Women’s Safety in the Pacific Region: a new online research story
Being safe and having a reduced fear of crime and violence is a fundamental human right. Safety is integral to social wellbeing, economic success, political empowerment and stability. Yet women in the Pacific face some of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world.
This new online research story provides an overview of a collaborative research project that sought to ask women (and men) from a range of Pacific Island countries about their feelings of physical, financial and online safety, and what it might mean to live in a world free of violence and harm.
The Women’s Safety pilot study, conducted in 2024, involved a collaboration between ANU Department of Pacific Affairs, Advancing PNG: Women Leaders Network (APNGWLN) and the University of the South Pacific (USP), bringing together an interdisciplinary team of nine women researchers working across five countries: Papua New Guinea (PNG), Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and Australia. The project was funded in part by the Australian Government through the Pacific Research Program Phase II.