4. Gender equality and women’s empowerment priorities in Fiji

4.1 NATIONAL GENDER POLICY

The 2014 National Gender Policy articulates the commitment of the Government of Fiji to gender equality, equity and social justice. The Policy recognizes “ethnicity, disability, religion and gender often intersect and create a multiplicity of sources of discrimination against women in Fiji.”⁹⁵ Access to money, a key factor impacting on women’s access to technology and ICTs is addressed separately, under poverty alleviation rather than digital access.

Elderly women, widows, and single mothers are identified as especially vulnerable to social economic pressures, disasters and poverty related diseases.⁹⁶ Within this formulation, women’s hindered ICT/e-government access is a function of poverty rather than the lack of effective service delivery by the government.

4.2 STATUS OF WOMEN IN FIJI

Fiji ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1995.

2014 Human Development Report introduced a new measure, the Gender Development Index (GDI) based on the sex-disaggregated Human Development Index, defined as a ratio of the female to the male HDI. The 2013 female HDI value for Fiji is 0.679 in contrast with 0.725 for males, resulting in a GDI value of 0.937. In comparison, the GDI value for Samoa is 0.948.⁹⁷

The Global Gender Gap Index also measures gender disparity across three key measures: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; and health.⁹⁸ In the 2014 Global Gender Gap Report, Fiji is ranked 122 out of 142 countries, with a score of 0.629 (0.00 = inequality, 1.00=equality).Due to a lack of relevant data, the Gender Inequality Index and the Multidimensional Poverty Index were not calculated for Fiji’s 2014 Human Development Report.⁹⁹

Violence against women and poverty were prioritized as critical gender equality issues by government officials contacted for this research.¹⁰⁰ Official statistics and informant interviews strongly concur violence against women is widespread in Fiji: 66% of women have experienced physical abuse; 26% have been beaten while pregnant; 48% of married women have been forced into sex by their husbands; and 13% of women have been otherwise raped. About 74% of domestic violence victims do not go to the police, with some preferring to defer to community or religious leaders while others are reluctant to report abuse at all.¹⁰¹

According to UN Women, Fiji is on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal 5 (improvement of maternal health). Deaths in childbirth are down from 60 per 100,000 live births in 1995 to 28 per 100,000 live births. Additionally, 99% of all births are attended by skilled birth staff. Unmet need for contraceptives has declined to 30% (from 46%) and the adolescent birth rate has almost halved since 1990.

Research into perceptions of gender equality by the Fiji Women’s Forum found 61% of respondents¹⁰² feel that men and women currently have equal rights in Fiji, while 36% disagreed. More women than men agreed with the statement (66% of women, 56% of men). Most respondents viewed societal impediments as the major reason women don’t stand for election as often as men. The number of parliamentary seats held by women has ranged from zero in 1987 to eight (11% of the 71-seat house) in the 1999 and 2006 elections.¹⁰³

Chattier and Morgan’s research on poverty and gender in Fiji examined the complexity and multidimensionality of poverty and, in particular, the gender disparities within conventional measures of poverty.¹⁰⁴ The research covering 162 Fijian and Indo-Fijian men and women from three communities (rural, semi-urban and urban) found that:

“The resources women may draw upon are often circumscribed by rules, norms and practices which limit their access to and control over resources...women’s dependency or lack of autonomy in the household, though not synonymous with income poverty, affects their economic self-sufficiency and decision making capacity.”¹⁰⁵

The gendered division of labour and the limitations it imposes were found to be a key factor across all communities in the research (iTaukei¹⁰⁶, Indo-Fijian, rural and urban).

4.3 E-GOVERNMENT FOR WOMEN?

Globally, the use of mobile phones to achieve e-government objectives, especially for women’s empowerment and gender equality is well recognized:

“There is growing evidence that women’s use of Internet and mobile phones has a powerful impact on sustainable development, from connecting to healthcare, to tele-working and securing income for family with e-banking. Those countries that have adopted a multi-channel approach to service delivery will open options for greater gender equity and closing the gender divide. This is one area that has seen the largest gaps and also the highest potential of achieving development objectives through e-government initiatives.”¹⁰⁷

Fiji e-government initiatives specifically targeted at women are very rare. The review of e-government services in Fiji did not find any online services designed with women’s empowerment in mind, namely e-government aimed at advancing the political, social and economic autonomy of women through improved ICT access, resources and networks. There have been examples of mobile application initiatives. This includes an SMS service initiative called mWomen which offers free advice on women’s legal rights in relation to gender based violence. mWomen began as a collaboration between Vodafone and the Ministry for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation (see Case studies report).

In 2012, provision of online services for women in Fiji stood at 0.109 (UNPOG 2013: 42).¹⁰⁸ A 2013 UNPOG study of e-government and gender in Asia Pacific found Fiji to be at an ‘emerging’ stage (first of four stages)¹⁰⁹ of E-government Readiness for gender equality.¹¹⁰ The UNPOG study recommended that Fiji address gender in e-government by undertaking:

“Key actions...focusing on improving women’s access to telecommunication infrastructure and ICT capacity at the grassroots level, as well as raising awareness of the senior officials in the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation to consider the potential of greater ICT application in its gender administration.”¹¹¹

mWomen is one of the few gender specific ICT initiatives in Fiji and is a government-private sector initiative. mWomen is designed to provide Fijian women access to help and advice on women’s rights and gender based violence issues (see Box 3).

There is a chronic lack of information on women’s e-government/ ICT usage and more importantly, women’s e-government service needs. Women’s usage of services and user satisfaction are not assessed or included in current e-government strategy in Fiji. Gender disaggregated data on website visits, downloads, enquiries and use of e-services are not collected. UNPOG’s survey of e-government and gender in Asia Pacific identified collection of gender-disaggregated national statistics as a priority (58%), followed by the need to identify women’s ICT and e-government service needs (50%)¹¹² (UNPOG 2013: 43).

While online e-government outreach in Fiji is perceived by government officials to be gender-neutral, such outreach does not pay attention to the gendered underpinnings of the digital divide. The situation for rural women (and especially women in remote islands) is further exacerbated. These women face a greater lack of appropriate access channels and their service requirements include broader considerations, including public access points, assisted access, and digital literacy focusing on public service uptake.

Delivery of online information and services on the Fiji e-government portal¹¹³ is thus effectively gender neutral without any specific attention to different needs, interests and access women and men have. Interviews with government stakeholders indicate e-government is viewed as gender neutral since “technology does not discriminate”. Thus, when asked about e-government priorities for women, stakeholders’ primary responses were about ‘access to information and services’ (i.e. on an equal footing with all other citizens). Responses indicate a techno-centric rather than sociocultural understanding of equality of access. It is well known that the digital divide is gendered in developing countries: in these countries, women are 23% less likely to be online than men.¹¹⁴ As noted previously, there are no data available on women and men’s digital uptake in Fiji, or relative access to broadband (fixed and mobile) by women compared with men. The 2014 Broadband Commission report notes sex-disaggregated data are not yet widely available for broadband connectivity globally. Taking Internet usage data as a proxy, ITU estimates a gender gap that is more pronounced in the developing world, with 16% fewer women than men using the Internet, compared with only 2% fewer women than men in the developed world.¹¹⁵

The small body of research literature on e-government in Fiji does not include discussion of gender issues, although the digital divide is noted by several scholars.¹¹⁶ Devi’s research on small-medium enterprises (SMEs) uptake of ICTs found the government’s ICT and e-governance developments do not sufficiently integrate ICT for business growth.¹¹⁷ Although Devi notes: “It ICT has potential to bridge the gap between rich and poor, urban and rural, North and South, and male and female” and the research sample (n=180) was 38% female, Devi’s research does not consider gender as a dimension of ICT and SMEs in Fiji. Rahman and Naz’s research among marginalized groups in Fiji (urban poor, women, beggars, elderly and villagers) found a lack of awareness about e-governance and ICTs and a corresponding need for education and capacity building, as well as utilizing more traditional media outlets for information dissemination.

4.4 EXTENT TO WHICH THE E-GOVERNMENT VISION ADDRESSES GENDER EQUALITY PRIORITIES

Although the National Gender Policy aims to “integrate a gender perspective in all development planning and decision making processes” and to “establish a system of gender mainstreaming which binds all sectors of government”,¹¹⁸ analysis of e-government policy and interview data reveals this has not yet happened with regard to e-government. The main policy instruments (National Information Technology Development Policy (2004); e-Government Master Plan (2007); and National Broadband Policy (2011) do not specifically mention women and do not contain specific gender equality objectives. The e-Government Master Plan (2007) identifies a number of groups for whom programmes to bridge the digital divide are necessary: senior citizens, workers, homemakers and disabled.¹¹⁹ The National Broadband Policy considers social inclusion to be a general benefit of broadband access (Government of Fiji 2011: 3).¹²⁰

The National Gender Policy (2014) sets out a number of policy intentions vis-à-vis technology, namely, to: Increase the participation and access of women to the expression of their opinions and to decision making in and through the media including their involvement in new technologies of communication; Provide increased innovative opportunities for women and men engaged in unwaged housework to access information communications technology, lifelong learning, and opportunities for part-time, short and long-term income earning possibilities; Strengthen equitable access by men and women to the factors of agricultural production, paying particular attention to the gender differences in access to and repayment of credit, beneficiaries of land purchase, land titling, amenities, extension services and technology, taking into consideration the disadvantaged position of the most vulnerable women in rural areasConsult with Information Communications Technology specialists from women’s media organisations when any reform is contemplated in relation to the regulation of Information Communications Technology”.¹²¹ The Policy is very recently endorsed and outcomes are yet to be seen.