FORUM ECONOMIC MINISTERS MEETING FORUM ECONOMIC OFFICIALS MEETING UPDATES ON MEASURES TO IMPROVE ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

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1 PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT PIFS(13)FEMT.10 FORUM ECONOMIC MINISTERS MEETING AND FORUM ECONOMIC OFFICIALS MEETING Nuku alofa, Tonga 3 5 July, 2013 SESSION 3: EMPOWERING WOMEN, EMPOWERING DEVELOPMENT UPDATES ON MEASURES TO IMPROVE ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN This paper, prepared by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat with input from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women s Empowerment, Asian Development Bank, New Zealand Aid Program, Australian Agency for International Development and International Finance Corporation, tracks current measures to improve economic empowerment of women in the Pacific Region in accordance with the 2012 Forum Leaders Gender Equality Declaration and FEMM outcomes.

2 Purpose Session 3 Updates on Measures to Improve Economic Empowerment of Women [PIFS(13)FEMT.10] This paper provides an update on measures to improve the economic empowerment of women in the Forum Island Countries (FICs) following the 2012 FEMM outcomes and the 2012 Forum Leaders Gender Equality Declaration. It highlights targeted support by the technical agencies and development partners to improve women s economic empowerment and identifies current challenges and gaps to accelerate efforts to improve the economic empowerment of women in the region. Background 2. Forum Economic Ministers, at their 2012 meeting recalled the vital role of women in the economic development of member countries and the urgent need to improve women s participation in economic activities and development, and adopted a FEMM Action Plan with specific priorities for women s economic empowerment. The 2012 FEMM Action Plan priorities for women s economic empowerment focuses on: i. improving women s employment and participation in the formal and informal sectors; ii. iii. iv. increasing women s access to finance, business ownership and markets; women s right to safe, fair and equal participation in local economies; and improving access to and use of sex disaggregated data. 3. The FEMM Action plan aims to strengthen current commitments on women s economic empowerment emanating from the Revised Pacific Platform for Action on Advancement of Women and Gender Equality , Millennium Declaration in 2000, Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and International Labour Organisation s (ILO) Gender Conventions. 4. The 2012 Forum Leaders Gender Equality Declaration brought new determination and commitment to empower women to be active participants in economic, political and social life. In the area of women s economic empowerment, the Declaration specifically committed Leaders to: i. Remove barriers to women s employment and participation in the formal and informal sectors, including in relation to legislation that directly or indirectly limits women s access to employment opportunities or contributes to discriminatory pay and conditions for women. ii. iii. Implement equal employment opportunity and gender equality measures in public sector employment, including State Owned Enterprises and statutory boards, to increase the proportion of women employed, including in senior positions, and advocate for a similar approach in private sector agencies; Improve the facilities and governance of local produce markets, including fair and transparent local regulation and taxation policies, so that market operations increase profitability and efficiency and encourage women s safe, fair and equal participation in local economies; and 2

3 iv. Target support to women entrepreneurs in the formal and informal sectors, for example financial services, information and training, and review legislation that limits women s access to finance, assets, land and productive resources. 5. Following the adoption of the 2012 Forum Leaders Gender Equality Declaration, the Prime Minister of Australia, Honourable Julia Gillard, announced a 10 year A$320 million Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (PWSPD) Initiative with the objective to make a practical difference in the lives of Pacific women, their families and their communities. 6. The PWSPD Initiative will contribute to an increase in the number and effectiveness of women in decision-making roles at national and local levels across the Pacific; increase economic opportunities for women through improved access to financial services and markets, and improve safety for women through better services, violence prevention and access to justice. To ensure that the initiative meets the individual needs of each country, country plans are being developed and the first plans have been finalised for Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Solomon Islands 1. Issues Reporting National Progress on Women s Economic Empowerment 7. Currently work is underway to formalise an annual regional reporting framework on the Leaders Gender Equality Declaration with specific progress indicators 2. The envisaged Regional Leaders Gender Equality Declaration Annual Progress Report can also be used by Forum Economic Ministers in future to measure progress on the FEMM s commitments on women s economic empowerment. This work is being led by the Forum Secretariat and Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) with the support from development partners. Removing Barriers to Women s Employment, Decent Jobs and Economic Participation 8. In 2012, Cook Islands passed the Employment Workplace Act which aims to improve and promote equality for both women and men in the workplace, including maternity leave provision. In March 2013, the Samoan Government passed the Labor and Employment Relations Act prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace. Kiribati, Samoa, PNG and Vanuatu are progressing labour law reform with technical support from ILO. Tonga is in the process of finalising its draft Employment Relations Bill. 9. The Forum Secretariat is exploring opportunities to collaborate with ILO and UN Women to support labour reforms in Small Island States (SIS) in response to the Women s Economic Empowerment Plans for Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and Nauru. A concept note is being developed in 1 Summaries of the plans are available on the AusAID website. 2 The indicators for measuring economic empowerment of women in the region will be: Basic Needs Poverty Rate (sex disaggregated); (2) Female to male labour force participation ratio; (3) Share of women in wage employment in the nonagricultural sector; (4) Ratio of Women on Boards of State Owned Enterprises; (5) Pay parity across the public sector; and (6) Land titles registration (sex disaggregated). 3

4 consultation with ILO and UN Women for extended work in SIS on Addressing legislative and policy barriers to women s economic rights. 10. RMI and Nauru have developed Women s Economic Empowerment Plans with support from the Forum Secretariat through the UN Women (Small Island States Catalyst Funds). There are plans for similar women s economic empowerment mainstreaming and policy development projects to be implemented in the remaining SIS by the Forum Secretariat. Solomon Islands is finalising its Women s Economic Empowerment Strategy with support from RAMSI, and Niue is in the process of finalising its draft gender policy which includes key priorities on women s economic empowerment. 11. Assessing women s economic participation through their representation on Stated Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Board was undertaken through a survey conducted in Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Palau, RMI, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu by the Forum Secretariat and UN Women. Apart from providing an indication of the proportion of females participating on SOEs, more importantly the survey looks into the enabling components to secure women s participation and leadership in public sector boards. In response to the low level of female representation in SOE boards affirmative action measures are underway in Solomon Islands 3 with funding support from RAMSI through the Ministry of Finance, under the Corporate Governance Services Programme. 12. In PNG, Finding Balance Benchmarking the Performance of State Owned Enterprises in Papua New Guinea was launched in This Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) study comprehensively assessed PNG SOE viability and performance, and included information on women s participation in SOE boards in Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, and RMI. 4 Women and men officers in SOE monitoring units in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have undergone training from PSDI, and Solomon Islands are in the process of negotiating plans for targeted SOE director training to build director skills and capacity, including the skills of the current female director cohort of around 16% of total positions. Gender Statistics 13. Cook Islands, RMI and Vanuatu are focusing on improving gender statistics with the support of the SPC, as part of a regional initiative to build the capacity of FICs to follow through on and monitor national, regional and international commitments related to gender equality and the advancement of women. The initiative is aimed at increasing national capacity to collect, compile, analyse and utilise gender statistics for law and policy development, programming, monitoring and reporting; and to improve evidence on the situation of women and men at the national and regional level. This is essential for use in policy, planning and advocacy, and overall to contribute to the long term strengthening of gender statistics and information throughout the Pacific region. 3 Government of Solomon Islands CEDAW Combined Initial, Second and Third Periodic Report 2012 highlighted that there are 9 State Owned Enterprises, although the boards have a total of 63 members of which 9 are females, and 5 boards do not have any female members. 4 ADB Finding Balance Benchmarking the Performance of State-Owned Enterprises in Papua New Guinea. Manila 4

5 Women s Access to Financial Services, Assets, land and Productive Resources 14. Cook Islands, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, and Vanuatu are undergoing a variety of significant company law reform. 5 These activities undertaken with ongoing PSDI technical assistance and implementation support and promote a more enabling environment for private sector development in the Pacific and improve women s legal and regulatory access to finance, formal employment, and business opportunities. Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, RMI, FSM, Palau and Tonga have worked with PSDI to deliver new secured transactions registries. Since its inception in 2010, Solomon Islands Company Haus electronic registry has recorded a significant increase in both women shareholders and female company directorships. 15. PNG s draft law which creates legal authority for an asset registry is being discussed at cabinet level and if passed, this law will permit the use of movable assets as collateral. Women who do not have formal title to customary land will benefit as the law will unlock access to formal credit markets 6. Six major projects are focusing on the expansion of access to finance services in PNG 7, and all have outreach to women 8. The Nationwide Micro-Bank in PNG, with PSDI support, has been an innovative regional leader in developing the first bank-led mobile phone banking product in the South Pacific, known as MiCash. Nationwide Micro-Bank recognised the need for a specific focus on women and employed a manager for women s banking. In addition, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga and Solomon Islands will be introducing a more robust, secure and cheaper mode of payment and transfers, improving women entrepreneurs and business owners ability to save and invest, supported by the International Finance Corporation. Women s Right to Safe, Fair and Equal participation in local economies 16. Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu have commenced improvements to local market infrastructure which include plans for improvements to security for women within markets. This work is supported by UN Women, United Nations Development Programme, AusAID and the New Zealand Aid Programme. 17. The Forum Secretariat and the Forum Reference Group to Address Sexual and Gender Based Violence have commissioned research to determine the economic costs to national economies, communities and families of violence against women in FICs. This includes the loss of productivity, cost of services to victims and their families, and policing and judicial costs. 5 Initiatives include new Companies Act implementation, Company Law amendments, Insolvency and Receiverships Act reviews, company and business registries diagnostics, design and implementation, Registration of Business Names Act reviews, Customs Act reforms, credit union policy and law updates, business license reform and company registry migration reform. 6 Papua New Guinea Country Gender Assessment Papua New Guinea Country Gender Assessment PNG Government supports the Women s MicroBank, managed by the PNG Women in Business Entity, The Asian Development Bank, PNG Microfinance Expansion Project, The Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme funded by United Nations Capital Development Fund, AusAID, European Union and UNDP and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) investment in the PNG Microbank, IFC s investment in Bank South Pacific and The New International Development Association-IFC Risk Share Facility for small and medium enterprise. 5

6 18. The main challenge in implementing women s economic empowerment is the political will to implement results-oriented women s economic empowerment policies. It has to be recognised that policy changes and implementation require sustained political will and efforts from FICs with significant assistance from development partners to sustain the current momentum and opportunities accorded. Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Suva June