AUSTRALIA-FIJI WOMEN’S CRISIS CENTRE (FWCC) PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT 2009-2015: SIGNING CEREMONY 20 OCTOBER 2009
REMARKS BY AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER H E MR JAMES BATLEY
The Government of Australia has provided support to the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre since 1989. From humble beginnings, the Centre has established itself as a leading organisation that provides high quality, relevant and efficient services for women and children survivors of violence. The Centre has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary – I was privileged to be part of that - and its work in Fiji and the region is widely known and highly regarded. The Government of Australia is proud to support the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and we are here today to confirm our continuing support to it.
The level of violence against women and children in our region remains disturbing. Social attitudes about violence against women and children are also sobering. The Australian Government recognises these issues as fundamental to the challenge of development in our part of the world. Reducing and eliminating violence against women is crucial to achieving equality between men and women and to delivering good development outcomes – that’s aid-speak for safer, healthier and more prosperous communities.
In November 2008 the Australian Government released a report titled “Violence against Women in Melanesia and East Timor”. The report found that in Melanesia and East Timor, violence against women is severe, pervasive and holds back development.
The study also assessed the effectiveness of methods being used to address violence against women and girls in Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor. It also identified promising local approaches aimed at addressing the issue.
The report highlighted the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre as a regional Centre of Excellence, given its leadership role in advocacy for women’s rights, as well as its strengths in training and mentoring other groups throughout Fiji and the Pacific region.
In response to this report, the Australian Government recently adopted a new framework to guide its work in this area. The framework identifies three key areas for responding to violence against women: access to justice; access to support services; and preventing violence against women.
Copies of the 2008 report, and of our new policy framework, are available here this morning. I encourage you to draw on these reports in your own work.
The FWCC is one of our key partners in our efforts to address violence against women in our region, and women’s rights in general, but it is not the only one. Other organisations we are currently supporting include:
• UNIFEM through its Pacific Facility Fund
• Pacific Counselling and Social Services (PCASS)
• The Salvation Army
• Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT)
• The Fiji Women’s Rights Movement
• Soqosoqo Vakamarama; and
• femLINKpacific.
These organisations undertake a very wide range of activities, including providing accommodation, counselling and referral services for victims of gender-based violence, and training, advocacy and awareness raising on issues affecting women. This of course complements the work of Fiji’s Departments of Women and Social Welfare, which also provide emergency accommodation and referral services, as well as coordinating programs to raise awareness and change behaviour in local communities. All these bodies and groups are playing a part and I’m pleased to see representatives from at least some of them here this morning.
But let me return to the subject of our ceremony. Our support for the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre is a cornerstone of Australia’s strategy for working with civil society to respond to, and prevent, violence against women in Fiji. Over many years, the Centre has demonstrated its expertise in this area. The Centre applies high standards in its work. Its skilled staff, practical approach, wide network of partners and its reach into the community, confirm its strategic importance.
Under the agreement we are signing today, Australia will provide $5.3 million, over the next six years, towards the operations of the FWCC. These funds will enable the FWCC to provide crisis counselling, legal advice, advocacy, training, education and awareness, and other support services for women survivors of violence. The funding is not being provided on an ad hoc, project by project basis, rather it is being provided as core budget funding. The idea of providing funds in this way is to allow the Centre to plan for the longer term, to set its own priorities and to respond to changing circumstances as necessary. As with all our assistance, this funding will of course be subject to regular appraisal and scrutiny, which will be undertaken in a spirit of collaboration and partnership.
I began by talking of the frightening level violence against women in our region. Studies and reports – and the evidence of our own eyes – underline the scale of the challenge. That challenge may be daunting, but we can draw solace, and inspiration, from the commitment of individuals such as yourselves and the organisations you represent. That commitment gives us hope, and indeed confidence, that violence against women can be reduced, and that attitudes can change. We’re very happy to help you in that struggle.