Artwork at the Fiji Women's Rights Movement's headquarters in Suva, Fiji Photo: RNZI/Sally Round
Fiji's Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation has launched two initiatives it says will move Fiji closer to gender equality.
The Gender Transformative Institutional Capacity Development is a two-year programme to empower all women and girls by enhancing technical knowledge of transformative gender mainstreaming across government institutions.
The second initiative is the Country Gender Assessment, a report to be undertaken by the ministry on the status of all women and girls in Fiji to provide an overview of gender issues.
This initiative is supported by the Government of New Zealand.
New Zealand's High Commissioner to Fiji Jonathan Curr said the assessment would shape policy to promote gender equality across all facets of Fijian society, by identifying and breaking down barriers to equality and inclusion.
"We all benefit when women and girls do well and that means ensuring equality in their participation, safety and representation across all sectors".
Executive Director of Fiji Women's Rights Movement, Nalini Singh, said her organisation welcomed the initiatives and was excited to be working with the ministry to ensure the balancing of the gender equality scales in Fiji.
"This is a big step for us as we move our recommendations on gender responsive programming and budgeting for our government into practical reality.
"These two years will not only see ground breaking work with the various ministries and agencies, but there will be greater synergies created with those of us who work on women and gender issues in Fiji."