By Loretta B Manele
Changes for women and girls’ rights in Solomon Islands is not happening fast enough.
Aaron Pitaqae, deputy secretary for the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs (MWYCFA) raised this earlier this month at the International Women’s Day (IWD) event at the National Museum Auditorium.
Referring to the event’s theme “Accelerate Action for All Women and Girls; Rights, Equality and Empowerment”, he said it is telling us that while changes are happening in the realization of women’s rights, equality and empowerment, these changes are not happening fast enough.
Pitaqae stressed that we need to speed up and accelerate actions and steps within respective government ministries, organizations, agencies and sectors to enrich long historical issues facing women of our country.
He added that at the same time, we must ensure that we don’t backtrack.
Pitaqae mentioned that in our efforts, we are faced with unprecedented and emerging issues.
Meanwhile, he said the Solomon Islands government through MWYCFA, is responsible for a significant policy framework called “Affirmative Action Strategy 2022-2027” that seeks to support the acceleration of advancement and empowerment of women in Solomon Islands.
“Accelerating women’s prospects and pathway to leadership decision-making and governance, this is a first of its kind for Solomon Islands.”
He explained that the strategy establishes commitment that adopting temporary special measures is key to accelerating equality between women and men.
Pitaqae highlighted that as we celebrate this event and work through 2025, we should ask ourselves whether we are accelerating action or if we are still taking our time to do so.
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