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In collaboration with

“Community radio enables people - especially marginalized sectors

such as women and youth - to voice their concerns and to unite around

common causes in order to challenge decision-makers and create

communities that better respond to their needs. Community radio,

alongside digital platforms and citizen journalism, is fast becoming one

of the focal points for grassroots democracy, good citizenship and good

governance.” (WACC General Secretary Rev. Dr. Karin Achtelstetter)

Read more: (https://www.facebook.com/notes/femlinkpacific/growing-up-with-femtalk-89fm/10152391855874295; https://

www.facebook.com/notes/femlinkpacific/recalling-10-years-with-the-suitcase-radio/10152384905389295; https://www.

facebook.com/notes/femlinkpacific/femtalk-89fm-the-community-radio-is-awesome/10152345064384295; https://www.

facebook.com/notes/femlinkpacific/femtalk-89fm-continues-to-communicate-a-culture-of-peace/10152345047229295;

https://www.facebook.com/notes/femlinkpacific/femtalk-89fm-making-spaces-for-rural-seniors/10152345026899295;

https://www.facebook.com/notes/femlinkpacific/femtalk-89fm-labasa-village-voices/10152345006759295;

https://www.facebook.com/notes/femlinkpacific/my-journey-with-femlinkpacifics-suitcase-radio-station-femtalk-

89fm/10152343442574295

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls

Executive Director

OverviewAAs the regional convenor of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) in the Pacific region, FemLINKPACIFIC works to strengthen and advance equality between women and men, particularly in the context of peacebuilding using a preventive action approach and the promotion of a human security framework, with specific emphasis on enhancing civil society oversight in national security policy discussions and priority-setting in national budgets and to contribute to countering gender stereotypes through a range media initiatives particularly to promote the important role of women in decision-making, focusing on local governance systems and development processes.

Working at regional, national and local level we believe that conflict prevention is possible through collaboration between governments and civil society and when a critical mass of citizens are able to campaign for conflict prevention and peacebuilding, supported by the media, this will build the constituency for a culture of prevention, and strengthen the voice of CSOs.

This also requires the integration of UNSCR 1325 as a guiding tool for enhancing women’s participation for prevention – for human security, human development and human rights.

We also continue to urge Pacific Governments to integrate the recommendations of the Pacific Regional Action to Women, Peace and Security by:

• Developing and sustaining a national mechanism to enable systematic collaboration to

integrate of UNSCR1325 and subsequent resolutions into national security sector governance, peace and security processes.

• Ensuring the mobilization of resources to strengthen and support regional and domestic efforts by women’s civil society networks working on peace and security.

• Adopting quotas and affirmative action measures to ensure democracy in all peace and security decision making, including at least 30% representation of women including in Cabinet, parliament, provincial and district committees, political party leadership, local government and committees.

• Democratizing national annual budgets processes to ensure proactive community participation in identifying priorities and needs, which will help to ensure adequate line items to resource implementation of gender equality commitments across all government departments.

• Women being involved in the development of legislation

Publisher: Sharon Bhagwan Rolls

Executive Director –

FemLINKPACIFIC

September 15, 2014

Overviewon gun licensing and enhance participation with civil society in disarmament and non-proliferation machinery including small arms and light weapons control and the ban of cluster munitions and landmines, and the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, starting in our region with the banning of nuclear weapons and missile defence in our region.

• Enhancing resources to community police initiatives to sustain regular engagement with women’s groups and to enhance level of response to the violation of women’s security, and uphold standards to build confidence.

•Additionally, FemLINKPACIFIC believes that there is also the need for troop and policy contributing countries to:

• Ensure gender sensitivity training of security sector personnel, in full compliance with resolution 1325, in order to support the implementation of existing commitments, and utilise tools such as gender-based early-warning indicators.

• Police, law enforcement agencies, and the military, governments should provide gender disaggregated data in order to map the ratio of men and women in the security sector with a specific focus on enhancing women’s leadership in the Police Force.

• Engage women’s rights / peacebuilding experts and expertise to be included in all levels and aspects of peace operations, including in technical surveys, the design of concepts of operation, training, staffing and programmes.

• Implement training for pre- and post-deployment training in 1325, international human rights standards, violence against women and the UN’s Zero Tolerance Policy.

As a feminist organization we believe that women’s human security must be the bedrock of development planning whether at local, national or global level. In today’s world, is it barely part of the rubble.

Before change can truly take place, we must overcome the under-valuing of women’s mobilization power. There must be greater effort to ensure that resources are aligned to commitments to women’s participation in national and local governance structures and decision making spaces.

And so during the first quarter of 2015 we had the opportunity to amplify our Pacific experience as women and young women together bringing the diverse and collective knowledge and information of our network to the annual Commission on the Status of Women (59) in New York reaffirming work around Section J, on women and the Media, and Section E, on Women Peace and Security, of the BPA, work these two weeks stemmed from the voices of women within our regional and rural networks.

OverviewFemLINKPACIFIC reaffirms community media as a key platform to amplify the voice of women and celebrate women in all her diversities not just on International Women’s Day on March 8th but everyday and using the World Radio Day platform to connect our rural community media network in Fiji with the Beijing Platform for Action, in particular commitments to women’s access to and portrayal through the media, power and decision making and peace and security.

As a member of the women’s rights movement in the Pacific, we are pleased that our documentation has provided the evidence to transform women’s voice into recommendations such as in the Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security and recommendations on Media and ICTS to guide the implementation of the Revised Pacific Platform for Action and from our Community Radio hub in Suva, now broadcasting at 300watts 24 hours a day we look forward to amplifying Women’s Human Security First

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls

Executive Director - FemLINKPACIFIC

Fiji: Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) Findings

There were 101 women respondents to the HIES from Labasa for this per, but the recommendations and qualitative data following the HIES results are drawn from community radio productions from our rural centres.

• 72% were between the ages of 32-54, 83% of whom were married with families and children, 62% of income earners were earning between less than $50 to $200 FJD a week

• 35% had to travel between 30mins and two hours to reach the nearest health, accessing services “few times a month” or “few times a year”.

• 32% were affiliated with an NGO or had access to information from local government, of this 72% had attended workshops and consultations on the constitution

However, the digital divide remains, separating rural women from the rest of the world. This month’s WHIES indicated that 62% of respondents did not have access to the internet or have never accessed the internet.

Radio continues to be rural women’s main source of information, coupled with the Newspaper or Television. However, regarding access to the newspaper, rural women were reading the dailies at least once a week.

Ownership of mobile phones was also an ideal for rural women with 78% indicated having access to mobile phones as opposed to the 13% having access to landline phones.

Human Security Recommendations:

1. Personal Security

Personal Security of rural women is closely linked to accessible infrastructure, such as good road conditions, proper street lights and access to basic services like proper water supply and electricity. Rural women also see the need to have proper footpaths for fellow community members and the need to have more women at levels of development planning to ensure a gender balanced approach is taken within development plans.

Personal Security Recommendations

• Membership of local development planning committees must ensure equal representation of women.

• Development planning must ensure women have been effectively involved and their needs are reflected in approved plans.

• Training on gender equality must be compulsory for all local, district and divisional level planning committee members to ensure accountability to women’s human rights conventions.

What Women Say“we need a good road especially we all know that our road is not being good in terms of sickness sometimes we need to rush to the hospital when there is no good road here and another one we need a good drainage to myself when bad weather heavy rain my house there always half full of water like every day I work to myself there go the toilet outside to the tap sometime I get sick because of that full water we always report to the turaga ni koro but there report from them still the drain not good”- Tavua rural women’s 1325 network

“Common Issues that women face in the different communities that they represent they are looking forward to the Elected Government would look into the Issues that they face every day, Access To Health Facilities and Health Services, Roads, Water, Social Welfare Assistance, Fair Distribution of Scholarships, More Job Opportunities for Graduates, Electricity, Transportation, etc.” – Fane Lomani , Tavua

Human Security Recommendations:

2. Health Security

Sexual Reproductive Health Rights education have been expressed to be a need in rural communities by rural women leaders.

Health Security Recommendations

• Local and sub divisional health managers must ensure that rural priorities are communicated to ensure the necessary supply of medicines.

• Senior Divisional Medical Officer should meet with women leaders to help them better understand health budget procurement process. Additionally, there is a need to look at current systems and see how they can be responsive to rural communities.

• The State must ensure that the Ministry of Health per capita allocation for medicines as well as operational costs are responsive to specific needs of rural and remote communities.

• National budget processes must be accountable to rural women’s health needs as an affirmation of the Women’s Plan of Action (2010-2019) Pillar 10 Improving Health Service Delivery.

• Call for PICTs states to implement effective/ accessible systems for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) to be guaranteed, ensuring that girls, young women and women, including those with disabilities, receive comprehensive and confidential SRHR services that respect their human rights throughout their life cycle

What Women Say

“I think we should talk more about sex in our village, in the meeting, in our families especially because nowadays one of the main issues that the teenagers are facing is the early pregnancy and we need to let them know and teach them how to tackle with all the problem that they will be facing in the early ages and we have to try and help in their mind set so they could understand vivid what they have to do and where they have to go and how to act when they meet or when they are in such a situation that they need help.” Selita, Naqai Women’s Club

Fiji ratified it in 1995 and it is a legally binding International Convention.

Human Security Recommendations:

3. Economic Security

Rural women leaders continue to highlight the need to have sustainable sources of income generating initiatives. This must also be considered in government driven projects for the economic empowerment of rural women.

Economic Security Recommendations• The implementation of the National Women’s Plan of Action

should ensure that women’s access to services address:

• (a) enhancement of rural women’s participation in local government

• (b) improve women’s access to market economy and not simply regard women as market vendors

• Enhance the active and equal participation for women in the economy and public life and ensure a range of government and other measures are in place to support this participation, including in decision making and leadership from the grassroots level to national level.

• Local government should work with rural women leaders to enhance their access to local markets such as hotels, restaurants and other businesses as an economic empowerment strategy.

• Local government should ensure that the administration and management of local markets take fully compliant with CEDAW provisions including women’s participation in public life.

What Women Say

“We are able to start a small business and the project that we are trying to have know we have build our own oven and we are doing some baking and the only issue we are facing is that we don’t have enough money to run our business but we are trying our very best” – Naqai Women’s Club, Suva.

Human Security Recommendations:

4. Political Security Since the return to parliamentary democracy in Fiji rural women leaders speak on behalf members indicating the need to have effective policies that clearly address women’s human security and development priorities. In order for this to come to pass, there is a need to have more women visible within all levels of decision making.

Political Security Recommendations

• Policy on democratizing security decision making builds on Pacific Conference of Church’ commitment to peace building and conflict resolution by calling on churches and faith based leaders to explicitly support UNSCR 1325 and to include more women in decision making positions, including through the development of curricular at theological colleges.

• Government and political parties should adopt quotas and affirmative action measures to ensure democracy in all peace and security decision making, including at least 30 percent representation of women in cabinet, parliament, provincial council and district committees, political party leadership, local government and committees, and through reform of campaign financing frameworks and policies.

• National electoral laws should incorporate gender equality quotas and ensure voter registration and education for women, as well as increase women in electoral commissions and observer missions. Electoral experts should work with local women’s groups to provide relevant training for women candidates and political parties.

• International donors and development agencies to incorporate women, peace and security commitments, including adequate representative of women in decision making, as a condition of supplying aid and development.

• Equal participation of women in the economy and public life, and proposes a range of government and other measures to support this participation, including in decision making and leadership from the grassroots level to national level. Elections are a prime time to inform and encourage women about their rights.

• Gender equality to be incorporated in constitutional reforms and for women to participate in constitutional forums.

What Women Say

“Some of us women especially in the village we can’t speak out because some of our men they can’t understand us. Some of the leaders of the family, they can’t listen to us that is the main barrier why we women we can’t speak out, we can’t move forward” – Merelita, Naqai Women’s Club.“As we are the grass root level and we need the government to hear our voice so that we should ask the government to be always come around to be able to share with us in any issues that we are facing and to hear our stories so our voice could be held and the government would do something about it.” - Sera, Labasa

Human Security Recommendations:

5. Food Security

Access to quality food has been reflected this month from the voices of women from 1325 rural networks. Senior women for rural networks continue to identify that the current social welfare schemes are inefficient and do not meet food needs. They have indicated that government needs to reduce food prices on essential nutritional food.

What Women Say

“Working on their Income Generating Project – 1/3 goes to the Club help poor and needy people and the rest goes to the member to share. The second quarter of funding we are using to buy water tank in our Area most of the time the water is shutdown, and we are ploughing the land again to plant more vegetables, urdi and peanuts” “We already put up our farm, but now it’s time for us to clean and soil our tomatoes already ready and its flowering now and we have to prepare other farms for the next lot and we also preparing for our chicken farm we have to raise meat bird. “- Balata Multiracial Womens Club

6. Environment Security

Unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change have left rural women food producers uncertain about crops they use for subsistence use and as cash crops. Rural women have also expressed concern over the poor drainage systems within the rural areas that have been a major contributing factor to flooding.