WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Presentation to Asia Pacific Bureau of Adult Education International

Conference on Women in Development, Suva Fiji, 1999

Dr Shirley Randell AM

PSC/Performance Improvement Adviser

Vanuatu Public Service Reform Project

Outline

• My background and consultancies• Women in skills development in PNG

and Sri Lanka - challenges• Women’s policy in Solomon Islands• Women’s networks in Fiji Customs

and the Vanuatu Public Service• Policy recommendations for women’s

central agencies in ASP

My Background

• Teaching Aboriginal children in rural schools• Nine years in education in PNG• 15 years in reform in Commonwealth and

ACT Govt central and line agencies• Two years in university reform at Ballarat• CEO of CAE and City of Whitehorse

managing quality reform• Emphasis on gender equity and women’s

networking

Consultancy Experience

• Short consultancies 1974-90• 1997 WDScott, ADB, Skills Development Reform,

PNG - women, youth and NGOs• 1998 OPCV, AusAID, Fiji Islands Customs

Service - Performance Improvement inc. GAD• 1999 PCDM, ADB, Skills Development Reform in

Sri Lanka - Quality and GAD• 1999 SRIPSR, ADB, Provincial Government

Reform, Solomon Islands - inc GAD• 1999-2001 UniQuest, AusAID, Public Sector

Reform in Vanuatu - Perform. Improve. inc GAD

PNG Constitution

• We declare our second goal to be for all citizens to have an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from development of our country, emphasising equal participation by women citizens in all political, economic, social and religious activities

PNG: Women’s Contribution to Development

Women make a critical contribution to development as the primary food producers, processors and distributors in PNG

• agriculture and fisheries• small animal husbandry• cottage industries, particularly food

processing and clothing

PNG: Women’s Contribution to Development (cont)

• 60% of women compared with 77% of men were considered economically active in 1990

• women were almost equal with men in their employment in cash farming (27 percent) and in subsistence farming (24 per cent) (1960 Census).

Importance of Women’s Involvement in Business

• Carpenters, tea plantations

• Coffee Industry Corporation

• Village development and community income generating projects

• Liklik Dinau Arbitore Trust

– Women seen as:

• dependable employees

• resourceful small business people

• reliable borrowers

• OK Tedi –beginning to involve women• Lihir Womens Fellowship• Porgera Goldmine sending women to

Women in Enterprises Flea market• Chambers of Commerce

- Mt Hagen assisting Therese TimbeTravel- Goroka working with the YWCA onliteracy projects and sales of arts andcrafts

Importance of Industry in Supporting Training for Women

Importance of Women in Small Enterprises

• Computer education in Sally’s Business School

• Betty Higgins Fisheries, hostel irrigation gardening, Simbu Province, building Baloiloi Committee, NARI

• Maggie Leahy, Haus Poroman, WHP• Margaret, Daulo Security

Women’s readiness to utilise cash earning opportunities

• piggeries and poultry farming in the Highlands provinces

• coffee and copra plantations in New Britain• trade stores in East Sepik• cooking, baking, sewing and handcrafts in

Milne Bay

• In many cases the whole family is involved in supporting women in these projects.

Major Implementation Constraints

• Entrenched traditional stereotyped attitudes and expectations of society on the status of women and their perceived role in employment and training with a lack of resources and materials to support awareness campaigns for more active participation by women

• Weak management and organisational structures with very poor representation of women in the governing bodies and committees that make decisions about women’s education and training at national, provincial and institutional levels.

• .

Major Implementation Constraints

Poor planning, coordination and lack of clear priorities, with a paucity of statistical data desegregated by gender and a failure to integrate women’s issues into the overall national planning and implementation of programs.

Lack of critical policies that affect both men and women, such as a national employment policy and a small and medium enterprise policy, and a failure to implement policies that have been given government approval.

Major Implementation Constraints

Outdated legislation with unnecessary regulations and practices impeding women from engaging in home based industries and local marketing especially in urban areas.

Irrelevant curriculum at all levels of schooling and, in particular, a lack of appropriate curriculum development to ensure that technical and vocational training is relevant to women and suits the local environment.

Major Implementation Constraints

Insufficient funds, materials and technical support for the devolution of programs to provincial, district and local government levels.

Limited boarding facilities, which are often neither safe nor adequate in TCs and VTCs, limited accommodation for single working women in urban areas, and inadequate facilities in workplaces for women’s particular needs, such as childcare.

Major Implementation Constraints

Social problems, including high illiteracy rates, poor transport infrastructure, health and nutrition problems and relative isolation.

Limited research with a lack of follow up studies on female students who graduate from technical and vocational education courses, and little study of issues that would facilitate women’s involvement in income generation projects, such as business opportunities, cottage industries, food processing and marketing.

Women’s Organisations’ Recommendations

• Setting of realistic, measurable targets for women’s participation in decision making and skills development

• Collection and publication of gender specific data• Review of legislation and regulations to remove

obstacles to women’s progress• Investment in accommodation specifically for

women at training institutions

- all would contribute to improving women’s access to skills development

Sri Lanka: Government Commitment

• Constitution guarantees freedom of discrimination on grounds of sex

• Signature to UN Conventions

• Women’s Charter

• National Plan of Action for Women

• Sexual Harassment legislation

Women’s Charter of Sri Lanka

• access to same opportunities to TEVT as men

• access to same curricular, teaching quality

• access to career & vocational guidance• elimination of gender role-stereotyped

content and materials• reduction of early school leaving and

education programs for school leavers

Labour Force Participation Rates by Sex, 1946-96

0

20

40

60

80Total

Male

Female

Unemployment Rates by Sex 1963-96

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Y 1963 Y 1973 Y 1981 Y 1990 Y 1996

Per

cen

tag

e

Total

Male

Female

Unemployment by Sector and Sex, 1986 & 1996

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Urban Rural Plantation Urban Rural

1986 1996

Per

cen

tag

e

Total

Male

Female

Women’s Employment

• Young women find it harder to get jobs• Education levels of both employed and

unemployed women higher than men• Demand in casual and marginalised

activities, low wage and low skill• Gender based occupational segregation• Poor representation in senior levels

Women in Senior Positions

• A few very prominent women• One female Secretary in a Cabinet Ministry• One Supreme Court Judge• 4.7% women in Parliament• 2.3% women in Provincial Councils• 9.9% women professors in universities• 17.5% women in Class 1 of Public Service

Women’s Participation in Skills Development

• Half applicants and half participants

• But, women in ‘female’ courses that do not always generate an income or sustainable job opportunities

• Men have near monopoly of technology and management

Government Skills Development

• 70% of female trainees in Technical Colleges in secretarial, commercial, HE

• Most female trainees in VTA VTCs in typing, sewing, beauty culture, low income

• Only 17% of all technical apprentices in NAITA, and 3.4% of those in tech trades

• 92% of female trainees in NYSC in dressmaking etc, but new policies

Constraints to Change

• Prevailing cultural attitudes• Different socialisation of boys and girls• Media stereotyping• Lack of awareness in girls and women• Lack of policies to facilitate• Lack of employment opportunities• Lack of resources and materials

Government Initiatives

• In TVET, the CENWOR project

- Steering committee

- materials production, media

- awareness creation

- training and workshops• NYSC - open up all courses women

- gender inclusive materials• NAITA - attempt to recruit to board

Women in Non-traditional Skills Development

• Ministry of Women’s Affairs

- entrepreneurial training for self employment

• Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources

- fish farming technology

- ornamental fish culture

NGOs

• Small but significant success by NGOs

- WUSC: over 30% of trainees - target of 40-45 % - tracer studies positive

- Swiss Contact - carpenters and masons

- GTZ - bakery -50% of female trainees

- Sarvodaya - small business

- ++ loans for income generating activities

Women’s Participation in Management

• Critical absence from Boards and Committees in TEVT sector

• Invisible in policy making

• Critical absence in management in Colleges, and VTCs

• Invisible in decision making

Proposed Policies

• Sharing power and decision making

- targets• Improve the database for planning and

coordination

- collect all data by gender• Increase enrolments in non-traditional

courses and on-the job training

Proposed Programs

• Establish Gender in Development Units and Steering Committees

• Build awareness

- information and advocacy materials

- media - TV, radio and print

- workshops - parents, trainees, employers,

managers, instructors, counsellors

Proposed Programs

• Develop Staff

- Training of trainers

- Counsellors

- Administrators and instructors

- Management training for women

- Fellowships

• Credit Schemes

Proposed Programs

• Expand credit schemes• Provide facilities• Ensure ongoing monitoring and

research

- tracer studies

- selection and promotion

- curriculum

- special groups, widows, disabilities

The Future

• Growing awareness of the issues - raised in every SDP workshop and donor’s forum

• Critical to harmonious future and productive economy for Sri Lanka

• Rich benefits to be gained from the whole range of human experience represented in management and decision making

• A world that is better for women is better for men too

Solomon Islands Provincial Government Reform

• The Solomon Islands Government has endorsed the Solomon Islands National Women’s Policy as ‘the translation of the Government’s policies on the development of women and its commitment for the enhancement of women’s participation in decision making and national development’

Solomon Islands Provincial Government Reform

One of the Guiding Principles of the National Women’s Policy is Partnership in Development (3.1): ‘That men and women are equal partners and that by involving women and through working together, both partners can make a difference to the development of our country. This involves equal participation in decision making at all levels and in areas of concern to women and in the overall national development’.

Fiji Customs & Vanuatu Public Service Women’s Networks

• Raise matters which are of concern to female staff in the Public Service.

• Report on action taken to increase abilities and opportunities for women in the Public Service.

• Motivate female staff to increase their qualifications and apply for promotion.

Fiji Customs & Vanuatu Public Service Women’s Networks

• Exchange information, ideas, practices and resources across Ministries on all Public Service matters of relevance to women.

• Hear invited speakers who are in senior management positions in the public and the private sectors who can be role models and mentors for female staff.

Fiji Customs & Vanuatu Public Service Women’s Networks

• Conduct seminars to improve organisational and management capacity of women.

• Support and assist the sustainable development of women in the Public Service so that they develop similar levels of self confidence and management skills as men.

Fiji Customs & Vanuatu Public Service Women’s Networks

• The Public Service Womens Network (PSWN) Steering Committee meets between meetings of the PSWN to organise the agenda, invite speakers and follow up issues raised in PSWN meetings.

Sunset Clause

• Continuing until the Public Service has achieved a sustainable equality between men and women such that it no longer needs affirmative action for women. There will be a large cadre of experienced women managers at senior levels of the Public Service (only X percent in 1999, target for sunset is 30 percent), and women's opportunities to participate in decision making will be equal to men's.

Policy recommendations

• Empowerment of women– leadership training and confidence

building– conflict resolution - supporting womens

organisations to work together– access to information and communication– mentoring opportunities– training on Conventions etc

Policy recommendations

• -Research– Gender issues in relation to public sector

reform– influence of church and culture on gender– base data on participation levels of women

in PS and business– impact of donor cuts of funding for NGOs– impact of targeted womens programs

Policy recommendations

• Income generating activites - urban and rural

• Services for women with disabilities

• Awareness raising/gender education for men

Policy recommendations

• Conflict resolution workshops– VNCWs and DWAs together with

Womens research/resource centres and Church womens groups