The new National Development Plan for Fiji prioritises people’s development, including a strong focus on increasing women’s participation and addressing gender inequality.
Executive director of the Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS), Vani Catanasiga, has praised the new National Development Plan for its focus on people’s development as a core pillar.
In her address to the media, she emphasised that previous plans have often prioritised economic growth at the expense of addressing the needs of the population.
“Previous plans have become so engrossed in growing the economy and they have neglected the most important aspect of a country is its people,” Ms Catanasiga said.
“And I think this plan already avoids that by recognising as one of the three critical pillars, is people’s development.”
According to Ms Catanasiga, recognising people’s development as a critical component of the plan represents a significant step forward.
“So, when you understand people, you can understand how to deal with the issues of poverty,” she said.
“A lot of the situations of the people who are vulnerable face are structure and built into systems and processes.
“But when we bring people into the central focus, like Prime Minister read his speech this morning, he talked about the centrality of people into the development plans of a country that to me is quite commendable and that to me is to keep people focus always.”
Ms Catanasiga also highlighted the plan’s emphasis on increasing women’s participation in the workforce.
She referenced a recent World Bank presentation that identified facilitating women’s entry into jobs as a key policy recommendation.
She argued that men also had a role to play in women’s empowerment and should be included in efforts to advance gender equality.
The National Development Plan acknowledges that while progress has been made towards gender equity, significant gaps remain. Despite women comprising 49.3 per cent of Fiji’s population, they continue to be underrepresented in various economic and social domains.
According to the report, the 2022 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report ranked Fiji 107 out of 146 countries in terms of gender equality.
The new strategy aims to address these disparities by mainstreaming gender balance and empowerment into all aspects of national development.
The report attributes gender inequality in Fiji to traditional norms, customs, and decision-making models that favour men over women.
Ms Catanasiga supported this attribution and credited the Government for this recognition in the report.
