BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO
‘DO no harm and turning research into practice’ workshop in Solomon Islands was launched yesterday at the Heritage Park Hotel in Honiara.
The research is mainly focused on understanding the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and violence against women in Melanesian.
It is a partnership between the Department of Pacific Affairs (DPA) formerly State Society and Governance in Melanesian (SSGM) at the Australian National University (ANU) and the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) funded by the Australian Aid programme’s Pacific Women Programme.
In this research, distinction between women’s economic advancement and women’s economic empowerment has been made.
Women’s economic empowerment refers to women gaining increased income, access to employment and other activities that see their resources increased.
This distinction is important, since many programmes claim to be working on women’s economic empowerment, but are, in fact much more narrowly focused on increasing women’s access to resources.
Present in the launching ceremony yesterday were Permanent Secretaries of Ministry of Women Children, Youth and Family Affairs( MWYCA) and of Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA), Representative from Australian Government and other donor partners and Women from Rural areas.
