Long road to gender equality in Solomon Islands - report

Transcript

The Asia Development Bank has completed what it says is the first comprehensive assessment of the role of women in Solomon Islands society.

The ADB's principal social development specialist in Honiara, Sunhwa Lee, says the goal of the Country Gender Assessment is to better focus policies and priorities to improve the quality of life for women.

She told Jamie Tahana that the Solomon Islands government has committed to promoting equal opportunities for women, but the report's found that more needs to be done to translate commitment into action.

SUNHWA LEE: This assessment is a comprehensive situation analysis of women and in the past there has been an analysis of women's situations but this one looks at women's situations across various sectors for instance in education, in the economy and in political settings as well so it is giving a good overview based on updated data and research about where sort of on island the women are having in terms of gender equality.

JAMIE TAHANA: And nothing like this has been done before in Solomon Islands?

SL: Yes I mean there are some surveys on the harassment issues, there are some studies on other education but
nothing really comprehensive in terms of a gender analysis.

JT: Okay, what did you find from this?

SL: What we found is that there are very much closer linkages across the sectors affecting women's status and women's access to opportunity and access to other resources.

JT: And what are these kinds of barriers to access that you are talking about?

SL:Yes, for instance the traditional gender relations which are very strong in family, in the local communities,
those are really hindering women's equal participation in education and the fact that women have a lower education than men also affects women's status and also affects women's participation in the economy in terms of their engagement in income generating activities and it is going to create  a feedback on women's status in the family. So that is what we found, that there is some very close linkages - it is not just one sector which we found a greater gender inequality but there are very much closer linkages across areas of development.

JT: Okay so say family hierarchies are being emulated in the public sector or the business sector. What do you do to address that?

SL: Actually the country gender assessment - we provide analysis of each sector and also it does suggest several recommendations that can be put forward through the government and other society groups and these recommendations will be put forward. And for instance one of the specific recommendations is to make sure to have a gender strategy in education sector and strategic plans and those have already been taken up for instance, by the Ministry of Education, to prepare gender policy.