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solomon islands country supplement 141 However, women’s participation in public leadership positions in Solomon Islands is almost non-existent. Of the 50 members of Parliament, none are women, making Solomon Islands one of only a few countries with this situation. To successfully address violence against women, this needs to change over the long term. RAMSI provides a good opportunity for donors and the Government of Solomon Islands to work together to increase the levels of political participation by women. Some work is underway, but on a relatively small scale. Economic empowerment In the long run, economic empowerment of women will strengthen violence prevention efforts in Solomon Islands (as well as having many other positive development outcomes). Economic development programs in Solomon Islands, particularly those targeting women, need to incorporate education around violence against women and gender relations. If not carefully addressed, however, programs increasing a woman’s access to economic resources can put her at risk of increased violence. This is particularly true in settings where a woman’s status is low, because increasing her income can lead to greater conflict within the family (Koenig, Hossain et al. 1999). On the other hand, if such issues are addressed within the community and among women leaders, such programs can significantly contribute to reducing violence against women. Community-mobilisation activities and micro-finance programs in Solomon Islands that involve education about rights and violence against women are likely to significantly reduce the levels of violence against women as well as improving repayment rates in micro-finance activities. 6 Two current activities provide a basis from which to take this agenda forward in Solomon Islands. > Rokotanikeni Association and economic empowerment of women: The Rokotanikeni Association was established in 1999 following a study carried out by Dr Alice Pollard on the changing roles of women and men. Its primary focus is to provide economic empowerment to women from West Areare, Malaita, thereby giving them greater control over the resources necessary for advancing their families. Membership has grown to more than 500 since its inception. The Community Sector Program (CSP), funded by AusAID, is currently reorganising its activities to concentrate on capacity-building at the ward level of the Provincial Council of Women. The CSP could provide an opportunity to strengthen women’s participation in community leadership and, potentially, to engage in prevention activities for violence against women. 6 For example, see: Pronyk, PM & Hargreaves JR, et al. 2006, ‘Effect of a structural intervention for the prevention of intimate-partner violence and HIV in rural South Africa: a cluster randomised trial’, Lancet 368(9551): 1973–83; Kim, JC & Watts, CH et al. 2007, ‘Understanding the impact of a microfinance-based intervention on women’s empowerment and the reduction of intimate partner violence in South Africa’, American Journal of Public Health 97(10): 1794–802.
142 v i o l e n c e a g a i n s t w o m e n i n m e l a n e s i a a n d e a s t t i m o r 7 Conclusions and recommendations 7.1 Conclusions After a promising start in the 1990s to address women’s human rights and violence against women in Solomon Islands, these issues were put on the back burner during the tensions. Since peace was restored, most development and emergency efforts have focused on basic issues, such as restoring law and justice institutions and economic livelihoods. However, it is clear that violence against women and girls threatens not only the health and wellbeing of individuals, but affects Solomon Islands society as a whole. Therefore, efforts to address violence against women must be integrated into the country’s overall social and economic development strategy. A great deal of enthusiasm exists around rebuilding the momentum lost and strengthening efforts to eliminate violence against women. Because the law and justice sector is so weak at present, it seems priority should be on developing communitylevel efforts to prevent violence and support victims. The Committees Against Violence Against Women from Vanuatu and that country’s work with male advocates (emphasising outreach to local authorities, police officers, chiefs, and magistrates), could be a useful model for strengthening village-level work. Ultimately, however, the effectiveness of community-level efforts depends on national law reform. The recommendations in the regional report on priorities for supporting anti-violence against women initiatives are all relevant for Solomon Islands. In addition, the team suggests a number of other priorities for support within Solomon Islands (described below). Australia is well positioned to play a supporting role by systematically integrating into all of its programming, strategies to reduce violence against women through humanrights and gender-sensitive approaches. 7.2 Specific recommendations for all Solomon Islands actors Support research dissemination: The results from the study on violence against women will provide an excellent opportunity to draw attention to the issue. Full advantage should be taken of this. Support should be made available for public awareness activities around the results, including disseminating them through formal and informal channels, community-level activities and outreach activities with churches and the Council of Chiefs, etc. Support multisectoral coordination, both among local groups working on women’s issues and interagency coordination within the government. The revival of the Ministry for Women, Youth and Children’s Affairs and the preparation of the second CEDAW Report provides an opportunity to strengthen coordination and incorporate activities to address violence against women into other government ministries. Line
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