Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development: Three Year Evaluation MANAGEMENT RESPONSE Investment Summary Investment Name Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women) AidWorks initiative number INK496 Commencement date 2 April 2012 Completion date 30 June 2022 Australian $ AUD$320 million Delivery organisation(s) Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Implementing partner(s) 14 Pacific Island governments, multilateral and regional organisations, international and national non-government organisations and civil society organisations Country/Region Pacific Regional Primary sector Gender Initiative description Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women) was announced by the Australian Government at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders’ meeting in August 2012. It commits up to $320 million over 10 years in 14 Pacific Islands Forum member countries. The program aims to improve opportunities for the political, economic and social advancement of Pacific women. Pacific Women will support countries to meet the commitments they made in the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration (PLGED) in 2012. The intended outcomes sought by Pacific Women include: Women, and women’s interests, are increasingly and effectively represented and visible through leadership at all levels of decision-making. Women have expanded economic opportunities to earn an income and accumulate economic assets. Violence against women is reduced and survivors of violence have access to support services and to justice. Women in the Pacific will have a stronger sense of their own agency, supported by a changing legal and social environment and through increased access to the services they need. Pacific Women is implemented through work at the country and regional level. Country plans have been developed to represent locally relevant responses and starting points for change towards the key intended outcomes. Regional and multi-country activities have been designed to address common issues across the region or sub-region and to complement and build on country specific activities. To support program management a Pacific Women Support Unit has been established in Fiji, with a national sub-office in PNG. The Support Unit's role is to provide technical, administrative and logistical support to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) bilateral and regional Pacific Women teams and to Pacific Women’s implementing partners.
through the development of a number of communication products that will explain the ‘model’ of Pacific Women to external stakeholders. Evaluation Recommendations Against Domains of Change Context Recommendation 2.1: Since ownership by women and women’s organisations from the Pacific is a major part of the driving force that will gain leverage for the program, and sustain its benefits, the programs needs to develop specific and explicit strategies to advance ownership (and leadership) by women, women’s organisations and other organisations from the Pacific region. Agree. See response to recommendation 1.3 Strategy Recommendation 3.1: Now is the time to up work on women’s economic empowerment and leadership and decision making. This will mean rebalancing overall resource distribution to better support these outcomes, and to ensure that all outcome areas are active in each country. Wherever possible, Pacific Women should work in outcome combinations to achieve this. See response to recommendation 1.1. Recommendation 3.2: In cases where it is felt ending violence against women should continue to be more emphasised than other outcomes, the logic for this should be reflected in the Theory of Change and the country plan monitoring, evaluation and learning framework (MELF). Agree Rationale for selection of programs will continue to be included in Pacific Women country plans. Country level MELFs will be supported to develop a ToC that reflect not only the activities being funded, but how they are weighted and the impact that we expect this will have on country level outcomes. DFAT/Support Unit
Objective 2: To advance the quality, commitment to and resourcing of gender research in the Pacific region. Recommendation 3.8: More attention to and emphasis on the issue and role of innovation will help to collect and synthesise information on innovative approaches being tested across the program, and to bring these into systematic learning processes. Agree Pacific Women has already contributed to innovation in the Pacific and we will continue to build on this work. For example we commissioned research on how women’s and girl’s limited access to menstrual hygiene affects their lives. A number of programs support innovative practices, including partnering with churches to support community norm change and working with the private sector in PNG to identify effective responses to violence against women and to promote women’s leadership opportunities. The country reflection workshops (see recommendation 3.6) are an important opportunity to identify, generate and synthesise information on innovative approaches being tested across the program. Learning about innovation will be shared with partners at regional learning events, through the Pacific Women newsletter, through social media sites and the Pacific Women website. DFAT/Support Unit Process Recommendation 4.1: Initiate an open and forward-looking process between Posts, the Support Unit and the Pacific Women management team to explore a dynamic and strategic role for the Support Unit. The role of the Support Unit is defined in program documentation and communicated with Posts. However, DFAT recognises that continued communication on the current and potential roles of the Support Unit within the program is essential. An evaluation of the Support Unit commencing July 2017 will identify strengths and achievements of the Support Unit’s implementation, with recommendations for how the Support Unit could enhance outcomes for Pacific Women. The evaluation will also assess whether the DFAT/Support Unit