News
PSDI holds workshop to discuss Gender-Inclusive Private Sector Framework assessment findings in Papua New Guinea
Representatives from the PNG government and PSDI gathered in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 7 May for a workshop to review and validate the PSDI-gender inclusive private sector framework assessment for Papua New Guinea.
PSDI presented a preliminary assessment of Papua New Guinea’s performance against all criteria in the Gender Inclusive Private Sector (GIPS) Framework, which measures the gender inclusivity of the private sector enabling environment in the Pacific across seven dimensions:
- Gender equality context
- Workplace environment
- Business enabling environment
- Financial inclusion and access to capital
- Participation in key economic sectors
- Technology and the future of work
- Leadership, voice, and consumer rights
Papua New Guinea’s Deputy Secretary of the Department of Community Development and Religion, Mr Jack Simbou, welcomed participants and offered opening remarks.
“Promoting economic empowerment for women is good, we all know that. [But] there are a lot of legal, regulatory and policy barriers that we need to work on in this country. In Papua New Guinea, some of the legal and regulatory work has already been done. I think the key challenges are in terms of how we can actually implement that, how we could work with each other—each of the government agencies and also the private sector. That's our key challenge in the country,” said Mr Simbou.
“The checklist that PSDI have developed provides us with a very good platform to look at what we have done so far, and see also how to improve in terms of progressing ourselves to the next level.”
The group discussed their thoughts on whether the PSDI assessment reflected the current legislative and policy environment supporting private sector development in Papua New Guinea. This included a wide-ranging discussion on framework topics including the timeliness and availability of data and information; the need for sex- and disability-disaggregated data; the policy settings around disability inclusion; how we support women entrepreneurs; the role of women’s business and economic associations; access to and the implications of technology; the importance of inclusive labour laws and foundational ID; and access to finance.
The process to develop the GIPS framework encompassed an extensive literature review and consultations with stakeholders to assess existing frameworks, determine how they may or may not apply in the Pacific, and ascertain whether data are available to support the measurement of a gender inclusive enabling environment. The Papua New Guinea workshop is the fourth in a series to present and validate assessment findings for individual countries, following completed assessments in Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Tonga.
Workshop participants.
Mr Jack Simbau, Deputy Secretary, PNG Department of Community Development and Religion, welcomed participants to the workshop and offered opening remarks.
Workshop participants discuss the findings of the preliminary assessment.
Workshop participants discuss the findings of the preliminary assessment.
Workshop participants discuss the findings of the preliminary assessment.
More News
