WOMAN’S EMPOWERMENT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Women are at the center of family life, as caretakers of their husbands, children and extended family members, Woman’s are in charge of majority of households and they are the key food producers and they represent 68% of the agriculture labour force, in addition to playing a major role in managing poultry, diary animals, and marketing of hand crafts and food produce. Women in our society are treated as second class citizen by male.  Our country’s culture has being deeply entrenched in its traditional and cultural beliefs that woman are subjected to their husband command and control irrespective of their nature have also given the male power over woman. The bride price exchanges in marriages have also added to this cause.

PNG Institute of Medical Research and United Nation shows that 55% of the woman in PNG are victim of force sex within marriage, 80% of woman have been beaten by their husband, 86% women experience sexual violence in their lifetime and 17% of sexual abuse involved girls between the age 13 and 14, whether its rape, or sexual trafficking. The violence against woman is 96% in Highland Provinces.

PNG’s government officials should look closely into the violence against woman within their Government Organization because to the Police rape wasn’t a crime. Several news media has stated that Police involve in raping in many occasion. PNG is often labelled as potentially the worst place in the world for gender violence. It denies far too many women the opportunity to live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives and contributing positively and meaningfully to their communities and the country at large.

 

The Problem

1. Sorcery

For decades woman have been tortured, beaten, burned and executed due to our communities’ believe in the sorcery (sanguma). It is believed that when tortured they’ll tell the truth.” The gruesome act of torturing is a night mare of most woman and girls

2. Access to Education

Three (3) out of every five (5) young women had never completed their primary education. That number represent a huge pool of untapped girl’s power: the same report suggested that educated woman are luckily to get married later, survive childbirth, raise healthy kids, find work and earn more money among other positives.

3. Employment Opportunities

Women are likely to invest more of their money back into their families and communities than man typically does.

 

4. Reproductive Health & Rights

63 % of the woman population in our communities have an unmet need for family planning, contributing factor to unplanned pregnancies and abortion every year.

5. Maternal Health

13% of the women died in the past decade from preventable pregnancy related causes.

6. Gender-Based Violence

1 in 3 woman experience sexual violence in their lifetime, whether it’s rape, or sexual trafficking, gender-based violence denies far too many women the opportunity to live happy, healthy, fulfilling and productive lives.

 

7. Child Marriage

87% of girls marry before age 18 is typically denied an education, at risk of complications related to premature childbirth and more vulnerable to intimate partner violence. Most family in rural areas are uneducated and they force their children for marriage in exchange for bride Price.

8. Water & Sanitation

Inadequate clean drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilitates, immediately affects woman and children, they are the ones who the suffer most. Case in point: Girls whose schools lack proper bathroom will often skip school during their menstrual period for fear of embarrassment or stigma. 89% of the women in our community are frequently fetching water, which is cumbersome and time-consuming.

9. Gender equity

Equality is a recurring issue when it comes to woman and girls, whether it’s unequal access to schooling for girls in our communities, woman are treated as slave, house worker and care taker.

10. Marketing, Entrepreneurship & Leadership.

Woman has brilliant business ideas and has a 60% business success rate but they don’t have confident, Motivation, skills and training to implement their ideas to be productive because male take their ideas as secondary option.

11. Disability Rights

24% of the disability girls fell in victims of rape, sexual trafficking and sexual assault.

12. Informal Economy

90% of the total population involve in to informal economy without formal training. Infrastructure issues, institutional issues and economic issues are the main contributing factor to informal economy. Community development Department stated that 95% of the working professional families in private and public organization involved in informal economy.

OUR VISION

Gender equality for all

OUR PURPOSE

To advance and protect the rights of diverse women and girls

OUR VALUES

Feminist – We respect women’s diverse experiences, identities, knowledge and strengths and strive to empower women to realise their full and equal rights.

Accountable – We are honest and transparent and are committed to evaluating and communicating the outcomes of our work with integrity. We are accountable to our partners, our supporters and, most of all the diverse women we work with.

Collaborative – We build trusting relationships and strong partnerships as we believe that advancing together with women’s rights organisations and networks is crucial for achieving progressive change.

Transformative – We are determined to make real, lasting improvements in women’s lives by working to transform the root causes of gender inequality and holding go

Goal

1. Promote women’s leadership and participation
2. Strengthen women’s safety and security
3. Accelerate women’s economic empowerment
4. Advance systemic change
5. Ensure organizational sustainability and accountability
6. End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
7. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
8. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
9. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
10. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
11. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
12. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
13. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
14. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation.
15. Reduce inequality within and among countries.
16. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
17. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
18. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
19. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
20. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
21. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
22. Strengthen the means of implementation

STRATEGIC PLAN

Educating men on the importance of gender equality is the key to developing a male population who will consider woman as equal partners in taking this nation forward.

Educating woman of their rights and taking a bold stand when marginalised or abused will also Access to resources through education, health, and entrepreneurship; Access to rights through legal and social empowerment, including power to address gender-based family and sexual violence; and Access to voice through participation in decision-making in politics and in the public and private sectors.

Department of Woman

Government should implement a department within the government organization. The department will be the reprehensive of the entire woman in Papua New Guinea and implement Woman and Children Acts and policies to make a solid foundation to fight the Gender base Violence.

Informal Economy Department

The informal economy has been observed to have more of a fixed character in countries where incomes and assets are not equitably distributed. It’s seems that if economic growth is not accompanied by improvements in employment levels and income distribution, the informal economy does not shrink. The situation is there for the informal economy is continuously increasing in Port Moresby even in rural areas.  Government should implement a policy to increase the salary of both private and public workers also to decrease the tax rate and provide an organized structure to reduce poverty.

Groups and Organization

We will engage with every intuition, Clinics, Church Groups, Community based Association and Community Leaders. To promote gender rights, Literacy, HIV/AIDs Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Reproductive Health. Where we can use them out to .empower woman and children

We will use each organization and groups to work together to make PNG a better place for woman to live in.

To achieve the Papua New Guinea we hope for, women’s rights and gender equality must be at the heart of our efforts

Abstract Sources

• https://www.google.com.pg/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/dec/16/women-domestic-violence-abuse-papua-new-guinea
• https://asiapacificreport.nz/2017/06/21/five-png-police-officers-sentenced-to-87-years-in-jail-for-rape-arson/
• http://www.looppng.com/content/women-png-still-suffering-violence
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-29/png-upsurge-in-sorcery-related-violence/9095894
• https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/future-papua-new-guinea-old-challenges-new-leaders
• http://www.pngfacts.com/stop-violence-against-woman
• https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/papua-new-guinea-sexual-violence_us_56d9fca1e4b0ffe6f8e974f2
• https://www.rand.org/blog/2014/12/domestic-violence-as-a-way-of-life-the-reality-for.html

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