Minister ramps up anti-violence campaign Ministry REACHes 31,000 Fijians
FIJI requires a coordinated effort and partnership with various Government Ministries, Departments, Non-Government Organisations (NGO) to address the issue of violence against women and children through public awareness and training.
While speaking in Parliament last week, Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Rosy Akbar said, “In 2019, 10 Fijian women lost their lives due to intimate partner violence”.
“In 2020, four Fijian women lost their lives the same way, COVID-19 related lockdowns also saw a hike in domestic violence reports over the past year continuing till now.”
These include physical, emotional and sexual violence and Minister Akbar believes that violence against women and girls was “everyone’s responsibility”.
The Elimination of Violence Against Women Programmes have been developed in alignment with Conventions on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 1979 and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) as outlined in Section 5.18 of the National Gender Policy and detailed in the Women’s Action Plan of 2020, 2010 to 2019 and the current 2021 to 2025 Strategic Direction.
Minister Akbar further added the monitoring and evaluation of the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls Programme was undertaken in partnership with various stakeholders to gauge the impact of work they are doing in terms of eliminating violence against women and girls.
“The stakeholder partnerships are also used to implement our programmes and this includes the development of Fiji’s first ever national action plan to prevent violence against women and girls. The Ministry commits to achieving results in this area of concern through its annual cost operation plan providing innovative approaches and key strategies to progress the work to prevent violence against our women and girls.”
Minister Akbar hopes the National Action Plan will give data and evidence of the root cause of violence against women and girls in Fiji and what additional contributing factors make the violence more likely to reoccur.
“The Ministry is working and involving all stakeholders to ensure that they also have a role in the soon to be finalised Fiji’s National Action Plan.”
Minister Akbar urged victims of domestic violence to feel free to call the National Domestic Violence toll-free helpline 1560 and children who are victims of violence to call the child helpline 1325.
THE Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation-led Rights Empowerment and Cohesion (REACH) for Rural and Urban Fijians Project has assisted 31,000 Fijians through mobile awareness training.
Responding to a question in Parliament last week, Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Rosy Akbar said the project, since its inception in 2015, through the collective donor funded activities had enabled Fijians in the urban, peri-urban, rural and maritime islands areas to access social, health, legal and economic services provided by the project.
The project has been rendered through the support of the government of Japan, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, (DFAT).
“The REACH is basically about the utilisation of three mobile service delivery buses which were funded by the Government of Japan and this has been critical in enhancing service delivery in our three divisions; Central, Western and Northern.”
“Having seen the value of REACH and the work that it does, it actually adds to the vision of the Fijian Government to leave no one behind and the Government approved the integration of the project into a programme in 2019 under the Ministry,” Minister Akbar said.
“So far the Ministry-led REACH Programme has covered a total of 220 districts, including Rotuma and reaching out to 1136 communities inclusive of villages, settlements and schools. 31,000 individuals, including men, women and children have benefitted from the mobile awareness training and 61,744 services were delivered by state and non-state actors,” Minister Akbar highlighted in Parliament.
Gender wise, more women have tapped into the services that were provided during the outreach programmes.
Minister Akbar assured that the REACH project will support and work in collaboration with the Births, Deaths and Marriage Office and Fijian Elections Office to reach women who will be affected by the recently passed Electoral (Registration of Voters) (Amendment) Bill 2021.
“As mentioned by the Attorney-General that close to 100,000 women will be affected by the new registration Bill, we can assure the House and all the women out there that REACH will support the Fijian Elections Office and BDM Office and bring the services to their doorsteps,” she said.
Additional funding from the Government of Japan and the UNDP will allow for the project to continue reaching out to Fijians – especially those currently living with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent tropical cyclones.