LAST week the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs (MWYCFA) launched their three key gender policies at the Coral Sea Hotel.

Minster of WYCFA, Hon Freda AB Tuki Soriacomua delivered her speech prior to the launching of the new WPSNAP (Women Peace, Security National Action Plan) and revised GEWD (Gender Equality and Women’s Development) and EVAWG (Eliminating Violence against Women and Girls) policies.

She said that the attendance of all partners at the event is the result of a collective partnership between the government, the private sector, civil society, communities and development partners.

Hon Soriacomua said that the importance of addressing gender inequality was emphasised in the first GEWD policy 2010-2015.

She noted that there have been progress in some areas and other areas still lag behind.

In this regard, Hon Soriacomua said that the Where Do We Stand Report of the GEWD policy outlines the findings of gender analysis.

She said that the findings provide an overview of the progress made in advancing gender equality in the country with the inclusion of challenges faced and areas that require more attention.

Hon Soriacomua added that the report depicts the following factors; an improvement in overall health indicators and the increased school enrollment of girls.

Speaking of the first factor, she said that more women are attending ante natal clinics during pregnancy, more women give birth in health facilities with skilled midwives, more babies and young children are receiving immunization against diseases and more infants and children are taken to a health facility for treatment and medicine as soon as they show symptoms of sickness.

Moreover, Hon Soriacomua spoke of the latter and said that more girls than ever are in school and more form 4 and form 6 female students are performing at the expected levels of literacy and numeracy.

On the other hand she said that despite improvement in these avenues there are challenges in Solomon Islands and most Pacific Island countries which demonstrate slow progress on empowering women in areas like; young women with higher education being unable to seek better employment and the representation of women in politics in the Pacific region being one of the lowest in the world.

Hon Soriacomua stressed that reasons for young highly educated women finding difficulty in securing better employment is because of the gender barriers in labour markets and gendered stereotypes about suitable occupations for women and traditional expectations for unpaid domestic and caring work.

In addition, she said that women representation in parliament in the Pacific is very low given the fact that across the region, traditional views see leadership fit for men which continues to influence electorates.

Furthermore, Hon Soriacomua also said that there is high prevalence and incidence of violence against women in Solomon Islands and across most pacific countries which continue to hinder progress on gender equality.

She then said that the revised gender equality and women’s development policy (GEWD) will continue to guide the government on making improvements in areas that have been lagged.