BY JOY OFASIA
A programme that will be supporting women and girls on Gender Responsive peace building in extractive industries in Isabel province was launched on Wednesday last week.
The program which was launched by the UN through the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations population Fund (UNFPA) is aimed at creating an enabling environment to support the human rights of women and the participation of women in community based peace building processes.
The programme is to ensure that women are able to drive change within communities via peace building dialogues; and coordinating between civil society organizations and governments to improve the quality of service provision to women facing violations as a result of conflict dynamics between communities and extractive industries.
The program being implemented by IOM and UNFPA seeks to include women, in communities adjacent to extractive industries in Isabel Province, in local peacebuilding processes. Previous IOM programming in the Solomon Islands and the broader Pacific region has been used to inform the conceptualization and development of this programme.
In a speech delivered during the launch event, Mr Sanaka Samarasinha, UN Resident Coordinator said that the programme strives to provide women with the enabling environment, skills and networks to more effectively access and lead rights based dispute resolution processes.
“The action will work in both informal and formal decision making spaces, alongside the justice system, so as to systematically include women in local peace building processes,” said Mr Samarasinha.
Women in the Solomon Islands like many other countries across the world have before been excluded in local peacebuilding processes by gendered social norms and power structures.
The programme launched seeks to enhance gender equity and the empowerment of women in these processes, and builds on the UN’s previous work in the region, in this critically important field.
Photo Credit: Island Sun
