Western Province reviews Women Policy

BY BEN BILUA
Gizo

Western Province is currently reviewing its Women’s Empowerment and Transformation Policy for Development with consultations rolling out across communities.

Women Desk Officer for Western Province, Lisi Wong, said her team has begun meeting with women to gather views and recommendations for the revised policy.

She said consultations will take place this week in Buri on Ranongga Island, and Rarumana in Roviana as part of efforts to ensure women’s voices are central to the update.

Wong said the review aims to strengthen the policy by including components that were missing from the original version.

She said the policy is important as it guides women development so as any development that involves women in Western Province.

“Under the policy we downstream national polices to provincial and community level. Our previous focus was on Policy Outcome four which deals with Women Empowerment and Outcome 8 which is ending Violence Against Women and Girls.

“One of our top priorities is to empower and encourage women participating in decision making processes,” Wong said.

She said women in Western Province have seen the benefit of the policy and that it is the reason why her department is putting effort to review the policy.

Wong said the policy was launched and came into effect in 2018 and ends in 2022.

“So, under this policy we saw lots of development for our women. We saw the development of Gizo, Noro, Munda and now the Seghe Markets.

“We were also able to bring Family Support Centre to Gizo to help victims of domestic abuse,” she said.

Wong said the first draft of the revised policy is expected to reach completion next year followed by further reviews before endorsement.

Island Sun understand that the “Women’s Empowerment and Transformation Policy for Development” is the first women’s policy launched by the Western Provincial Government in the Solomon Islands in July 2018.

It serves as a blueprint for strategies to remove obstacles to women’s full participation in provincial development and aims to empower women economically, socially, and politically.

This multisectoral policy involves the provincial government, civil society, private sector, and other partners to create a more inclusive and equitable environment for women.

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