Ageing women prone to poverty
A RESEARCH conducted by the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) showed that ageing women’s experience of poverty was significantly high.
The NGO commemorated the 30th anniversary of the International Day of Older Persons with the launch of its latest research on ageing women and poverty.
The research, “Ageing women and poverty in Fiji: a preliminary review of global to national commitments” is supported by the Australian government through the “We Rise Coalition”.
A statement released by FWRM yesterday said the publication presented a global and national profile of ageing women, key frameworks and mechanisms for action, and trends in poverty among ageing women.
“Efforts to analyse the trend in poverty specifically for older women in Fiji is a gap because of the limited data and research available,” the statement read.
FWRM executive director Nalini Singh said the analysis stemmed from FWRM’s 2017 scoping study on the status of ageing women in Fiji.
“Ageing women face multiple forms of discrimination and violence because of gender inequality throughout their life cycle and this is exacerbated by interlinked ageing issues such as health problems,” she said, adding that a key issue identified from the 2017 study was that ageing women’s experience of poverty was significantly high and that many of the women in the study lacked financial autonomy and independence. Additionally, the women in the study stated that physical, emotional, psychological, and socio-economic support declined as people aged, leaving older women more vulnerable.
Ms Singh said in order to address the genderrelated impacts of ageing and the interlinked intersectional issues, it was essential to strengthen social protection systems and schemes in Fiji to be comprehensive and gender-responsive.
“Fiji has international obligations to protect women’s human rights throughout their life cycle such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on ageing.
FWRM presented the research at the social welfare department under the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation yesterday.