Minister for the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs (MWYCFA), Freda Rangirei says there are more work needed to be done to ensure women’s protection, development and empowerment in Solomon Islands.
Minister Rangirei said this during the Poverty Reduction virtual China-Solomon Islands dialogue on Wednesday.
Ms Rangirei said Solomon Islands over the years, had celebrated some significant progresses in the advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
She explained one of these progresses is an increased gender mainstreaming efforts across different sectors, both in the public sector and private sector.
“Despite these key progresses, there still remains a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure women’s protection, development and empowerment in the Solomon Islands,” Ms Rangirei said.
However, she said the priority for the Solomon Islands Government is to continue to address but not limited to the following:
– Continue its efforts to address the low representation and participation of women in positions of influence, decision making and governance both in politics and other sectors;
– Ending violence of women and girls particularly seeking to address the critical gap in our provision of services which is the need for safe accommodation for victim and survivors of violence in all provinces;
-And continue to drive our women peace and security agenda; and in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, provide increased attention to women’s economic empowerment which includes providing financial inclusion and entrepreneurship training opportunities, addressing income generating project needs women, addressing income generating project needs of women, addressing Honiara;
-Working closely with our productive sectors to ensure women are part of natural resources management etc.
She added this tasks ahead would not be easy as there are ongoing and existing challenges of how to effectively reach and impact the lives of local women especially women and girls with disabilities and the elderly in the rural and remote areas of Solomon Islands.
However, she said with the recent relationship with China women, they will continue to hold friendly exchanges through lessons; support and cooperation towards a common goal of ensuring our women both in Solomon Islands and China are safe and protected, are empowered and are made integral to all development efforts.
By ESTHER NURIA
Newsroom, Honiara
