WASDA Ministerial
The Department of Women and Social Development Affairs (WASDA)
celebrated key events International Women's day and the Safehouse
on 7 and 8 March respectively.
The use of social media and video messaging assisted the
visibility and promotion of the department and its valuable
work.
During the parliament sitting on 5 April, Minister Charmaine
Scotty said the department's work continues for the development of
key policy frameworks and activities for the proper implement of
the Domestic Violence and Family Protection Act 2017 and the Child
Protection and Welfare Act 2016.
"There is significant movement to completion of the national
women's policy, national action plan for women, child protection
policy, gender mainstreaming policy with the intention to have them
all endorsed by the end of 2024."
The department prides itself on ensuring that the national
interest comes first and while the many regional and international
initiatives will always be qualified by Nauru's context, Minister
Scotty says the national interest will always be the priority.
Minister Scotty notes Beijing +30, considered to be the blueprint
for women's human rights will be celebrating its 30th
anniversary in 2025, and part of the work is a national survey to
be undertaken by member states.
Nauru will carry out the survey in May 2024 and part of the
survey will also include an online survey with key questions to
drive specific outputs for Nauru.
This includes having a Nauru contextualised definition of gender,
an implementation plan of the Domestic Violence and Family
Protection Act and will involve the Bureau of Statistics and other
key stakeholders.
In 2025, the global community will mark the thirtieth
anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of
the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995).
In 2022 WASDA and the Nauru Police Force (NPF) sign a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) that speaks to the partnership and
collaboration that both entities bring for the fight to end
domestic violence.
Minister Scotty says the burden now is to build on the
partnership by having a specific position to gather statistics and
collaborate with NPF's domestic violence unit.
Nauru recently hosted the Micronesian Minister for Women's
Conference (MMWC) from 15 to 19 April with the theme, 'Eõ ngage -
Eõ yaran - Añ Towepo: Generational Equity', which translates to
'Not Today - Not Tomorrow - But Together'.
"The theme is symbolic of the resilience of our region that as
overcome much adversity and yet stands to gain much more in
solidarity and as individual nations," Minister Scotty told
parliament.
Nauru will also be attending the Triennial Women Leaders
Conference in July in the Marshall Islands while also working hard
as the chair of the regional working group on domestic
violence/family protection legislations which will meet in August
in Fiji.
ENDS///