WUNRN
Part 2 of this WUNRN release gives
Gender Excerpts from Report.
Tackling Extreme
Poverty in Papua New Guinea
Stephanie
Copus-Campbell , Jenny Hayward-Jones
Summary
The Lowy Institute and CARE
Australia convened a conference in Sydney on 14 May 2009 on tackling extreme
poverty in Papua New Guinea. The conference brought together politicians,
government officials, academics, private sector and non-government experts to
explore ways of improving the situation of about one million people living in
extreme poverty in Australia’s nearest neighbour. Papua New Guinea’s most
disadvantaged communities, who live around the fringes of the highlands and in
inland, lowland areas, suffer from very low cash income, limited access to
education and health services, poor transport and communications
infrastructure, low life expectancy and high child and maternal mortality.
The report of the conference with recommendations for more cooperation between
government, NGOs and the private sector to improve the lives of the most
disadvantaged communities in Papua New Guinea has been published in this Lowy
Institute Perspective.
_______________________________________________________________
Gender Excerpts from Report:
Gender
inequality is significant in
Women
suffer disproportionately from poverty and experience major barriers to
participation in their communities due to lower literacy levels and education,
lack of skills in English and Tok Pisin, high incidences of domestic and other
violence, and poorer access to health care services.
Women therefore have limited access to
education, employment and credit opportunities and markets. While school
participation rates are relatively equal at the primary level, disparities rise
sharply in high school and at the tertiary level.
Gender inequality is structural, with
one commentator noting that kastom (social tradition) is used as an excuse to
maintain a gendered social division.
Gender equality is not adequately reflected or resourced at the national policy level.
The role of women, who had a strong
voice at the conference, was a central theme.
Poverty cannot be tackled without taking
full account of one half of
Development experience has shown that investing in women is one of the most effective means of poverty alleviation, because women are more likely to in turn invest in their families and communities.
Libby Cass
Information Specialist
Pacific Regional Initiatives for the Delivery of basic Education (PRIDE)
The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
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