For example, Pacific women MPs are reporting that they are feeling more resourced and confident to advocate for gender equality issues through opportunities to share information and learn from each other, including their Australian counterparts, through activities such as the PWPP annual forum and MP exchanges.
Pacific parliaments are demonstrating increased commitment to integrating gender issues into parliamentary processes: following a retreat with clerks from 12 parliaments in August 2014, a gender equality learning program was developed for parliamentarians and their staff and piloted at the 2015 PWPP regional forum held in Fiji in April 2015.
26 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission  Work with the Pacific Leadership Program (PLP) aims to strengthen women’s leadership and women’s groups and coalitions to work politically to influence change and demand better policies and programs.
PLP is working with recipients from a Prevention of Family Violence program in Solomon Islands to form coalitions for collective action to lobby for institutional changes.

PLP and Pacific Women are also working closely in Vanuatu with the Women in Shared Decision Making coalition to roll out support to municipal level commitments to reserve seats for women in the next round of elections.
Reducing violence against women (VAW)  Targeted programs to support the survivors of domestic violence are underway in PNG, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

For example, in Tonga in 2014, 500 women and children received support services (counselling, health, legal) provided by the Women’s and Children’s Crisis Centre.

 In the Republic of Marshall Islands and Nauru, advisers are assisting to design domestic violence crisis services and improve the health sector responses to domestic violence.
 Work with church leaders from four of the five main churches across 30 communities in Solomon Islands (targeting 10,000 women and men) aims to change attitudes and behaviours on violence against women.

Strengthening organisational capacity to deliver gender equality outcomes:  Supporting partner governments to develop gender responsive programs across all sectors is the goal of a five-year Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) program.
Stocktakes of government capacity to mainstream gender equality and women’s empowerment issues inform the development of gender policies and implementation plans.

The investment also strengthens the collection and analysis of data to better track outcomes.
In the period 2012 to 2014, SPC undertook stocktakes in Kiribati, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu, Fiji and Nauru; developed a capacity building strategy for gender mainstreaming in Solomon Islands; trained 20 gender focal points in Solomon Islands on gender analysis; and trained 20 national women’s machineries and civil society organisations (from 10 countries) on gender and climate change and sustainable development  Providing a gender adviser to work with the Division of Women in Tonga supports implementation of the government’s Gender and Development Policy (GAD) implementation, including training for the GAD National Advisory Committee.
  The provision of policy and technical support, including funding for three project officer positions, to the Ministry of Women, Youth and Social Affairs, Kiribati supports implementation of the government’s National Plan to Eliminate Sexual and Gender-based Violence.

In response to a recommendation from the 12th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women, technical support was provided to SPC to review the Pacific Revised Platform for Action for the Advancement of Women and Gender Equality (2005-15).
The report, with governments for consideration (June 2015), will inform the forward agenda, structure and processes for regional gender equality.

Supplementary Submission 27 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Policy dialogue Pacific Women is also a key mechanism to take forward the Government’s foreign policy commitments to engage with women leaders in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Ambassador for Women and Girls, Ms Natasha Stott Despoja, has hosted two dialogues with Pacific women leaders.

 Over 30 women parliamentarians and senior government officials attended the Pacific Women Policy Makers’ Dialogue in Tonga in July 2014, to identify strategies to improve women’s leadership.
 Over 20 representatives from the private sector and civil society met in Fiji in November 2014 to discuss the role of the business community in addressing violence against women and supporting survivors.

Research Evidence of what works to address gender inequality in the Pacific context is limited.

An enabling strategy for Pacific Women is to build the knowledge and evidence base of what works, does not work and lessons learned in addressing gender equality in the Pacific context.
Pacific Women is partnering with a range of stakeholders to strengthen the evidence base.
Current research includes:   the success factors and pathways to women’s leadership and decision-making at political and community levels (State, Society and Governance in Melanesia-SSGM); the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and violence against women (SSGM);  gendered perspective of evaluation of the Seasonal Migration Scheme (World Bank); and  research on women’s leadership and civil society/coalitions in the Pacific (Development Leadership Program).
28 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Pacific Regional Ending Violence against Women Facility Fund Countries: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu (part of Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development).
Dates: 2010 – 18 Investment: AUD6,737,600 Partner Organisation/s: UN Women Women and girls in the Pacific face among the highest levels of violence in the world: 60 percent of women and girls in a number of Pacific island countries have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member.

To respond to growing numbers of survivors of violence, UN Women established a dedicated Pacific Regional Ending Violence against Women Facility Fund (‘The Fund’) in March 2009.
The Fund is specifically designed to support services led by Pacific Islands States (PICs) and civil society organisations in Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.
The Fund adopts a practical and systemic approach to preventing and ending violence against women in the Pacific , through a focus on: i) preventing violence against women and girls ii) expanding access to services for survivors; and iii) advocacy and lobbying for legislative and policy change and implementation.
Through a competitive selection process, the Fund provides grants, technical assistance and training and capacity development to departments of PICs and civil society organisations aimed to scale up initiatives at the regional, national and local level.
Types of capacity development support can include:   in-country technical assistance is provided by Help Desk personnel; technical training on: - - - preventing and ending violence against women; advocacy and lobbying for legislative and policy change (with Regional Rights Resource Team); project and organisation management services and responses; and  facilitating grantee participation in the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre’s Regional Training Programme on gender-responsive approaches to ending violence against women.
The Fund is strongly aligned with the Australian Government’s commitment to end violence against women in the Pacific as a central focus of empowering women and girls in Australia’s development and diplomatic interventions.

An independent evaluation will be undertaken in mid-late 2015.

Outcomes/effectiveness Since 2009, 42 grants have been authorised, committing almost $1.8 million to a diverse range of government departments and civil society organisations across seven Pacific Island countries.
These projects have already reached more than 175,000 people, 90 per cent of whom live in rural areas and more than 28,000 of whom are violence survivors.
Between 2014-15, up to 8,144 survivors of violence in Fiji, PNG, Samoa and the Solomon Islands Supplementary Submission 29 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission accessed post-rape care, referrals, legal assistance, shelters and emergency hotlines services provided by grantees.
From 2009 to 2013, 88 people were funded to undertake training provided by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre human rights approaches to ending violence against women and quality service delivery for survivors of violence.

Examples of activities include the following.

 The Vanuatu Christian Council has been funded to provide training on gender-based violence to clergy, and is actively supporting its 23 member churches in developing gender responsive policies and programs on violence against women.
 Another faith-based organisation, House of Sarah, is using its grant to target male church leaders and clergy in an effort to change their behaviour and perceptions.

Run by the Anglican Diocese of Polynesia, House of Sarah already provides counselling to women survivors of violence as well as community education in its parishes throughout Fiji.

 For Tonga’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, the focus is on implementing the Gender Equality Policy and Family Protection Act, which was passed in 2013.
Police, justice and health providers will receive training on their roles in implementing the legislation, and the project will also engage with communities around building respectful relationships in families.

30 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission PNG Gender Equality/Gender Based Violence Program Countries: Papua New Guinea (part of Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development).
Dates: 30 December 2008 – 30 June 2020 Investment: AUD72.8 million Partner Organisation/s: Government of PNG agencies including the Department of Community Development; the Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee; Eastern Highlands Provincial Health Authority; Oxfam Australia; Family Health International; UN Women; UNICEF; International Women’s Development Agency and Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation; UNDP; State, Society and Governance in Melanesia; and the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation.
The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Gender Equality/Gender Based Violence Program is the PNG component of the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development Program (Pacific Women), with support focused on enhancing:  women’s voice in decision-making, leadership and peace-building;  women’s economic empowerment; and  ending violence against women and girls.
The program funds a number of activities; supports Post’s public diplomacy agenda; and also assists other sector programs (such as health, education and law and justice) to achieve stronger outcomes in gender equality.
Outcomes/effectiveness: In December 2014, Australia’s Foreign Minister, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, and PNG’s Minister for Religion, Youth and Community Development, Delilah Gore, announced the second Pacific Women PNG Country Plan - $55 million over five years to promote gender equality in PNG.

This plan was subsequently signed off by Australia’s High Commissioner and Minister Gore in April 2015.

The PNG gender program has helped to advance the interests of women and girls in a number of ways.
In enhancing women’s voice in decision-making, leadership and peace-building, at the local government level, Australia has supported women’s active participation in decision-making about grants to reduce poverty and increase stability within Bougainville.

The program is called Inclusive Development in Bougainville.

Women’s groups apply for funds for local community projects (e.g.
building water supply and sanitation facilities; resource centres, local markets) and then manage the completion of the programs.

Over 80 activities spread across every district have been completed on time with no leakage of funds.

This program, delivered through the World Bank, has demonstrated that channeling community grants through women helps strengthen their socio-political voice and agency within their communities.
Twenty of the 31 women who recently ran for Parliament in Bougainville elections, identified as active participants within this program.
In promoting women’s economic empowerment, Australia has designed a variety of initiatives within the private sector to support, for example, mentoring female business leaders; integrating a gender perspective into the product design and market research processes of financial institutions; improving women’s financial literacy, and increasing their access to Supplementary Submission 31 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission finance and safe banking services.
Through Pacific Women, a program to increase women’s access to profit through the coffee industry has opened up cash-cropping opportunities in the Eastern Highlands through a partnership with CARE and the PNG Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC).

Five coffee industry partners are now providing technical extension services to women farmers, not just men farmers, with 1,523 people (369 women, 1,154 men) trained on gender equity and diversity, family business management, and training and facilitation skills.
This has increased women’s meaningful participation in coffee farming.

Another highlight is the program’s support for UN Women’s Safe Cities Program, which is improving safety for women in Port Moresby’s produce markets so they can trade without fear of sexual and other physical violence.

Over 5,000 kina per week is now saved by women venders in Gerehu Market, through linking the Microfinance Bank to a newly-formed vendor’s association.
A district Member of Parliament has copied the design of the UN-funded Gerehu Market and has rebuilt Koki market with the same model.

The Bougainville and Gender Programs have worked together to develop a Bougainville Pacific Women Gender Investment Plan 2014-19, agreed in 2014 by Autonomous Bougainville Government which will see $14 million over five years dedicated to improving gender equality in Bougainville.
In ending violence against women and girls, Australia has provided targeted support to address the multi-dimensional aspects of family and sexual violence prevention and response, from national policy development through to service delivery for survivors.
This has included: strengthening the national legal and policy framework (for example the Family Protection Act, Sorcery Act reforms); improving the Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee; promoting attitude and behavior change through mass media campaigns; community-level advocacy and men’s advocacy networks; and improving women’s access to legal, counselling, health and refuge services.

The program has also pioneered a Family and Sexual Violence Policy for High Commission staff.
The program recently completed a gender stock-take of all gender equality activities being undertaken across the PNG program.

The stock-take and its associated action plan will help direct and strengthen Australia’s efforts towards gender equality in PNG.
32 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Femili PNG: The Lae Case Management Centre Countries: Papua New Guinea (part of PNG Gender Equality/Gender Based Violence Program, which is part of Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development).
Dates: 5 June 2014 – 30 June 2017 Investment: AUD3 million Partner Organisation/s: Femili PNG, Oxfam, Australian National University Violence against women and children in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is epidemic.

More than 90 per cent of women in Morobe Province (of which Lae is the capital) report suffering violence.

Opened in July 2014, the Lae Case Management Centre works directly with survivors of violence, both women and children.
The Centre is run by Femili PNG, a local PNG non-government organisation, and is supported by Oxfam Australia and the Australian National University.

Clients are referred to the Centre by other service providers, such as health clinics, the police or the courts.

Case management can include the following.

 Referrals: if a client needs medical attention, they will be referred to a local medical provider.

If they need access to safe accommodation, a Case Worker can help to arrange this.
If they need legal advice, or to seek a protection order from the police, they will be supported through the process.

 Case conferences: the Centre can bring together a range of stakeholders in Lae to hold a case conference to ensure the best outcomes for clients with challenging or complex cases.

 Relocation: For some clients who want to leave a situation of violence, relocation or family reunification is the best option.

More details below.
More details below.

 Advocacy for clients: if a client has not been able to achieve the outcome that they were hoping for through the justice system or from police, Case Workers can advocate on their behalf for a better outcome.

Other support provided by the centre can include emergency accommodation and transport.
Outcomes/effectiveness: The number of clients for the Centre are growing, and it is now well above its target of 25 cases a month (with over 60 new cases admitted in February and over 40 in March 2015).

From July 2014 to March 2015, the Centre received 243 new clients, 226 female and 17 male, with 18 per cent under the age of 18.
The Centre has also exceeded its target of 280 high-risk clients receiving more complex case management and referral support on an annual basis, with 208 complex cases in the first nine months, with an increasing trend.

The Centre faces some challenges, including an increasing case load, a problematic security situation in Lae, provision of support to child survivors of sexual violence, and some delays in obtaining Interim Protection Orders.
Although it is too early to conduct an independent evaluation, the evidence to date suggests that the Centre is exceeding expectations and providing an effective service to help women and children survivors of family and sexual violence get the services they need.
Supplementary Submission 33 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission PNG Oxfam Repatriation and Reintegration Program Countries: Papua New Guinea (part of PNG Gender Equality/Gender Based Violence Program, which is part of Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development).
Dates: 30 May 2014 – 30 June 2015 Investment: AUD446,000 Partner Organisation/s: Oxfam Australia The Oxfam Repatriation and Reintegration Program provides a service for women, men and children survivors of extreme violence, including sorcery related and family and sexual violence, helping to remove them from violent situations and to settle them in another community where they can feel safe and work to re-establish their lives.
Relocation is often repatriation to a home village, but sometimes it is relocation elsewhere.

Survivors are also provided with reintegration packs once they are repatriated so they can begin their lives again.

These can include tools to work a garden to grow and sell food; household goods to re-establish their house; funds to buy school uniforms and books so children can get back into school.
This program is part of the broader Oxfam Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) Program, funded by the Australian Government, through DFAT, as part of the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development Program.

The EVAW program provides support for those subject to, or at high risk of, violence.
This support, which is provided by local partner organisations, includes providing crisis services such as counselling, safe house accommodation, paralegal advice, referrals to specialist service providers, and, in cases of extreme and direct threat to life, relocation support.

The Oxfam Repatriation and Reintegration Program is also supported by the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Outcomes/effectiveness This program is underpinned by a research report, The Long Way Home: Relocation of survivors of gender-based violence in PNG, undertaken by Oxfam from 8 May to 13 June 2014.

The report highlighted a range of measures that were needed in order to make repatriation and reintegration effective, including strengthening the networks of agencies and people involved and providing adequately resourced relocation support.
In the last reporting period (1 July to 13 November 2014), the program provided 387 clients with crisis support and repatriation services, with 295 of these clients supported by Australian funds.

The program is on-track to reach its end-of-program target of providing 670 clients with support and repatriation services.

Since its start, over 4,000 women, men and children’s lives have been saved through this program.
Demand for crisis support and repatriation is very high in the Highlands region: of the 295 clients assisted by Australia between July to November 2014, 287 were from the Highlands.

The Lae Case Management Centre supported the repatriation of eight of these clients.

During the last reporting period, the program also provided 104 adult survivors of violence with ‘start-up’ packages to help reintegrate into their new communities.
These start-up packages offer up to 1,000 kina per primary client, and on average, clients receive 685 kina.

In 2015, Oxfam will conduct a sample of the clients repatriated.

This is the opportunity to assess client progress, develop case studies, and to compare the clients’ expected and actual expatriation spending.

These findings will be provided in the project completion report.
34 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission PNG-Australia Law and Justice Partnership Countries: Papua New Guinea Dates: 30 January 2009 – 31 December 2015 Investment: Up to AUD183 million Partner Organisation/s: Papua New Guinea law and justice agencies: the police; prosecutions; national, district and village courts; legal aid; corrections; Ombudsman, and the Department of Justice and Attorney General.
Other delivery partners include the World Bank, UNICEF, Australian Federal Police, Attorney General’s Department, the Australian Ombudsman Commission and commercial contractors.

Law and justice is a priority area for Australian Government support to PNG under the PNG-Australia Partnership for Development (2008).

The PNG-Australia Law and Justice Partnership (PALJP) is currently in a transition period with a new program due to commence in January 2016.
The program focuses on four priority areas, including access to effective justice, legal protection and support services for women and others vulnerable to family and sexual violence.

Delivery mechanisms include partnership exchanges with Australian legal institutions, skills training, infrastructure development, procurement of goods and services, and technical advisory support.
Outcomes/effectiveness: Australia has had some considerable successes in advancing gender equality and addressing violence against women – though many challenges remain.

An Independent Progress Report (2012)10 identified the advancement of women’s rights in PNG as one of the ‘most impressive achievements of Australia’s support to the [PNG law and justice] sector’.

Gender equality has become a mainstream issue and backed by specific initiatives is contributing to transformational change within agencies.
The proportion of female staff and female lawyers working for the law and justice agencies has grown significantly, as have women in leadership positions.

The approximately 1,650 Village courts in PNG provide the most accessible form of justice for most of the population, and it is now PNG’s national policy to have at least one female magistrate in every village court.

Since 2004, over 1,300 female officials have been recruited.
Over time it is hoped that this should contribute to more equitable judgements for the approximately 40 per cent women complainants.
The Independent Progress Report noted that these women can also serve as role models, suggesting that PNG society may be increasingly more amenable to the professional advancement of women.11 Australian aid has supported the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) to establish 14 Family and Sexual Violence Units (FSVUs) and three Family and Sexual Violence Desks in 10 Conducted by Livingston Armytage, James Laki, and Eric Scheye, report produced 9 March 2012.

11 Ibid, Page 8.
11 Ibid, Page 8.

Supplementary Submission 35 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission police stations across PNG.

Since 2010, over 35,800 survivors of violence, mostly women, have received support from FSVUs across the country.
A UNDP Rapid Assessment (2013)12 found that ‘FSVUs represent the most up to date specialised police services introduced by the RPNGC for crimes of gender based violence’ and that many FSVUs were making efforts to meet global best practice by providing separate, discreet entrances, extended hours, private rooms and emphasis on female staff.

A review of Australian aid initiatives aimed at ending violence against women (2014)13 supported these findings.
More remains to be done in improving the resources, training and integration of these FSVUs into the RPNGC structure.

Australian support was also instrumental in the establishment of Interim Protection Orders (IPOs) in 2009, allowing survivors of family and sexual violence to seek legal protection.

In 2014, the District Court received 1,182 IPO applications, with a completion rate of 71.8 per cent (up from 67.7 per cent in 2013).
The existence of IPOs has been consistently recognised by stakeholders as a positive measure to enhance women’s protection, especially those living with the threat of domestic violence.14 The PNG Community Perception Survey 201515 found that of the respondents who had applied for IPOs, 44 per cent found them fully effective and 44 per cent partly effective.

Australia will continue to provide training and awareness on the use of IPOs for officials involved in the sector.
Australia supported the passing of the PNG Family Protection Act 2013 which for the first time creates a specific domestic violence offence.

PALJP also supported the construction of separate and secure facilities for women prisoners in Eastern Highlands and Oro Provinces.

PALJP’s support for the PNG Legal Training Institute resulted in a record number of legal practitioners graduating and being admitted in March 2015 (110), including the highest number of females since Independence (43).
12 Rapid Assessment of Institutional Readiness to Deliver Gender-Based Violence and HIV Services, launched on 8 March 2013.

13 Conducted by Stella Mukasa, Jennifer McCleary-Sills, Brian Heilman & Sophie Namy, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), finalised in 2014.

14 Review of Australian aid initiatives in the Pacific aimed at ending violence against women, conducted by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), 2014, p. 33.
15 Commissioned by the AFP and DFAT and conducted by GRM International, final report received June 2015.

36 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Solomon Islands Gender Equality Program Countries: Solomon Islands (part of Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development).
Dates: 2012 – 2016 Investment:: AUD7.5 million Partner Organisation/s: Solomon Islands Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs; Solomon Islands Women in Business Association; World Vision; Oxfam Australia; Pacific Leadership Program; Pacific Women Support Unit; Live and Learn Environmental; Save the Children.
The Solomon Islands Gender Equality Program, as part of the regional Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development program, focuses on building the capacity of Solomon Islands Government agencies and community organisations to advocate for and implement activities that prevent family violence, improve economic livelihoods for women and promote leadership opportunities.
Much of this support will come through gender mainstreaming in Australia’s significant investments in sectoral areas, particularly human development.

The program design was informed by community-wide consultations, contributing to local ownership, and works with partners across the government and non-government sectors.
Australia provides support to the Solomon Islands Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs (MWYCFA) to strengthen its corporate processes, implement the Family Protection Act 2014 and women’s economic empowerment policy, and develop a National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.
Australia supports the Solomon Islands Women in Business Association to promote and foster women’s participation in the formal and informal sectors and has funded research into the links between the economic empowerment of women and gender- based violence.

The program has a strong focus on reducing gender-based violence.

Let's Make Our Families Safe (Safe Families) is implemented by a consortium of local and international organisations.
Oxfam Australia leads the consortium working in partnership with the National Council of Women, Vois Blong Mere Solomons, International Women’s Development Agency, Pacific Leadership Program and monitoring and evaluation specialists IOD PARC.

Safe Families commenced in late 2014 and is set to be a flagship program for Solomon Islands.

It takes an innovative approach by working simultaneously at community, provincial and national levels to end family violence.
This approach increases the reach of the program and places expectations on service providers to respond to family violence.

Channels of Hope is implemented by World Vision in 30 communities in the Weather Coast of Guadalcanal Province and Temotu Province.

The program works with community and faith- based leaders to explore and reinterpret biblical teachings on roles and relationships in families with the aim of reducing family violence.
The program works in partnership with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force to reinforce messages about the laws and legal consequences of family violence.

The gender equality program is investing in monitoring, evaluation and research.

This focus is crucial to documenting lessons learnt and informing Australia’s future programming.

Opportunities for cross-learning with other programs, especially community-based activities, are being harnessed.
Supplementary Submission 37 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Outcomes/effectiveness: Australia has harnessed the momentum in Solomon Islands to address family violence and improve the status of women.

Our efforts to integrate gender into development programming have met with some success; however there is always room for improvement.
Gender will be integrated into all new program designs and existing programs will be reviewed to strengthen the gender focus.

The Gender Equality program is still in its early stages and it is reasonable to expect that the achievements to date will be modest.

Progress so far has laid the foundations for future success.

 Through technical advice provided to MWYCFA, Australia supported the draft National Policy on the Economic Status of Women and Girls.

The policy is due for launch in mid-2015.


 A recent evaluation of Channels of Hope demonstrated positive signs of change in selected communities.

  The program is coordinating Australia’s input into implementation of the Family Protection Act 2014.

The program is working across sectors to ensure a coordinated approach to support for the various members of Safenet and other service providers that respond to family and gender based-violence.
 Research into the links between women's economic empowerment and violence against women has the potential to inform well-targeted future support in this area.
38 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Countries: Fiji, with regional training components Dates: Phase 5: 2009-2015 Investment: AUD8,427,500 (a small component is part of Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development).

Partner Organisation/s: Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Violence against Women (VAW) in Fiji and the Pacific is severe and pervasive.
Research led by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) in 2010-11 found that Fiji’s rates of violence against women and girls are among the very highest in the world.

 64 per cent of women who have ever been in an intimate relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a husband or intimate partner in their lifetime.

24 per cent are suffering from physical or sexual partner violence today.
 There are also high rates of emotional abuse: 58 per cent of ever-partnered women experienced emotional violence in their lifetime, and 29 per cent in the previous 12 months before the survey.

FWCC has been the main institution providing crisis counselling and referrals to legal, medical and other practical support services for women and children survivors of violence in Fiji since 1984.
FWCC is an autonomous, multi-racial, non-government organisation and grounds its work within a human rights and gender-transformative development framework.

It operates from its Suva-based headquarters and four Branches across Fiji.

The Centre works to address all forms of violence against women, including rape, assault and sexual harassment, and abuse of children, and is involved in public advocacy and community education on gender violence.
FWCC provides in-house and telephone counselling as well as community outreach programs to empower women and children and influence broader social change.

The Centre fosters relationships with police, courts, doctors and welfare agencies to better respond to violence against women.

FWCC also provides technical support and mentoring to other organisations working in the Pacific region, including the Australian-supported Vanuatu Women’s Centre and the Tonga Women’s and Children’s Crisis Centre.
FWCC is the Secretariat of the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women, which includes organisations and practitioners from 12 Pacific island countries.

The Australian Government has provided financial support to the FWCC since 1989.

Outcomes/effectiveness Since 1984 the FWCC has provided counselling and support services to 35,305 new clients and 43,051 repeat clients.
Since 1999, FWCC has also provided community education and training programs on women’s human rights and VAW including rape, assault and sexual assault and abuse of children.

The demand for these programs continues to grow: 92,380 people (52,781 females, 30,615 males and 8,984 children) have been a part of the Centre’s community education and/or training programs.
Supplementary Submission 39 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Examples of activities include: The four-week residential Regional Training Program (RTP) delivered by FWCC twice per year is an important aspect of the Centre’s regional services.
It trains participants (Network members, NGOs and government agencies that deal with VAW) on the causes and impacts of VAW, gender equality, human rights law, media and advocacy, counselling, violence prevention and response services.

FWCC trained 420 women and men from 11 countries at the ten RTPs funded through Australia’s Phase 5 partnership agreement.
Participants include staff of crisis centres, faith based organisations, disabled people’s organisations, PNG mining companies and government staff from health, education and justice sectors, with 27 per cent comprising regional police personnel.

As the Secretariat of the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women, which includes organisations and practitioners from 12 Pacific island countries, FWCC provides training (e.g.
financial and organisational management, counselling and data collection), institutional support and networking services to assist the network's members.

FWCC started the Male Advocates Programme in 2002, to engage men as allies in challenging violence against women, and to encourage men to take responsibility for the issue of violence against women.

Men who have been trained by the Centre have a better understanding of the causes of violence against women and demonstrate changed behaviours and attitudes.
Those in positions of influence in their communities or institutions are responding more appropriately to women experiencing violence (e.g.

police, village elders, religious leaders).

Men trained have used their influence to: change cultural practices (e.g.

in custom courts in Vanuatu); to ensure that VAW is considered in decision-making forums (e.g.

Provincial Councils in Fiji and Vanuatu); establish male advocacy groups (e.g.
Cook Islands); and organise community education activities to teach others about non-violence (e.g, sporting bodies in Fiji).

FWCC has been reviewed favourably on several occasions.

A joint DFAT-New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) independent evaluation of FWCC (June 2015) found evidence of regional institutional and attitudinal change.
   “There is evidence that the capacity support provided to individuals and organisations throughout the region, through training, attachments and mentoring, has contributed to strengthening VAW prevention and responses.” “FWCC’s focus and approaches to strengthening duty-bearing institutions, including by developing skills, knowledge and attitudes of police and prosecutors, has had a strong impact on individual officers and there is evidence of institutional shift”.
“FWCC’s contributions to the development of policies, plans and rights-based services for its network partners… is an important ingredient in safeguarding longer-term EVAW outcomes and achievements in the region.
There is evidence that these strong partnerships are contributing to changes and that the solidarity in the region is important for sustaining the impacts.” 40 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Pacific Women (Vanuatu) Countries: Vanuatu (including funding through Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development).
Dates: 1 July 2012 – 30 June 2016 Investment: AUD6,720,206 Partner Organisation/s: Vanuatu Women’s Centre, Vanuatu Ministry of Education and Training, Vanuatu Department of Women’s Affairs In Vanuatu Australia provides: core support for the Vanuatu Women's Centre (VWC); funding through the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Program to target the skills development needs of women; and support to the Department of Women’s Affairs for a program on temporary special measures.
VWC is an independent Civil Society Organisation that was established in 1992.

VWC's goal is to eliminate violence against women and children throughout Vanuatu.

The long-term outcome is effective prevention and response to violence against women and children.

The VWC provides counselling, community education and legal advocacy services for survivors of violence in Vanuatu.

VWC has centres in Port Vila, and four branches in Sanma, Tafea, Torba and Malampa Provinces.
VWC has a vibrant network of 42 Committees Against Violence Against Women (CAVAWs) that undertake community awareness and assist women and children living with violence in remote communities.

It also has a national network of male advocates.

Support to the Department of Women's Affairs through the Pacific Leadership Program is focused on supporting reform to increase the involvement of women in decision-making.
The TVET program targets the skill development needs of women to encourage increased employment opportunities, including self-employment, for women in the priority productive sectors of tourism and agribusiness.

Outcomes/effectiveness VWC assisted 4,685 women and girl survivors of violence access support services and 1,292 men and boys receive information on related issues in the last year.
Of these, 267 were assisted to access justice and provided with protection from violence; 274 women were assisted to access the Family Protection Act.

VWC staff who have been trained are now delivering counsellor training to CAVAW members and other counsellors.

The CAVAWs and male advocates trained have worked closely with VWC and are increasingly undertaking local community awareness and assist women and children living with violence in remote communities (e.g.
cases increased from 1,495 to 1,602 in the last year).

Police officers trained are more able to recognise that women need counselling and safe houses to protect them from further violence, and are referring cases to VWC.

There has been a six per cent increase in the demand for VWC workshops and trainings, including from groups previously hard to engage – police, chiefs and some justice sector agencies.
A client satisfaction survey showed that 92 per cent of the clients felt that they got what they came for.
The TVET Program has been able to increase their reach to women in rural areas to ensure access to targeted skill development services: Women participation in training increased from 28 per cent in 2013 to 48 per cent in 2014; 88 per cent of self-employed women report increased business income through TVET Centre support; 91 per cent of subsistence-level women/students report improved livelihoods through TVET Centre support; in 2014, Supplementary Submission 41 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission 69 per cent of participants with a disability were female; and 11 per cent of women in formal employment report increased income.
The Department of Women’s Affairs is progressing new legislation to update a recently passed bill on reserved seats for women and introduce a closed party list proportional representation system for Municipal elections.

These measures will support greater participation of women in political decision-making.
42 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Empowering Indonesian Women for Poverty Reduction (Maju Perempuan Indonesia untuk Penanggulangan Kemiskinan or MAMPU) Countries: Indonesia Dates: 2012 – 2016 Investment: AUD60 million Partner Organisation/s: PEKKA (the Female Headed Household Empowerment Program) Aisyiyah (one of the largest Islamic women’s organisations in Indonesia) Kapal Perempuan (Women’s Learning Centre for Justice, Gender, and Pluralism) Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia (the Indonesian Women’s Coalition) Migrant Care (the Indonesian Association for Migrant Workers Sovereignty) Komnas Perempuan (The National Commission on Violence Against Women) The International Labor Organization BaKTI (Eastern Indonesia Knowledge Exchange) and PERMAMPU (a consortium of women’s organisations in Sumatra) MAMPU aims to improve the lives of up to three million poor women by supporting gender-interested organisations to conduct advocacy, research and implement innovative pilots that address key barriers to their development.
It provides grants to nine partner organisations to build their organisational capacity and to form coalitions with the Government of Indonesia, parliament, media and the private sector.
MAMPU’s focus is in areas where reform would make a significant difference for poor women, including: increasing women’s access to jobs and removing workplace discrimination; improving women’s access to government social protection programs; improving conditions for women’s overseas labour migration; strengthening women’s leadership for better reproductive health; and strengthening women’s leadership to reduce violence against women.
MAMPU also works with women’s parliamentary caucuses to support legislative and budgetary reform for women.

Recent work The program supports BaKTI to work with women parliamentarians at the local and national level to increase women’s roles in decision-making and effectively represent and advocate for women’s needs.
In May 2015, the program and BaKTI hosted a conference for women parliamentarians in Jakarta, in which participants learnt new advocacy skills and shared their experiences of supporting poor women through policy reform.

The program is also working with the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, the Indonesian Employers Association, the private sector and the International Labor Organization to address bottlenecks, reduce discrimination and facilitate job creation for poor women.
This includes working with major international manufacturers to ensure employers better understand their legal obligations to women who undertake outsourced industrial work at home.

MAMPU supports Migrant Care to provide affordable and reliable pre-departure services for women who migrate overseas for labour, as well as services on return to recover lost wages and find new employment.
Supplementary Submission 43 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Australia is also partnering with Aisyiyah and PERMAMPU to work with poor communities to raise awareness of reproductive health issues and coordinate with local governments and health providers to improve maternal and reproductive health services.
The program is supporting PEKKA, Kapal Perempuan, and Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia, to assist poor women to access government social protection programs.

This includes developing the capacity of women leaders in communities to raise awareness of and assist poor women to access government social protection programs.

It is also implementing community-based poverty monitoring to ensure more accurate targeting of Indonesian Government resources.
MAMPU also partners with the Indonesian National Commission on Violence against Women to implement a public awareness campaign about violence against women, improve data collection and police reporting systems, develop a recovery system for victims, and advocate for budgets, services and reforms that will assist women who have experienced violence.

Outcomes/effectiveness The second half of 2014 saw newly elected representatives take their places in regional parliaments across Indonesia.
MAMPU partners are developing relationships with these MPs, reaching 103 subnational level MPs between October and December 2014.

Their advocacy agenda is drawn from the realities of poor women in 2,000 villages across the 27 provinces in which MAMPU works.

Three MAMPU partners were invited to sit on a Presidential transition team working group for "women, poverty and children", providing MAMPU with a significant opportunity to influence new priorities, including on social protection and migrant workers.
From October to November 2014, Migrant Care intensively lobbied over 200 national parliamentarians and their advisers using MAMPU-supported evidence on a proposed amendment to the Law on the Placement and Protection of Migrant Workers.

This draft has now been successfully elevated to the legislative agenda for debate in the national parliament in 2015.

Over 15,000 women have been directly involved in MAMPU activities.
Community organising forms a major component of this, with the creation of an additional 546 local groups to involve women in discussion and analysis relating to MAMPU's five thematic areas.

The women involved in these groups have reported positive changes in their lives, including greater confidence to speak in public, greater awareness of MAMPU themes and in some cases opportunities to speak and be leaders in their communities.
The Government of Indonesia is also focussed on reducing the maternal mortality rate – Aisyiyah's work with fertile couples is educating women and their partners on the importance of spacing children and accessing ante-natal and post-natal care.

Four partners are also working to promote the Indonesian Government's universal health scheme.
44 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Timor-Leste Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) Countries: Timor-Leste Dates: April 2014 – June 2018 (a second phase is also intended) Investment: AUD18.7 million Partner Organisation/s: It is implemented by The Asia Foundation in close partnership with Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Social Solidarity and Secretariat (MSS) and the Secretary of State for the Support and Socio-Economical Promotion of Women.
Domestic violence is a barrier to human development in Timor-Leste.

Over a third of Timorese women above the age of 15 report that they have experienced violence in their lifetime.

Violence against women not only violates women’s dignity and basic rights; the cost to Timor-Leste’s economy is also high.

Domestic violence has both direct and indirect economic costs, in health care, social services, policing and increased strain on the justice system.
The EVAW Program seeks to reduce the number of women and children experiencing violence and to better meet the needs of women and children affected by violence.

The program has three inter-linked components:  prevention of violence against women, including: - - - - targeted research to inform prevention strategies; interventions to reduce violence in schools;.
grants and governance support to civil society organisations to implement prevention strategies; and support to Secretary of State for the Support and Socio-Economical Promotion of Women.
 providing health, welfare, counselling and shelter services to women and children affected by violence, including: - - - - institutional strengthening support to MSS to oversee these services; grants and governance support to civil society organisations to provide these services; an accredited social work training program for community based workers; and piloting community-based approaches to services in under-serviced areas.
 enabling access to justice for women affected by violence, including: - - grants and support to civil society organisations to provide legal assistance to survivors and court monitoring; and targeted activities to remove constraints in the formal justice sector.
Outcomes/effectiveness The EVAW Program builds on the strengths of the Australian Government-supported Justice Sector Support Facility (JSSF) program in Timor-Leste (2008-2013), which evolved from a broad justice development program to one that focused on ending violence against women and children.
The program targets both primary and secondary prevention of violence against women and children and is informed by research on the underlying causes and opportunities for ending violence against women and children in Timor-Leste.
The program aims for long-term Supplementary Submission 45 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission changes in values and behaviours relating to violence against women, as well as improving services and access to justice for women and children who experience violence.

It is still early in the life of this program, and work to date has focussed on laying the groundwork for the future years.
This has included grants to local civil society organisations to provide legal and support services for women and children survivors, as well as commissioning a baseline survey on prevalence and perpetration of violence against women.
Key achievements in the initial months (April - December 2014) include: - 569 new clients (women and children survivors of violence) received specialist support services from EVAW Program partners; - monitoring of 615 court cases across district courts including mobile courts; - - - funding for a Forensic Medical specialist to train hospital midwives and doctors resulting in 14 additional accredited medical forensic examiners in the country (up from 20 existing accredited examiners); consultation and agreement with key partners on the design of the Program and coordination of activities within the sector; and the first ‘Learning Labs’ with stakeholders drawing on Foundation research on the Economic Dimensions of Domestic Violence and international research on why some men use violence.
46 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Timor-Leste National Program for Village Development (PNDS) Countries: Timor-Leste Dates: 2012 – 2017 Investment: up to AUD50 million Partner Organisation/s: Australia is a major partner of Government of Timor-Leste as it implements PNDS.
The Programa Nasional Dezenvolvimentu Suku (PNDS) or National Program for Village Development, is a nation-wide community development program that is owned, managed and largely funded by Government of Timor-Leste (GoTL).

PNDS provides annual grants of around US$50,000 to each of the 442 sucos (villages) in the country for small scale infrastructure projects.
The grants are for communities to plan, construct and manage their own projects and may include building or refurbishing irrigation channels, bridges, motorbike paths, market places, as well as refurbishment of water systems, schools or health posts.

Since 2012 Australia’s early support for GoTL included training for over 400 community facilitators and piloting PNDS.

Through the PNDS Support Program (2014-2017) Australia is now supporting the full implementation of PNDS in every village in Timor-Leste.
Australia does not directly fund community grants.

Support is focused on assisting GoTL to establish training, operational procedures, corporate systems and monitoring and evaluation methods to deliver PNDS.

Outcomes/effectiveness Gender equality is a key principle for the GoTL PNDS program.

Australia worked with GoTL to set gender targets in recruitment of all community facilitators.
Australia has also supported PNDS Secretariat to finalise its Gender Strategy, include gender equality sessions in capacity building activities and develop guidelines and systems to engage more women in the PNDS decision-making processes at the community level.
Direct input and guidance from Australia’s support program has delivered the following results in improving gender equality in PNDS: - 38 per cent of PNDS facilitators are women, exceeding the 30 per cent target and efforts to support women has resulted in PNDS retaining all female staff; - PNDS requires every village to have at least one project proposal from women included in the short list of villages’ priority projects; - PNDS is now recording monthly sex-disaggregated data from every village on every step of the PNDS cycle; and - early evidence shows the number of women working and elected in leadership roles in the PNDS community management teams is increasing.
Supplementary Submission 47 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Cambodia Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Program Countries: Cambodia Dates: 1 July 2013 – 30 June 2018 Investment: AUD7,234,236 (to date) Partner Organisation/s: Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Royal Government of Cambodia; UN Women; GIZ; The Asia Foundation; and civil society organisations Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), Transcultural Psychological Organisation (TPO), Hagar and Legal Aid of Cambodia (LAC).
The Cambodia EVAW Program is a multi-year investment working with the Royal Government of Cambodia Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) to reduce violence against women.

The goal is for a sustained reduction of violence against women in Cambodia through contributing to an effective, systematic and accountable response to, and prevention of, violence against women in Cambodia.
One aim of the program is to support MOWA to develop and implement their National Action Plan on Violence Against Women (NAPVAW) to ensure a whole of government approach to the prevention of violence against women.

The program is designed as iterative and emergent, and each stage of the program builds on lessons learnt from the previous.

This recognises the complexities and challenges of ending violence against women in Cambodia.
Key features have included channelling support through NGOs and development partners already working in this area with a focus on three key areas: services, prevention and justice.

These focus areas are underpinned by support to improve institutional coordination as well as to build the evidence base through research on violence against women.
Supported activities have included: emergency intervention; shelter and counselling services; public awareness and advocacy; legal aid and prosecution; family case management; data collection and research; legislative, legal and policy reform; and education and training.

Outcomes/effectiveness This investment responds to the needs of women survivors of violence and women at risk of violence in Cambodia.
Cambodia has made significant progress in its efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women through its national policy and legal framework to prohibit violence against women and discrimination and exploitation of women, but challenges remain.

The EVAW investment funds research and analysis to inform the Government of Cambodia’s policies and our future investments.
This includes a political economy analysis of law enforcement response to violence against women; the National Violence Against Women Prevalence study carried out by the World Health Organisation and UN Women; the violence against women chapter of the Cambodian Gender Assessment; the inclusion of domestic violence and disability modules in the Cambodian Demographic Health Survey; and four policy briefs prepared by TAF to help target investments in intimate partner violence.
The briefs are based on Cambodia specific data and focus on the role of alcohol, media, education attainment and childhood exposure to violence for preventing intimate partner violence.
48 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Key milestones include: - the NAPVAW was adopted by the Royal Government of Cambodia in 2014, a major whole of Government policy document for addressing violence against women; and - GIZ has tripled the number of women accessing services (now over 1500) and established the basis for an effective referral network in Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces.
In 2014 the investments in health, legal, reintegration and prevention services for victims of gender-based violence had reached a total of 3,257 women and girls.

In 2014 there were 203 police and law and justice officials (72 women and 131 men) trained on referral procedures and sexual gender-based violence.
Supplementary Submission 49 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Vietnam ADS – PREP Countries: Vietnam Dates: 16 August 2002 – 31 January 2016 Investment: AUD40 872,565 Partner Organisation/s: implemented by Coffey International Development.
This program provides preparation support to Australia Awards Scholarships (AAS) – formerly Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) - awardees for tertiary study in Australia, through intensive in-country English literacy training and places them in appropriate courses with ongoing support.

Up to 2,800 AAS shortlisted candidates are being provided with the pre-departure training during the life of the project from 2003 to 2016 (about 150 candidates each year from 2003 to 2009, and 250 per year from 2010).
The program also includes managing the promotion, application screening, placement, mobilisation, on-award monitoring, post award monitoring and support for AAS awardees, including needs-based support provided to the Australia Awards Vietnam Gender Core Group.

Outcomes/effectiveness The program has a high ratio of female participants, and sex-disaggregated data is captured in the program’s monitoring and evaluation system.
In 2014, 62 per cent of awards were given to women, an increase from 56 per cent and 55 per cent in 2013 and 2012 respectively.

Of 14 ethnic minority awardees, nine were female.

In 2014, 30 of the applicants proposed to undertake gender equality studies, of which five were offered a scholarship.

In the past four years, 62 per cent of all new alumni have been female.

Women actively participated in the alumni program in professional development events with females representing 61 per cent of participants.
The high level of women’s attendance indicates that the subject matter, timing and location of alumni events were generally acceptable to most female alumni.

According to the 2014 Tracer Study, women leaders and senior managers comprised 40 per cent of the 955 alumni leaders and senior managers.
50 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Afghanistan Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) Program Countries: Afghanistan (21 of 34 provinces) Dates: 2013 – 2017 Investment: AUD28.2 million ($22.7 million from DFAT and $5.5 million from DFID) Partner Organisation/s: UK’s Department for International Development (DFID); Afghan Women’s Network (AWN); United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC); UN Women; The Asia Foundation (TAF).
The program objectives support national efforts to: - - - improve the provision of shelter services, including legal aid and counselling, for women and girls that have been affected by violence; improve access to justice for survivors of violence, through training and support for justice sector stakeholders on the implementation of Afghanistan’s EVAW legislation; and prevent violence, through working with organisations to help change community attitudes toward violence and to advocate for the protection and advancement of women’s rights.
Outcomes/effectiveness In its first 18 months of implementation (reporting from June 2013 – December 2014), the investment has achieved solid results, including the following: - - - - - four new Women’s Protection Centres (WPCs) were established and six existing WPCs funded to continue operations; the 10 WPCs provided shelter and support services to 2372 female clients and 431 children; services included mediation, counselling, legal, medical, rehabilitation and referral support; one new Family Guidance Centre (FGC) was established and one FGC funded to continue operations; the FGCs provided 362 female clients with services (legal, counselling and mediation); a VAW hotline was established and has received over 2,000 calls in its first three months from both women and men; - Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), GBV data collection forms and ethical guidelines for VAW case processing were developed; - 2846 participants across 10 target provinces received training on the application of the Ending Violence Against Women Law, gender-based violence response and violence against women data collection.
Participants included police staff (1219; including 190 women), judges and prosecutors (1243; including 156 women); staff from Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Department of Women’s Affairs (62 women) and NGOs (322; including 175 women); - 4320 (2160 men/2160 women) Community Development Group (CDG) members were trained across 12 target provinces on the Ending Violence Against Women Law and Women’s Rights in Islam (18 booklets); and - 140 religious leaders (Khateebs) across seven provinces have been selected and are receiving training on women’s rights in Islam.
Supplementary Submission 51 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission In September 2014, a rapid management review of the program was undertaken in discussion with partners.

The review identified widespread community acceptance of the program objectives and evidence of the program driving positive change at a community level.

In particular, engagement of religious and community leaders has been effective.
52 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Challenging Gender Based Violence Program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh Provinces (Pakistan) Country: Pakistan (two of four provinces) Dates: June 2014 – June 2017 Investment: Up to AUD7.5 million Partner Organisation/s: International NGO, Trōcaire is the investment partner for the program.
Trōcaire has contracted eight local NGOs to implement the program.

These have not been publicly disclosed for reasons of sensitivity.
The program objectives support: - - - services for women and their children affected by violence, including shelters, medical and legal services and vocational training; engagement with men, women, youth, religious and community leaders to challenge attitudes and behaviours; and strengthened capacity of police and the judiciary to enable women to access legal support without stigma or fear.
Outcomes/effectiveness In the first eight months of implementation (reporting from June 2014 to February 2015) the investment has commenced well and is on track to achieving its objectives.
Results to date include: - - - - - establishment of a shelter in Hyderabad, Sindh and agreement with the Sindh Department of Social Welfare Department (through a signed MOU) to continue to support this facility; in-principle support from the Secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Department of Social Welfare to extend support to all ‘Dar-ul-amans’ (government run shelters) in Swat, KP; provision of materials, equipment, furniture and fixtures to existing shelters; support for 1,493 women and girls to access services including shelter, legal and medical assistance and vocational training, 16 of whom are women and girls with disabilities; training of 91 police, judiciary and members of legal institutions on gender based violence, including 18 judges/magistrates through a ‘behaviour-change’ training, approved by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights; 34 police officers in Hyderabad, Sindh, through a recently approved MOU with the National Police Bureau of Pakistan to strengthen the institutional capacity and the capacity of police officials to better respond to cases of gender based violence (GBV); and 39 medical and legal officers, shelter representatives, lawyers, media and civil society representatives of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and KP; - changed community acceptance levels of gender based violence with target control groups, eg.
89 per cent of (4,773) men and 64 per cent of (5,568) women have seen Supplementary Submission 53 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission - - - - - someone in their community speaking out against gender based violence, compared to earlier rates of 10 per cent for men and 18 per cent for women; development of a training course around issues of masculinity and patriarchy in reference to GBV; support to table the recently drafted domestic violence legislation in KP; hosting of a national event to commemorate 16 Days of Activism against GBV with four women parliamentarians from Sindh, KP and Balochistan pledging their support to introduce and strengthen legislation to prevent GBV in Pakistan, as well as in-principle support from 23 Pakistani Parliamentarians.
The event was attended by more than 350 people with a debate between parliamentarians on the Domestic Violence Bill, broadcast throughout Pakistan.

establishment of a strategic partnership with the National Commission on the Status of Women and the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women to strengthen the capacity of these organisations to ensure the rights of women; coordination of two forums for parliamentarians to discuss ways to increase women’s empowerment in KP.
The first discussed gaps in the implementation of the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act 2011 in KP and the second discussed “Forced Marriages and Inheritance Deprivation”.

More than 66 participants (37 male and 29 female) attended.
54 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission SRSP Livelihood Strengthening Programme in KPK Name of Program: Livelihood Strengthening Programme Country: Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province) Dates: 2010 – 2015 Investment: AUD11 million Partner Organisation/s: Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) The Livelihood Strengthening Programme (LSP) in Pakistan supports integrated rural development projects for conflict-affected areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
It has a strong focus on empowering women and ensures at least 40 per cent of project activities specifically target women.

The program objectives support: - - - the empowerment of poor and vulnerable communities to address key social and economic development challenges; increased income generating opportunities for the rural poor, especially women; and strengthened capacity of local government to address and respond to development challenges.
Outcomes/effectiveness LSP has demonstrated strong results for women’s empowerment, with a second program phase currently under consideration.
Results to date include: - over 26,000 households have benefitted from enhanced social cohesion, improved access to rural infrastructure and social services, and greater income generating opportunities; - - - - - 1,232 Community Based Organisations have been established, 550 of which are women’s organisations; 3,122 women have accessed microfinance to support their businesses; 90 per cent of women who have accessed microfinance reported an increase in their household income, on average by $33/month; 345 women have been trained as Poultry Extension Workers to provide extension services within their communities at a service fee; and community advocacy has resulted in the provincial government committing AUD15.7 million to a community-driven renewable energy program.
Supplementary Submission 55 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Combating Acid and Burn Violence in Bangladesh Countries: Bangladesh Dates: January 2012 – March 2014; June 2015 – December 2016 Investment: AUD2.3 million Partner Organisation/s: Acid Survivors Foundation Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) is an independent, non-government, non-profit organisation, set up as a trust and registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh in 1999.
It is the only specialised NGO in Bangladesh working to prevent acid and burn violence, assisting survivors to reintegrate into society and campaigning for prevention of this violence.

ASF works with an integrated approach, using a holistic (bio-psycho-social) multi-stakeholder approach backed by research, experience and evidence.
Australia’s support contributes to:  providing burn care services for the victims of acid burn;  providing legal and rehabilitation services to the survivors; and  working on preventing gender based violence through awareness raising and advocacy initiatives.

Support to ASF provides Australia with good value for money.
It delivers effective results, strengthens local partners and, most importantly, positively impacts the lives of a marginalised group in society and provides them with an opportunity to have a second chance in life.

Outcomes/effectiveness: From 2011-2014, there was a decline in the number of reported acid violence incidents from 91 in 2011-2012 to 56 incidents in 2013-2014.
From 2012 to 2014 the ASF provided:  rehabilitation support, including setting up income generating activities, was provided to 89 survivors; and  education support was provided to 87 survivors and 73 children of survivors and financial assistance was provided to 44 survivors.

It also provided medical services which every year benefit around 700 new and existing victims of acid violence.

A network of spokespersons, working in eight districts across Bangladesh, has provided support to survivors.
These spokespeople also operate as advocates mobilising government and non- government resources.

Through their initiatives, 27 survivors’ groups are functioning as a platform for collective voice, on the need to prevent acid and burn violence and to support survivors.
Key lessons learnt from this continuing investment include understanding the requirements of survivors for better reintegration into mainstream society, using the media as an effective and powerful tool for advocacy initiatives to bring about social awareness, stimulate change and have strong coordination and regular dialogue with other service providers and partners working on the issue of eliminating violence against women.
56 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Evaluation example Smart Economics: Evaluation of Australian aid support for women’s economic empowerment In August 2014, the Office of Development Effectiveness evaluated DFAT’s investments in women’s economic empowerment16.
It found that that the aid program had missed opportunities to help women in developing countries improve their economic status, and thereby contribute to local, national and regional economies.

On the positive side, this evaluation found that Australian aid gender equality policies, including the Women’s Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods Strategy, are very good.

The evaluation also discovered good-practice examples in all economic sectors examined.
These included the Solomon Islands roads project, where women represented 40 per cent of hired labour; the Laos power to the poor project, through which electrification rates for female-headed households in the pilot area increased from 63 to 90 per cent; the Vanuatu technical and vocational training program, where 91 per cent of women who completed training reported increased profits after one year; and the Bangladesh microfinance project, which reached more than 52 000 women and resulted in greater control over assets, increased household decision-making and reduced violence against women.
However, the evaluation found that examples such as these were the exception, rather than the rule.

The evaluation shows that, despite sound policy settings, Australian aid is not yet delivering consistent and strong outcomes for women in its economic investments.

In addition to the systemic and persistent barriers facing women globally, the evaluation identifies other, closer-to-home issues that can be addressed by the Australian aid program.
The evaluation recommendations have been developed to ensure that the Australian Government’s women’s economic empowerment policy agenda achieves more significant and sustainable outcomes for women, men, girls and boys.

A summary of the evaluation is at Attachment B.


16 http://dfat.gov.au/aid/how-we-measure-performance/ode/odepublications/Pages/smart-economics.aspx Supplementary Submission 57 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission Key findings and recommendations Australia’s policy approach is aligned with global best practice.
Australia’s policy approach to women’s economic empowerment is based on the principle that empowering women in the economic sphere is ‘smart economics’ and a matter of basic human rights.

The Australian aid program’s policies and strategies for achieving women’s economic empowerment are well aligned with global best practice.

Emphasis is given to improving women’s access to a range of crucial economic resources, while also mitigating the underlying social and legal barriers faced by women.
Economic sector investments with a gender focus have had limited funding and have not specifically focused on established pathways for women’s economic empowerment.

This appears to be improving with new policies and gender capacity.

Historically, the Australian aid program has spent fewer aid dollars on programs focusing on gender equality in the economic sector than in other sectors.
In 2012–13 less than 30 per cent of economic initiatives had a specific focus on gender equality, compared with approximately 60 per cent of non-economic initiatives.

A strategic focus on women’s economic empowerment has been limited across the economic sectors, although it has recently been improving.

This likely reflects the influence of international evidence on what approaches, or ‘pathways’, are most effective.
In addition, the Australian aid program’s gender policies, advisory capacity and guidance on women’s economic empowerment have been influential.

Gender specialists and advisers have been well used by country programs to inform designs and strategies, but implementation has been weak.

Most economic sector investments demonstrated some effort to consider gender equality in their design or implementation, although results are mixed.
The majority of initiatives reviewed (70 per cent) made basic attempts to promote gender equality in their design or implementation.

In each of the five sectors examined, the Australian aid program had designed or implemented initiatives that addressed issues related to gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

On the whole, however, these efforts were piecemeal, and the trade sector presented particular challenges.
Management response DFAT welcomed the findings of the evaluation and agreed with all four of the report’s recommendations.

The management response to the evaluation can be found in pages 7 -9 of the report.

It noted that two large-scale investments on women’s economic empowerment—in Indonesia and the Pacific—had recently started.

The design of these investments had taken into account many of the issues raised in the evaluation.
58 Supplementary Submission Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 27 - Supplementary Submission