Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694860007862.pdf (Australia)
Inquiry Secretary, Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Suite R1 - 120, Parliament House PO Box 6021, CANBERRA ACT 2600 17 July 2020 Dear Inquiry Secretary, Re: Inquiry into the status of human rights of women and girls in the Pacific Tetra Tech Coffey (TTC) would like to thank the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (JSCFADT) for its invitation to provide a submission to the status of human rights of women and girls in the Pacific.
TTC strongly agrees with the inquiry Terms of Reference that a focus on women and girls is vital to the advancement of human rights, economic development, peace and stability in the Pacific.

TTC seeks to contribute to thriving people, thriving communities and a thriving planet.

As a leading development consulting firm, TTC work with people and communities to achieve a positive impact.

We live our values.

We deliver intelligent and co-created solutions across the development sphere.
Throughout our long history of working in the Indo-Pacific region, we have seen the international development landscape change considerably, including an increased focus of donors in recent years on the needs and priorities of women and girls in development.

We recognise the critical importance of gender equality to economic and social development, poverty reduction and good governance in the region.
For four decades, TTC’s international development team has worked with partner governments, communities and organisations to devise solutions to development challenges.

In Australia, Europe and the Americas, we work every day with our clients in government, and the public and private sectors and in-country partners across the developing world to help achieve effective development outcomes.

Our team includes more than 20,000 associates and we have more than 400 corporate and project offices worldwide.
Additionally, TTC has in-house gender specialists located in Australia and the United States of America, as well as project-based gender specialists who support TTC to ensure a focus on the needs of women and girls in the programs we implement.

Based on our insights and field experience, we have developed the following recommendations for the Joint Standing Committee to consider as part of their review.
We welcome the raised awareness this inquiry contributes to and look forward to continuing our support of the Australian Aid program.
Yours Sincerely, Amy Gildea Managing Director, International Development, Asia Pacific Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the Pacific Contents 1 Recommendation: Broaden the discussion about WEE beyond women’s employment and include a stronger focus on WEE in mainstream finance and private sector focused programs ........................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Using gender sensitive finance to promote women’s economic empowerment ........................ 3 2 Recommendation: Reframe the way women’s leadership programs are designed and implemented to have a stronger focus on mindset, self-care and leadership for gender equality .............................................................................................................................................. 4 2.1 Mindset and self-care approaches to building women’s leadership capabilities........................ 4 2.2 Increasing the capacity of women to lead for gender equality ................................................... 4 3 Recommendation: More work is needed to bridge the gap between policy and practice in order to increase the effectiveness of Australian overseas development assistance programs in supporting human rights of women and girls ........................................................ 5 4 Recommendation: Increase the focus on gender capacity building, leadership and accountability for gender equality ................................................................................................. 7 4.1 Driving gender equality through capacity building in partner organisations ............................... 7 5 Recommendation: Rethink how we conceptualise capacity building by increasing the focus on private sector, partnering, testing and piloting activities, and the use of incentives ......... 8 5.1 Piloting approaches to disability inclusion in i-Kiribati schools................................................... 8 5.2 Engaging the private sector in testing gender approaches ........................................................ 8 5.3 Incentivising change through infrastructure grants .................................................................... 8 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 Summary of recommendations from Tetra Tech Coffey With respect to the status of human rights of women and girls in the Pacific, the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (JSCFADT), and the Human Rights Sub- Committee shall, in the context of the Pacific Step-up, give regard to: Recommendation: Broaden the discussion about women’s economic empowerment (WEE) beyond women’s employment and include a stronger focus on WEE in mainstream finance and private sector focused programs It is widely accepted that women are key economic drivers, with women's economic empowerment at the forefront of aid efforts.
However, the concept of economic empowerment needs to be expanded beyond workforce participation to address the complex and varying barriers that women face.

This should include mainstreaming gender into large finance and private sector focused programs and drawing on lessons from gender lens investing principles and practices.
Recommendation: Reframe the way women’s leadership programs are designed and implemented to have a stronger focus on mindset, self-care and leadership for gender equality Leadership capability goes beyond good networks, sectoral expertise and communication skills.

Emotional intelligence and resilience are key drivers of success and help form our ability to respond to crises and other times of turmoil.
Leadership programs should incorporate mindset work and selfcare to promote women's empowerment, and their ability to empower others.
Recommendation: More work is undertaken to bridge the gap between policy and practice in order to increase the effectiveness of Australian overseas development assistance programs in supporting human rights of women and girls While gains have been made in translating good gender policy into practice, there is still work to be done to ensure that gender expertise is adequately funded, is properly integrated in statement of requirements, and is carried on throughout implementation.
Recommendation: Increase the focus on gender capacity building, leadership and accountability for gender equality Lack of organisational accountability has been widely acknowledged internationally as one of the major reasons for slow progress in the implementation of gender equality policies.

An institutional focus on gender equality and the needs of women and girls is important for ensuring that the aid program takes gender equality seriously.
There are additional opportunities for the aid program to build in accountability for gender equality more consistently.

More could also be done to hold development partners receiving aid funds accountable for implementing their own gender equality commitments through the inclusion of gender equality targets in Memorandums of Understanding.

Incentive payments attached to gender targets could also be included in funding agreements with partners.
Recommendation: Rethink how we conceptualise capacity building by increasing the focus on private sector, partnering, testing and piloting activities, and the use of incentives One-dimensional approaches to gender sensitive capacity building which focus on awareness training and do little in terms of practicality and innovation are ineffective in creating widespread and sustained change.
There is a need to approach gender equality challenges adaptively, testing and piloting approaches, incentivising change and engaging the private sector.
1 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 Introduction The United Nations (UN) notes a growing recognition among government and the private sector, that ‘investing in women and girls has a powerful multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and economic growth’.1 It has further estimated that low female participation in labour markets in Asia, for example, costs the region up to US$47 billion each year.
We commend the committee for, through this inquiry, fostering a dialogue around how Australia can better enhance the opportunities provided to women and girls in the Pacific, and therefore recognising the important role women and girls play in creating widespread economic gains in the Region.

Tetra Tech Coffey (TTC) believes that the advancement of women and girls is vital to Australia’s aspirations in the Pacific Step-Up.
While the aid sector is increasingly integrating gender activities and objectives into development programming, shifts in the way we conceptualise women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and leadership programs, and local capacity building could do much to maximise gains in the space.
Further, institutional changes such as bridging the gap between policy and practice and increasing the focus on and leadership and accountability for gender equality are necessary to ensure that programs are creating benefits which reach women and girls.
We set out five key recommendations for the committee to consider, in line with the Terms of Reference the key lessons and outcomes from the work TTC deliver in partnership with the Australian Government across Asia and the Pacific to address the effectiveness of Australian overseas development assistance programs in supporting human rights of women and girls.
TTC managed, Pacific Readiness for Investment in Social Enterprise, bring together social and business actors at a regional Menstrual Health Management Workshop 1 Recommendation: Broaden the discussion about WEE beyond women’s employment and include a stronger focus on WEE in mainstream finance and private sector focused programs The Australian Aid Program has recognised the importance of women’s economic empowerment, describing it in the 2016 Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Gender equality and women’s empowerment strategy as one of three priorities around which its work on gender equality and women’s empowerment is structured, with the role of women in decision-making, leadership and peacebuilding, and ending violence against women and girls making up the other two.
It is also explicitly linked to economic growth in the 2015 DFAT private sector development strategy, which notes, ‘increasing women’s economic empowerment through measures such as improving formal labour force employment, opening up non-traditional sectors for women’s employment, and reducing barriers to women entrepreneurs can make a significant contribution to economic growth’.2 In the Pacific Region women are key economic drivers, contributing to economies across the Pacific in a range of important ways.
The advancement of WEE is essential for the health and prosperity of the region and will be even more essential to leading a fast recovery from the impact of COVID-19, and to building a more resilient and equitable future for everyone.

To date, COVID-19 has forced many European and Northern American economies to a halt.

There is talk of a deep global recession, with significant job losses in the formal sector.

Families and communities are already finding it challenging to support basic needs.
In the Pacific, the tourism industry, which is a significant contributor to employment, is already reeling from cancellations.

With the number of COVID-19 cases still relatively small across the Pacific however, and with some countries reporting zero infections, now is the time to act.

It is necessary to build resilience now to ensure women can emerge from the impact of COVID-19 as strong business ambassadors.
In this time of global pandemic when capital is flowing widely and urgently to Pacific communities in need, the importance of integrating lessons about how to effectively address gender dynamics in aid financing is also more crucial than ever to support government action that is both swift and effective.
Currently, in the Pacific men outnumber women 2-1 in formal paid employment (outside the agricultural sector), however, women make up most of the important informal financial sector, earning the income critical to meeting a family’s basic needs.

1 https://news.un.org/en/story/2010/05/338792-womens-empowerment-vital- economic-development-and-peace-migiro-says 2 Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2015.

Strategy for Australia’s aid investments in private sector development.
2 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 In Solomon Islands, the annual turnover at the Honiara Central Market is between US$10–16 million, with women responsible for about 90 per cent of activity as both bulk buyers and retailers.
In Samoa, 80 per cent of the private sector is comprised of micro businesses, of which women are estimated to lead over 40 per cent.3 Research shows that if women had the same access to credit, markets and technology, the ability to increase returns, particularly in the informal sector, would significantly increase.

From our existing work in the region there are important lessons learnt about effective ways of achieving this outcome.
Indeed, economic opportunities available to women are often precarious and informal in nature.

While women are increasingly finding employment, the nature of the globalised economic system sees gender inequalities reproduced as women are employed in the lowest payed jobs with little to no access to social protections.

4 Vital then, is broadening the conversation around WEE, and addressing the other factors which prevent women from benefitting from the process of economic growth.
1.1 Using gender sensitive finance to promote women’s economic empowerment Pacific Readiness for Investment in Social Enterprise (RISE), an innovative pilot of DFAT implemented by TTC, supports finance organisations to use gender analysis alongside financial analysis in the design of financing mechanisms and tools.
The program’s partners such as Good Return, an Australian not-for- profit, are empowering communities and businesses through increased access to responsible, inclusive financial education and finance.

Good Return launched an impact investment program in 2017 - first in Solomon Islands and then in Tonga - supported by Pacific RISE and Pacific Trade Invest Australia.
Good Return works with financial service providers to de-risk loans to businesses, including women’s businesses that may otherwise fall short of accessing commercial capital.

The organisation typically does this through building the capacity of a business and providing a loan guarantee – reducing the risk to the financial service provider.
Importantly, Good Return uses a gender lens and conducts gender market assessments to identify sectors where investments are optimal, while working with financial service providers to build awareness and address barriers to access to finance (particularly for women) as well as improve products and services which respond to both women’s and men’s needs.5 Pacific RISE’s partners have also launched new financing facilities such as IIX’s Emergency Financing Facility, a revolving facility providing refundable grants and working capital loans to select high-impact small and medium-sized enterprises, creating livelihoods for more than 70,000 people over the next 5 years.6 The 3 https://pacificwomen.org/our-work/focus-areas/economic-empowerment/ 4 https://undocs.org/E/CN.6/2017/3 Facility provides grant capital and concessional loans to enterprises creating a positive social and/or environmental impact in South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific to help them survive through the COVID-19 crisis.
All repayments received from enterprises are re- lent to new businesses in need, tripling the impact of each dollar.

Programs like Pacific RISE, which go beyond increasing employment and start to examine the gendered barriers to success, are well placed to support women’s businesses to quickly re-establish post COVID-19 and provide a more holistic longer- term model for addressing gender in finance.
Pacific RISE works closely with financial stakeholders to reframe their understanding and consideration of women’s financial needs by integrating a gender lens across investing practices and process and including a strong focus on coaching and mentoring.

Resources to ensure a strong focus on gender and women’s economic empowerment were included in the design and the program has experienced gender expertise built into its core implementing team.
As a result, there are now structures and pathways in place that make it possible for financial actors to come into the Region and support women in a more effective way.

Pacific RISE was recognised as a best practice approach to integrating gender into a mainstream finance program in a Pacific Women review of DFAT funded economic programs in the Pacific.
Lessons from initiatives such as Pacific RISE can, and should, be applied more consistently across mainstream financial programs and as part of Australia’s effective COVID-19 response in the Pacific Region.
Pacific RISE helped Cathy Wariapa from CWakama Arts & Crafts (centre) to partner with REAL Impact and break into international markets 5 https://pacifictradeinvest.com/explore-our-work/insights/empowering-tongan- business-through-impact-investment 6 https://www.giving.sg/iixglobal/covid-19_emergency_finance_facility 3 (Photo credit: Alec Mason / REAL Impact)Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 2 Recommendation 2: Reframe the way women’s leadership programs are designed and implemented to have a stronger focus on mindset, self-care and leadership for gender equality Investing in women’s leadership is a key priority for the Australian government, outlined in its Gender equality and women’s empowerment strategy.
DFAT invests in a range of leadership opportunities for women in the Pacific.

Examples include providing women with access to long-term and short-term study in Australia through the Australia Awards Programs to improve their technical skills, and the accompanying Australia Awards Women’s Leadership Initiative which focusses on building the networks and soft and hard skills of women scholars and alumni.
There is, however, a need to expand leadership programs beyond the focus on networking events and mentoring arrangements, to include building the emotional capacity of women in order to set themselves up for success in leadership.
2.1 Mindset and self-care approaches to building women’s leadership capabilities Leading researchers such Dr Brené Brown, best- selling author and Research Professor at the University of Houston and Dr Marc Brackett, research psychologist and the Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence at Yale University, have both done extensive research on leadership and emotional intelligence.
Their research is proving that self-care, and emotional intelligence are essential to courageous leadership, innovation and high performing organisations.

In a recent podcast interview between the two Brown remarked:7 I spend so much time working with leaders of Fortune 100 companies and 60% of the work they have to do is social emotional learning.
People have the skills, they can code, they can think about financial strategy, but people lose their sh$t in meetings, people don’t know how to talk to one another, and they avoid hard conversations because they don’t know that awkward is ok to feel….

I have never met a truly transformational leader in my career that did not have a deep understanding of their own emotional landscape and the emotional landscape of other people.
The Guria Business Accelerator, led by The Difference Incubator (TDi) and supported by TTC’s Kate Wilson, through her private coaching business Kamaji Tree, and the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Women’s Business Resource Centre, works on building emotional intelligence and navigating our emotional landscapes.

The program supports female founders to grow their businesses and free themselves from self-limiting mindsets through an intensive coaching program.
The program aims to transform old patterns and support 7 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unlocking-us-with-bren%C3%A9- brown/id1494350511?i=1000471405243 women to embrace their full potential, while simultaneously strengthening their businesses.

The program continued to evaluate the progress of women past completion and gathered promising data during the initial stages of the COVID outbreak.
All participants indicated that the coaching program better equipped them to respond to the pandemic, quoting higher levels of business confidence and emotional resilience.

The latter being fundamental to support their ability to adapt and cope with stress, and in turn promoting greater business resilience.
When designing new programs or pivoting existing program to address COVID-19, or in the context of Pacific Step Up, space should be created to think about how to build in more focus on self-care for the core team and beneficiaries of development programs.

Coaching, mentoring, and the teaching of self- awareness should not be add-ons for a select few of development programs.

They should be a core value and component of all that the development program does.
While technical skills matter, it is how we deal with life’s challenges, how we feel at work, and how we relate to one another that matters more.

Mindset work should be a core part of building the resilience of Pacific people.
2.2 Increasing the capacity of women to lead for gender equality In addition to increasing the focus of leadership programs on self-care, mindset and emotion science, there is also a need to re-frame women’s leadership programs so that women in the Pacific can lead for gender equality.

At TTC, our gender advisers and corporate team have deep experience designing and implementing innovative women’s leadership programs.
The Women in Leadership Journey is a flagship initiative under the Advancing Women in Leadership component of Aus4Skills being implemented by TTC.

This program aims to promote gender equitable leadership and to help women lead for gender equality.
The ten-month program, comprising many innovative activities in Vietnam and Australia, has helped women in Vietnam become more confident, knowledgeable and skilled to actively engage in their organisational decision-making and to help them to lead for gender equality.

To date, three groups of women have successfully completed the ten-month program which included intensive learning experiences and training in Vietnam and Australia and mentoring and coaching with Vietnamese psychologists.
The Women in Leadership (WIL) Journey has been implemented in partnership with Flinders University from Adelaide, South Australia and the Centre for Gender Studies and Women’s Leadership (GeLead) at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics.
4 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 Testimonials from WIL Journey Participants highlight the importance of the mindset component and of the focus on leading for gender equality: The [WIL] Journey has touched my heart and changed the way I think… Before the Journey I was only focused on my job, but I have now realised the importance of gender equality.

I know that I need to change and do something positive for people around me.
I have learned the importance of balancing my work and my family life.

I will support other women around me to achieve a work-life balance.

The traditional mindset is that men are always better than women.

To reduce gender inequality and to change this mindset I have started to encourage women to believe in their own value and abilities.
We have to make sure women know that they can do anything — they can hold important positions and be good leaders if they have equal opportunities to demonstrate their ability and leadership to men.
– Nguyễn Thị Thu Thủy, Deputy Head of Agriculture Department, Office of the Government The feedback from the participants demonstrates the development of both power with and power within, which in turn feeds into a sense of power to: I learned so much—before I had only heard about gender and gender equality in the media, and I had never worked with people living with disability… [now] I have become part of a network of 20 women from a wide array of sectors, departments, background and positions.
Secondly, we always started with a self-care activity, which is not like traditional training courses where you only listen to the teacher and take notes.

Thirdly, I have a mentor who accompanied me throughout the Journey and helped me balance my life.

I could be completely open with her, and even share personal things… My workplace project for the program is to establish a pilot course that increases skills in trade promotion for women- run enterprises.
It is the first of such courses specifically targeted towards women in Vietnam.

Since Vietnamese women have fewer training opportunities than men, I want to provide more for women entrepreneurs—particularly in e- commerce.
– Phạm Tố Ninh Deputy Head of Planning and Finance Division – Vietrade Ministry of Industry and Trade As part of the WIL Journey, women used their enhanced leadership skills to implement an Action Research Application Project, aimed at exploring gender equitable leadership issues and facilitating change within women’s workplaces and communities.

100% of participants in the program demonstrated at least one clear example of applying and/or exercising gender equitable leadership as part of their project.
Promising outcomes from the projects included successful pilots which tested innovative campaigns and approaches to key gender, disability and/or regional inclusion issues in the Vietnamese socio- political context, with the potential to be scaled up to regional or national levels, and instances of policy dialogue facilitated between marginalised women with disabilities and women from ethnic minority groups with Members of the National Assembly.
3 Recommendation 3: More work is needed to bridge the gap between policy and practice in order to increase the effectiveness of Australian overseas development assistance programs in supporting human rights of women and girls In our last submission to the JSCFADT inquiry into the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific Region, TTC noted that significantly more work is needed to bridge the gap between policy and practice.
We commend the efforts undertaken by the Australian Government so far, as we have seen the notable increase in the way in which mainstream designs are more consistently including gender equality as an integral part of the design, as well as the strength of the Gender Equality branch in DFAT.

Indeed, there have been advances, however, there is still more work to be done.
A lack of resources dedicated to gender technical expertise is still apparent, due oftentimes to a vacuum between the release of a program design and the following Statement of Requirements included in the Request for Tender.

For example, the PNG Australia Transition to Health program design was embedded with a strong approach to women in leadership, emphasising the need to create an enabling environment for women in public service and a focus on equitable service delivery.
However, when translated into the Request for Tender, the design’s intentions regarding gender were reduced to a small component of the contract.

TTC does, however, acknowledge that in other cases the design intentions have translated into practice.
The shift is evident in proposed contracts such as the Southeast Asian Economic Governance and Infrastructure Facility which, for example, has recognised the recommendations of the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment (June 2019) and prioritised gender, and disaster risk reduction and climate change, noting it as critical to achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
8 This has been positively translated into the Statement of Requirements, with strong aspirations around gender integration in activities and presence in the technical expertise.

Space is gradually being created to recognise the vital role women play in the global economy.

While TTC supports this, still program designs and contracts often state that gender will be mainstreamed with limited or no resources allocated in the program budget to do so.
International reviews of gender mainstreaming clearly show that gender capacity building and gender expertise during implementation are needed to enhance the implementing team and the recipients’ shared understanding of the importance 8 https://www.g20-insights.org/related_literature/g20-japan-principles-quality- infrastructure-investment/ 5 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 and relevance of the needs of women and girls to the program.
9 The issue is the gap, or perhaps the dimensional shift, between policy (setting agendas, producing designs) and operationalising that policy, where economic, political and cultural forces influence program implementation.

10 A lack of gender analysis in designs and technical expertise and resources in the implementation of mainstream programs can not only result in a lack of focus on gender equality and women’s rights, it can also lead to an inadequate or too narrow a focus.
For example, it is TTC’s experience that when teams lack experience, work on gender equality tends to focus more on addressing women’s practical needs and ensuring that women participate in program activities such as training and employment.

While supporting women’s practical needs is an important first step in advancing women’s empowerment, addressing their practical needs is not in itself enough to help them to achieve their rights.
For example, we know that crises, such as the COVID- 19 pandemic, disproportionately impact women and children.

While unemployment due to COVID-19 represents a threat for women and their families, programs focussed on getting women back into the workforce fail to address the increasing unpaid care burden, threat of gender-based violence and lack of access to vital resources, such as sexual and reproductive health services, that women are faced with.
11 We also know that gender analysis is often de- prioritised as a perceived trade-off for expedience in relief efforts which undermines the effectiveness of short-term relief and the durability of long-term recovery, as gender equality is inextricably linked with a nation’s resilience and recovery amidst disaster.

Activities that promote awareness by women and men of the human rights of women and girls are essential to support sustainable long-term change.
Multifaceted approaches to gender equality which address the complex and systemic barriers faced by women, which draw women into to planning and decision-making, and which are sufficiently funded and sustained over the life of the program are essential to good development practice.

Gender specialists need to provide advice at all stages of project / program cycle to other consultants and partners.
When DFAT program designs and contracts include increased funding for the resourcing of gender, the likelihood for success and effectiveness in this area of work would be significantly enhanced.

The Pacific RISE program is a strong example of a program that has been appropriately resourced to embed gender.
The concerted effort to include strong gender principles in the design of the program, and carrying that through to implementation, has led to 9 See for example, ADB, 2010, Gender Equality Results in ADB Projects: Regional Synthesis of Rapid Gender Assessments in Indonesia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, UNDP (2006), Evaluation of Gender Mainstreaming in UNDP, and Hunt, J, 2004.

Successful strategies for addressing gender equality issues in programs and projects: What works?, Development Bulletin, no.
64, pp.

53-57. finance intermediaries changing how they see value in businesses that have an impact on women’s economic empowerment and the market overall.

It has resulted in changes in their own due diligence processes to include a stronger focus on gender analysis.

A gender lens has also uncovered the hidden value of markets where women in the Pacific predominantly participate, such as creative arts and menstrual health, as well as looking at social issues affecting women such as gender-based violence.
An institutional focus on gender equality and the needs of women and girls is important for ensuring that the aid program takes gender equality seriously and produces the kind of results the Pacific RISE program has achieved, on a regular basis.

Allocating resources to the skilling-up of senior decision-makers at program level around gender can build understanding and accountability for gender equality and women’s rights.

This applies equally to donor and implementing partner organisations.
Additional opportunities for building in accountability through Memorandums of Understanding and contracts could also be explored.

An i-Kiribati schoolteacher reading a book exploring the theme of gender to the class.

10 Parpart, JL 2014, ‘Exploring the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming in international development institutions’.

Journal of International Development, no.

26, p. 382-395.

11 United Nations, 2020.

Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Women.


6 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 4 Recommendation: Increase the focus on gender capacity building, leadership and accountability for gender equality Even with an increased allocation of resources, our experience has been that staff exposure, including Team Leader level and above (or in the case of DFAT, Senior Executive Level), to training on gender and development is critical.
Training and awareness raising can support organisational accountability.

Lack of organisational accountability has been widely acknowledged internationally as one of the major reasons for slow progress in the implementation of gender equality policies.

12 An institutional focus on gender equality and the needs of women and girls is important for ensuring that the aid program takes gender equality seriously.
As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development noted: ‘[i]ssues that an organisation takes seriously become a focus of internal controls and culture’.

13 In the absence of senior level buy-in at the program level, success is to some extent dependent on the interest and commitment of individual team leaders and their staff, and motivated counterparts.
The aid program should be commended for the leadership role it has taken to promote the needs of women and girls and the steps taken to institutionalise a more consistent response, including through the delivery of gender training for staff; an increase in the number of gender advisers working full time within DFAT Canberra at levels that can have institutional influence; the appointment of regional gender advisers; conducting gender reviews; and through the inclusion of a target for effective gender mainstreaming.
The ongoing achievement of this target will require that senior leaders are well versed in gender issues and that staff are supported by robust and transparent systems and practices that include adequate attention to accountability for gender equality.

TTC believes there are additional opportunities to build in accountability for gender equality more consistently.
Our experience shows that when responsibility for implementing gender equality is included in contracts and given funding and support, and when gender results are documented in program design, it is more likely to be taken seriously by both the contractor and the DFAT program manager managing the contract.
More could also be done to hold development partners receiving aid funds accountable for implementing their own gender equality commitments through the inclusion of gender equality targets in Memorandums of Understanding.

Incentive payments attached to gender targets could also be included in funding agreements with partners.

There also needs to be more focus on gender capacity building of partners receiving development funding.

Most DFAT funded programs today have a large focus on capacity building.
Capacity building activities are usually linked to a partner’s core business and often focused on technical issues related to their work and while it is a requirement for most programs to also work with partners to address gender equality, designs do not often acknowledge that partners will also need capacity building to better understand these issues, their relevance to their core business and practical ways in which they can be addressed.
Greater attention to this should be given during the design phase with specific resources allocated for such capacity building.

Driving gender equality through capacity building in partner organisations The Incentive Fund (IF) in PNG, funded by DFAT and managed by TTC, demonstrates how effective specific gender focused capacity building activities with partners can be.
Working with the private sector and NGO partners, IF Phase 4 supports well-managed organisations to access funding for innovative projects that have a strong developmental impact for the people of PNG in order to deliver significant and immediate tangible economic and / or social development outcomes for men, women and children.
Through its four phases, the program has begun to lay the groundwork for increased understanding of the importance of equity of access for stakeholders and beneficiaries of funded projects and developed social inclusion checklists for both organisations and projects and provided grant funding for social inclusion activities.

The program provides funding for partners to include gender and social inclusion activities alongside their grant and trains them on how to deliver them.
The program found how important it is for partners to be empowered to understand barriers and to identify ways to make changes.

This can also lead to organisational change.

The Palmalmal Secondary School and Pomio District authorities for example, key IF4 partner organisations, led a campaign to raise awareness of the rights of children to an education.
As part of its gender equality and social inclusion activities, and through the support provided by IF4 in gender equality and social inclusion training, The Palmalmal Secondary School and Pomio District authorities, led by a local policewoman, held a series of meetings explaining that children have a right to an education, and now more primary school aged children are attending school.
Palmalmal Secondary School has also led an equal opportunity drive for both girls and boys through the selection of Grade 9 students.

The school now has an equal number of male and female students for the first time in their Grade 9 intake for 2018 with plans to repeat this process in coming years, aiming to bring enrolments to equal numbers of boys and girls.
The gender equality and social inclusion team also encouraged simple changes at the school including ending the practice of reading all the boys names first for school attendance records, instead listing them alphabetically.
12 AusAID, (2007) Gender equality in Australia’s aid program: Why and How, p. 25 13 OECD, Gender equality and aid delivery: What has changed in development co-operation agencies since 1999?, Paris, 2007, p. 40 7 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 5 Recommendation: Rethink how we 5.2 Engaging the private sector in testing conceptualise capacity building by increasing the focus on private sector, partnering, testing and piloting activities, and the use of incentives Historically, considerable effort has been given to gender sensitive capacity building and training, but we know that general gender awareness training is not enough to create widespread and sustained change.
It needs to be backed up by practical ideas and support to pilot and test solutions so that people can see what works and see the value of acting.

Key to this is formulating an adaptive approach which builds on new opportunities to promote gender equality and women’s leadership as they arise, supporting local leaders and champions to find common ground, promote learning and innovation and energize collective action.
Approaches to gender equality and social inclusion which seek out opportunities, build relationships and find and build on strengths are essential to create transformative change.

5.1 Piloting approaches to disability inclusion in i-Kiribati schools TTC, through the Kiribati Education Improvement Program (KEIP) for example, focuses on providing practical solutions around gender equality and disability.
KEIP has helped to establish six model inclusion schools and provides support to teachers and students to mainstream students living with disabilities.

KEIP has developed a Certificate III Teacher Assistant program which is building the skills of teaching assistants to provide in-school support to children living with disabilities.
It is the first locally designed program of its kind in the Pacific, and an opportunity to learn lessons and develop practical resources that may well be of use to other Ministries in the region.

KEIP is also supporting teaching assistants and the Ministry of Education Inclusive Education Officer to lead the development of new Individual Education Plans and updating existing Plans for students at model inclusion schools.
These model inclusion schools act as opportunities to pilot capacity building initiatives, giving us the opportunity to test a suite of teacher education inclusion strategies in structural environments which are conducive to students living with disabilities.

The work being undertaken under the Inclusive Education component is making a real difference for children living with disabilities, by providing tailored support for them to mainstream into model inclusion schools.
Currently, there are 26 students living with a disability (14 female and 12 male) in model inclusion schools that are supported by 13 locally qualified Teacher Assistants.

A further 21 teacher assistants are being trained and will be able to respond to the increasing demand to support Kiribati’s children with a disability in mainstream schools.
gender approaches TTC believes that civil society organisations have an important role to play in promoting gender equality and providing important services for women and girls in the Pacific, particularly in addressing violence against women and girls.

Women’s organisations should be resourced through the provision of core funding and support to provide these important services.

The private sector also has a role in the space of piloting and testing.
In PNG, the Business Coalition for Women is developing and market testing high quality products and services aimed at creating more equitable and inclusive enabling environments for women in the private sector.

This has included a women’s leadership course; model policies on family and sexual violence; and gender smart safety solutions for businesses.
These initiatives have resulted in high quality products and services, cost savings for businesses, broad recognition of the business case for gender equality in the market and a strong foundation for results demonstrated by recipient companies, which can be built and expanded on to better facilitate women’s economic empowerment through capacity building within the private sector.
Pacific RISE has also partnered with the Criterion Institute—a leading think tank in gender lens investing—to design a world-first gender-based violence due diligence tool to help investors assess how the incidence and consequences of gender-based violence pose a set of risks to an investment.

Pacific countries have some of the highest rates of gender- based violence in the world.
There are some studies into the costs of violence, but little is known about how these economic and social impacts pose a risk to investments.

This tool addresses this by an analysing four existing due diligence categories of political, regulatory, operational and reputational risks.

The tool is specific to the Pacific region, but it builds upon due diligence processes that are standard worldwide.
Leading impact investors and gender-based violence organisations provided feedback and guidance on the tool’s development.

5.3 Incentivising change through infrastructure grants In addition to piloting and testing, gender outcomes can be achieved through the better use of incentives.

While we know that behavioural change is key to driving outcomes for women and girls, we also know that changes in thinking and attitude only happen under the right circumstances.
TTC’s 20 years of experience implementing the PNG IF has shown the power that incentives and opportunities bring to catalysing attitudinal and behavioural change.

TTC employs a building block methodology to promote gender equality when implementing IF through all four of its phases.

The program uses funding for infrastructure as incentives to attract partners and 8 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21 engage them in a process of gender awareness and positive action.
We educate and support partners to examine possibilities to address gender equality in their policies, activities and services, and encourage champions for women’s empowerment.

A key outcome for IF, the empowerment of women and girls has been tracked in four key domains of change: access to services and resources, promoting decision- making, combatting gender violence, and supporting economic development.

In its final phase, 100% of TTC-supported projects are supporting the empowerment of women and girls.
6 Conclusion Tetra Tech Coffey understand that WEE goes beyond employment, that women leaders require more than enhanced skills and networks, and that capacity building need to step out of the awareness training box.

There is a need for greater depth in the way that we work to enhance the lives of women and girls in the Pacific.
This complexity comes through a deep understanding of the barriers that women and girls face the economic sphere, and acknowledgement of the key role that mindset and emotional intelligence play in the ability to lead and be resilient.

Innovative and adaptive approaches that draw on private sector capabilities can also do much to create widespread, systemic change.
To do this, however, and to continue to broaden the way that we work in the gender space, there is a need to translate policy intentions around gender equality firmly into project implementation, ensuring that there is adequate resourcing in place to realise greater gains for women and girls in the Pacific.

9 Inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the PacificSubmission 21