 Thank you, friends. We are now ready to start proceedings for our webinar. I want to welcome everyone warmly, especially our three speakers, Monica, Raghavan, Dr. Karen Baker, and Sadie Nambu. A hearty welcome also to all our viewers. It's really wonderful to have you here today. Today we discuss a very important topic in the international idea, democratic development in Melanesia webinar series number six, and that is the topic we are discussing today is challenges faced by women in the path of politics. This is a really pertinent issue, especially with the looming elections in both Fiji and PNG, the two largest Melanesian countries. We are fortunate to have three highly qualified speakers to interrogate the problem today. Each speaker has 10 minutes maximum followed by 40 minutes of interactive discussions, and I encourage our audience to send their questions and also their comments. Before we start proper, it is my pleasure to invite Mr. Adi Aman, Ideas Asia Pacific Senior Manager Programs, based in Canberra, to say a few words. Thank you very much, Dr. Shalene, for moderating today. Bula Vinaka, everyone, thank you for joining us. I'd like to first like to acknowledge the Nganawal people, traditional court students of the place I work and live, and I bear my respects to the elders past and present. This webinar is a prelude to the annual forum on women in politics. That international idea have had the pleasure in organizing in Suva since 2019 with its partners, and it started with it being under the C3 Fiji project, which was funded by the European Union, and next month, towards the end of October, we would like to organize another one with the support of the United Kingdom. And therefore, this webinar is timely to serve as a prelude and in preparation for that annual forum. We would like to be informed by the speakers. Thank you, distinguished speakers, for being here with us today, and also from you, distinguished participants, in terms of what we need to raise during the forum. And therefore, we look forward to the discussion we have today, which will hopefully help aspiring women who would like to participate in the elections, both in Fiji and also by extension in PNG next year. So with that, I hope you have a good discussion today, and back to you, Dr. Shalinda. Thank you, Adi, for your welcoming remarks. We are now ready to welcome our first speaker, Monica Raghun. Let me give you a brief background on Monica. She's the former vice president and the current acting president of the Fiji Labour Party. Monica is ex-Suva grandma with a Bachelor of Science from Madras University, besides a postgraduate diploma in biology from USP. In terms of work, Monica was an assistant agronomist for an EU funded project covering eight ACP island countries. Currently, she is the property manager for Agon Construction. In politics, Monica was a successful candidate in the 2006 general elections in Fiji in the Tamavua Samambula constituency. But only to be ousted six months later in the 2006 school. No doubt that was a traumatic experience and Monica might share some of her feelings with us today. As a veteran of four elections, one municipality and three general elections, Monica is highly qualified to address us today from a personal experience as well as a professional experience. So Monica, you may now begin. Thank you for the kind introduction. I'll just switch to sharing a screen. Thank you, everybody. I hope you can see my screen. Yes. All right. Since we only have eight minutes and we've got two other speakers. Thank you for this time. What I'm going to be sharing with you is really it's the journey that we have taken and in the elections that we have taken place since 2006. And as you know, there were two different types that took place. The first one, of course, had a preferential system and we had constituency. So I'm just going to take us through the slides as we go. And as mentioned, I have fought four elections. One was the municipality and of course, the successful one was 2006. And I'm going to share with you some of the things that we went through. The challenges before. Now, each candidate or each person wanting to contest has a different story. Some apply directly through to the party that they would like to and some get approached and then they apply. One of the things that we need to do right at the beginning is to understand and know that if you really do want to be part of the party, you need to embrace the vision, the purpose of the party that you select. And the other thing you've got to ask yourself whether you could deal with it. Because many times you get into something and you can't deal with certain things. So you need to know that right at the beginning. Time, time management is very important. There is a timeline for preparation for the elections. Usually it's very short. You need your campaign managers and a support team to prepare. And of course, finance determines a lot of things. And you also need to make sure that when you're going on this journey that you have a personal approach to the elections. When I got in 2006, we had 71 members to the lower house of reps. And of course, I had a constituency. I was allocated one or I chose one. And that made it easier for us because we had a boundary. You had a boundary that you could deal with. And in our case, if there was more than one candidate, of course, you have a preliminary sort of like a exercise to carry out so that you could determine which candidate and takes or is legible. And of course, once you know your boundaries, of course, you've got your homework to do then. Now, the one constituency, a challenge that we've been having, all of us, is one thing you know is that you're not well known or you're not known throughout the country. Now that you know the issues that are faced in these areas or the areas that are available, and sometimes people can what we call give a blanket application. That means the same thing when they look at the manifesto, they probably think it applies everywhere. So one of the things we get told is that the issues faced by, say, a city developer will be different from, say, if you pick an area where they may not have electricity or water. So, of course, you go through and manifest what is applicable in those areas. The challenge is not only preparing oneself for the campaign, but also to gain the support. It becomes more like advertising oneself. And of course, that again depends on the strength of your advertisement. And that again depends on the finances that you're able to raise. And you'll find that you will only be able to work in the areas accessible to you. People don't always identify with you. That's a big challenge. The balancing factor that we know we have is how to balance your life. You've got home, you've got work, you've got interest, and you've got politics. So these are all your own responsibilities. Remember, there is life after politics. When politics ends, your family, friends, and work should still be there. There are things to prepare beforehand, and usually it's a longer list than what I'm presenting you, but this in a nutshell. Know your party manifesto. Make sure you know what's in it. And prepare yourself. Know the boundaries. The political parties decree, except for there are things that you need to adhere to. Reading the newspapers is important, and to keep in touch with what is happening around you. Language can also be a barrier. So either you can speak the language, or if you don't understand the, if you've got a group that you're addressing that probably speak in a different, either in the Itoka language, or in the Hindi language, and you, and if you can't commute, or, sorry, if you can't communicate in that language, then it's best that you take someone who can translate for you. Dressing right. I think a lot of women have this. You're dressing right. Sometimes you need to climb into trucks, or sometimes into four by fours. And of course, most of the time we're sitting on the floor. So it's important that you know how to, how to prepare yourself. You know, same thing like taking your water bottle and, you know, all those things. The important thing is when you're in a meeting was to listen and record. It's not just going and talking, but to listen and to record, particularly the questions that come out and the answers that are given. People always want to hear positive things. And of course, we've learned to know never to make promises, you know, because you're not, you need to be able to, if you can make it. The other thing is finding the contact person for an area in which you're campaigning. So it's that you need to normally find the right person. Then you're working with your campaign managers and your team. Usually you need to have a very good one, good campaign managers and finding, you need to find one that you can trust, or at least have some experience and can handle the work that needs to be carried out. Setting up a campaign office that voters can easily access. And it's a type of message. You need to also prepare the type of message for your campaign. Now, this is not always given by the party, but you need to prepare yourself because you've got, and it has to sort of link up with everything the party has. We also prepare our own flyers, our banners, obtaining all the permissions, of course, getting into the media, responding to questions that get thrown to us. There's a lot of work, even during the time of distribution of flyers. And you need to be visible, which is usually hard if you've got like several hundred candidates out there. So, you know, you can't kind of figure out who's more visible than the other one. You will also get invitations to speak at gatherings, debates. And these are all, you know, it's like taking up the challenge, particularly if you've thrown in for the first time, or if you really don't know, you know, you're still trying to pick up a lot of things, because there's a lot of reading to be done. Then, of course, we need to update our party offices. And there's always brief meeting, you know, briefing meetings, there are rallies that are organized by the parties that we need to attend. So, all of this, again, comes down to planning and getting your diary in order. What I learned very early is that nobody's a full package, right? We don't know everything. And not everyone is an orator. Some candidates can be, you know, people shy and need help, but they have other strengths. And that is probably why maybe some of the best candidates don't get elected. Their strengths may not be visible in the public, but they do very well in different areas. And then there are some candidates who are not well received because of preconceived ideas or prejudice that may have arisen from some notion or something. And another thing that we found very early, women don't normally vote women because if they did, then we would have had 50% of the house full of women. So, I think that's a clear indication that women don't normally vote women. And, of course, like I said before, planning your campaign, sticking to the timeline that's given, as you know, FEO have their timeline. Parties have their timeline for certain things as well. I'm parliament. My experience in parliament, which was about six months during 2006, it was a different atmosphere, of course. With the MP title comes a lot of responsibility. We've become a voice to those that voted for you and also for those that didn't. You need to understand that. So, because you really don't know who voted for you, but you're there for everybody. You need to read the constitution and learn the guidelines that are laid, you know, in preparation for things you're going to be doing. You need to know the rule of parliament. And, of course, you get training at the beginning. We did one in 2006. And you've got to prepare your calendar of activities for the year. One of the first major hurdles that I came across was preparing my maiden speech. So, you know, you can't stall at that because you're worried, you know, if you're going to say the right thing, if you're going to be, you know, if everything's going to come out right. So, you know, there's a lot of research that goes into that. You'd also be, if you're a back bench show, which I was, there would be a committee or committees that you'll be part of. And there's a lot of reading and note-taking when people submit their presentations when a bill is on the table. So, you know, there's a lot of reading. I found that the library and the research, you know, became my favorite hangout when preparing my speeches. There was one of the places that I would regularly visit. You also have to prepare your questions on behalf of your constituency, particularly to parliament. And you need to visit your constituency. You're working on your list of things that need to be done with your, you know, with the offices that were set up. And you will be invited to many places that you will need to select. And, of course, you need to RSVP. Sometimes you just, we were getting, like, a pile a week. So, you've got to decide which would be the most appropriate one to attend for you. Again, like the women will tell you, your wardrobe can be a challenge because you can't, you know, many times people still, she just wore their last three kind of things, if they had been, unfortunately, and then conferences and training sometimes abroad that you need to prepare. We also have responsibilities to our party and the voters. There are usually a lot of our party meetings to attend. We have our sort of, like, annual daily conference, national council, the meetings that need to be held and need to let your office know about the things updating them. They'll be training to attend and you may be training others as well. People will come to you personally for help or to your party office. And, of course, all of this involves time and travel. And, of course, if you do not get elected, you can do a couple of things. You can wrap up, wrap up and say, thank you. It was a great experience and put away everything. And you thank people, of course, for supporting those of that day and helped you. And you can choose to, or otherwise you could choose to continue with the party and give it some support for the next election, or you can take on something in research or something, if you like. Or you can just say bye and just say you've learned a lot. But at the end of the day, life continues. Thank you very much for listening and I hope that this has been of some help. Wow. Thank you, Monica, for sharing so many important experiences. This is from someone who has been in the trenches and I'm sure there are lots of lessons for young aspiring female election candidates in future. And now we will welcome our second speaker, Dr. Karen Baker. She is a fellow in the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on issues of gender and politics and participation in the Pacific. Karen's PhD in political science is from the ANU. She has research experience in the French Pacific, Papua New Guinea, including Bougainville, Samoa, the Solomon's, Tonga, and also Vanuatu. She has published widely in leading journals, including Pacific Affairs, Government in Opposition, and the Australian Journal of Political Science. Her book, Pacific Women in Politics, Gender, Coda Campaigns in the Pacific Islands, was published by the University of Hawaii Press in 2019. Karen, it's wonderful to have you with us today. Thank you so much, Anna. Thank you, Monica, for your presentation. It was so interesting. Let me just share my screen. Right, so I'm going to give a different presentation, a more academic one, and taking a regional focus on women in politics. What's the current situation and what does the evidence tell us about what works in increasing women's political representation and what doesn't? So just to give some context, here are the current levels of women's representation in the independent Pacific states. As you can see, Fiji is up the top, and down the bottom, you have three countries, the Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu, that currently have no women MPs in their national parliament. Federated States of Micronesia is actually the only country in the world that's never elected a woman at the national level. Across the Pacific, all countries are below the global average of women's representation, which is 25%, and the regional average is 6.8%, so the lowest in the world. But that's not the full story, and if you look at the, might be called the non-sovereign Pacific, other countries and territories that aren't represented in those national level statistics, we see quite a different story. So if we take these countries and territories together, the average is 31.1%, women's representation, which is actually above the global average, and you have quite a few assemblies in the region, the legislature of Guam, the Assembly of French Polynesia, the Congress of New Caledonia, the Council of Pitken, which actually have 50% or above women's representation. So it's definitely not true that Pacific women are absent from politics. There's a lot of Pacific women who are currently in politics and have been in the past, but it is true that in the independent Pacific, we do see a level of representation, which is well below the global average. But the puzzle, I guess, is why there's so much diversity within the region. So in 2016, I co-authored a report with my colleague, Julian Barbara, entitled Improving the Electoral Chances of Pacific Women, and it was an attempt to synthesize all the research that had been done in the region on women candidates and their success rates and what works and what doesn't work, and also proposed some potential future avenues from research or strategies that could be tried. And so what we found is that women are underrepresented in those national level statistics. They're less likely to stand for elections, so in elections you see far more men candidates than women candidates, but where women candidates do stand, they're less likely to win. So that's a problem as well. But if you look at surveys conducted in the research and in the region, we can see widespread support for greater women's political representation and principle. So voters do support the idea of having more women in politics. It just doesn't necessarily translate to votes. We found that women winning elections in the Pacific requires a high public profile, requires a good reputation, credibility and leadership experience, really good networks and resources, which is a key challenge for many women candidates, the financial resources to contest. We know that women are perceived differently as candidates, even if they use the same strategies as men candidates, they might not be perceived the same way. And the playing field can be leveled, though, especially with money. If you're a really well resourced woman candidate, that does get you across a lot of barriers, but that's still very difficult, and it's not a guaranteed solution. And the other thing we found is that it's really hard to take what works in one context in the Pacific and apply it to another context, even within the same country. It's very difficult. It's all about understanding your local context and what works, what would work for you there. You can't just kind of adopt a strategy from somewhere else and expect it to work the same way. Just going through really briefly some recent elections to illustrate that first point. This was a Solomon Islands election in April 2019. Only 8% of candidates were women, so a very low proportion. And the success rate of women candidates was also really low. 16% of men got into Parliament, but only 8% of the women who stood. Quite similar in Vanuatu, 6% of the total number of candidates were women. And unfortunately, no women were elected in this election in Vanuatu, so the success rate for women was 0%, whereas about 1 in 5 of the men who stood were elected. In Samoa, noting that this process is still ongoing with by-elections and things, so this was only the results from election day. 11% of the candidates in the Samoan election this year were women, which basically you have to have a metai title to run in Samoa, and about 1 in 10 metai title holders are women. So this is actually kind of proportionate to the eligible candidates. But you can see here that actually the success rates for women and men are a lot closer in Samoa. 24% of the women candidates who ran were elected compared to 28% for men. So while in general you see this gap, it really depends on the country as to how pronounced it is. I'm just going to briefly show some graphs from research that has been done by the Fiji Women's Forum, International Women's Development Agency, the Women's Rights Action Movement in Solomon Islands, and the Department of Pacific Affairs at the ANU, which I think overall shows that a significant number of voters don't don't take gender necessarily into account when they're choosing to vote for a candidate. The percentage of voters who prefer to vote for a man is pretty low actually, according to this data. In Solomon Islands, we saw a decent amount of people in 2019 reported that they actually had voted for a woman candidate before. So they're obviously open to voting for women, and that was backed up in this ANU research as well. Over 50% of people said that they would vote for a woman candidate, so obviously it would be nice if that was higher, but that's a good sign. This is also a research in 2019 in Solomon Islands. Do women and men get the same chances to be elected? You can see quite a difference across different provinces, but overall people feel like women have a good chance if they're putting themselves forward, however that doesn't necessarily reflect what actually happens at the polling booth. And then this is some ANU research from the Papua New Guinea general elections in 2017. This is broken down by region, so do you think there should be more women MPs in all regions? Over 50% and up to 77% of respondents said yes. Would you vote for a good woman candidate? At least 65% and up to 89% said yes, but when we asked are any good women candidates contesting this election, those numbers drop quite significantly. So we can see the gap here. Voters like to believe that they'll vote for a woman candidate, but then the criteria for a good woman candidate seems quite hard to meet for a lot of people. And this is some 2014 research from Fiji showing that I guess what this tells me is that people see men and women as having different but complementary strengths. And so people believe that men might be better at some aspects of politics, but that women are better at others. And so that also kind of supports the idea that people are broadly supportive of women's political representation, but again that doesn't necessarily translate to actually getting a balanced number of men and women in parliament. I wanted to address the issue that Monica raised on the women vote for women because I think it's really important and it comes out time and time again. This is a quote from the late Tongan Prime Minister Akelesi Pohiva just after he was elected Prime Minister in 2014. And he's talking about because no women were elected in this Tongan election, but he was saying women are 50% of the voters, so why is this happening? Why aren't we seeing more women elected? And I think this is, it's fair and it's a source of frustration for many women candidates I think, but it's important to remember that gender is one aspect of our identities and it's one part of our political calculus and voting is complex. You've got to take a whole range of things into account. Gender might be one of those things, but it is only one of those things and so women really have to appeal to everything and it's true that they'll help to a different standard than men. I think we see that pretty consistently across the region and it's very difficult, but it's important not to place all the blame on women voters because men voters should also be voting for women as well. So just lastly, I wanted to end with some of the findings from this 2016 report, which is five years old now, but I think it's still really relevant about how to support women candidates and aspiring women candidates going forward. I think it's really important to have a long-term approach to have an electoral cycle approach. So not just supporting women six months out from the election or three months out from the election, but approaching women a whole electoral cycle away after the last election saying, do you want to run in the next one and how can you prepare? Making sure that candidates understand the local political economy, that they understand the rules of the game, not just the formal rules, but how politics is practiced on the ground and what voters want to see from their candidates. Building effective coalitions, approaching community leaders and getting their support, making sure your networks are working for you and knowing what a good local leader looks like and how women can meet those standards and also finding creative ways to bridge resource gaps because not all women will have a huge bucket of money that they can use. So making sure that the money that does need to be spent on an election campaign is not wasted, that it's spent creatively and smartly. And the other potential solution is institutional reforms. It's gender quotas. It's looking at how legislation can be changed to better support a woman candidates and increase their chances in elections. That's a difficult prospect in much of the Pacific, but we have seen some success in Vanuatu and Bogenville and Samoa in bringing in these institutional reforms. So there's prospects there to apply it across the region as well. So I'll stop there. Thanks very much, everyone. Thank you, Karen. You have given us so many new insights, including the importance of research, to really come to grips with the problem. And one of the things that caught my eye was the need for a high public profile to do well in the elections. And what research shows, including the one research done in Fiji, is that women candidates are invisible in the media. So maybe this is one of the areas we need to tackle in future. Okay, so now I have great pleasure introducing our final speaker. Saini Nambu is the General Secretary of the National Federation Party and previously a party vice president. She proudly hails from Oniata in the Lao group with maternal links to Kambara, also in Lao. And Saini tells us that she greatly appreciates being raised with firm rakiraki and raw values from a maternal grandmother. She holds a postgraduate qualification in educational technology from the University of the Southern Queensland in Australia. And she trained as a journalist and is an environmentalist, and this stems from her work as a political advisor for Greenpeace Australia Pacific. She's a media commentator, especially climate change and oceans. And she is also a consultant, but most importantly, a wife and a mother to four children and two pet dogs. Okay, Saini, you may now begin. Thank you very much, Dr. Singh. Thank you also, Adi. And to my fellow co-panelists, Karen and Monica, thank you for your very insightful presentations. And I'd also like to echo my gratitude to International IDEA for providing this space in which to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities for women to step into political spaces. I've been asked to firstly share some thoughts on women's abilities to fundraise, as well as talk about funding support from parties and to answer the question whether finance is a barrier to women's participation in politics. So I thought I would start the conversation around and talk about the opportunities that I see. For starters, I am keenly following online the upcoming University of the South Pacific Students Association elections, I think to be held in October sometime. And I'm just marveling at the numbers and the types of female students putting their hand up and aligning to particular students' campaign groups. My takeaway from that is that young women are keen and they're eager to give voice to matters that they care deeply about. And I'm also excited to see that USP is encouraging a more visible elections process for students. As USP is traditionally the breeding ground for student activism, as we all know from the 70s and the Pacific nuclear free movement then. The other opportunity from this unscientific observation is that there's an indication that despite COVID and the joblessness, the poverty and the hardship, there is still an appetite among young women to step forward referring again to the USP Students' Association, to step forward for students' political representation and that technology is going to be the high-speed highway for political conversations. So that brings me to the barriers to women's participation and while finance is a barrier that I'll speak to more later, there is no shortage of women's capabilities to lead. Excuse me. What I do see is that there is a vacuum from where women do lead and give voice at the community level, at the NGO level, the media level, professional, technical, business, industry and sectoral women are the bridge builders. They're nurturers, they're multitaskers and they know when to raise their voice. We know this, but I think what we do have at the problem and as a barrier is that there is a gap from that level into Parliament, whereas before we used to have like the local government municipal elections that were quite valuable training grounds for political representatives to be able to understand their community better and to understand how to represent voters and taxpayers and ratepayers at that level. So the other challenge, of course, is that the women who we know, we have seen as leaders in the community levels and in their various sectoral areas, that they may not be confident about taking the next step. And that's a challenge for political parties like us. As we said to the Parliamentary Standing Committee when we made our party submission and to commemorate International Women's Day in March this year, the NFP pledges to actively advocate for temporary special measures or reserve porters to uphold a 30% target as pledged by Fiji way back in 1995 during the Beijing processes. Now on finances, firstly, it's culturally awkward for new political entrants to fundraise for elections campaigns, let alone women. So that's the first thing. Now is there a space for sectoral groups to brainstorm about that barrier and how to remove that? Secondly, the electoral laws are a barrier. The new amendments become even more administratively cumbersome to worry about as a candidate is out there canvassing for votes. For example, we have been told by the elections office that every financial and non-financial contribution to a candidate's campaign has to be receded. So to put that into context, if a married woman has been given $10,000 from her husband, which is the limit for donations to campaign on, and he gives her his car to use for campaigning, when she files for her nominations with the party and is found to be in breach of a donation was because she received the $10,000 from her husband plus the use of the car, the whole party can be suspended. In our view, that's quite unreasonable and it's work in progress with the elections office. So that is one way that parties like us are trying to even up the playing field to get more women into politics. In terms of funding support from parties, whereas we try to help women candidates. And for example, in 2018, we used to give subsidized grog to women candidates for when they would be hosting campaign meetings. But now we have to be very mindful that we do not run foul of electoral laws. The other situation is the new amendment requiring women to use their birth certificate names when voting. Political parties just had a briefing with the supervisor of elections earlier today and we've been told that their names as is remain on the voter role, but it's only that the green voter ID cards which are expired. But the elections office will likely insist on the use of birth certificate names or the new names if they do change it by the process given by the birth deaths and marriages office. They will insist upon that for candidates only. So that's going to cause a lot of confusion that we will have to continue to work through with the elections office to get a little bit more clarity on because if we're confused and it's likely that our constituents will be doubly confused as well. Instantly, the elections office also replies that they want to be ready for elections by May 2022 and then wait for the writ to be issued. So there's not a lot of time. I think I'll end there and I hope I've given some insight into some of the berries about finance this. In fact, when I'm listening to Monica, I'm just thinking about how Monica, you and I should write a book about as a primer for young women. But I'll end there and I'm happy to take questions. Thank you, Dr. Singh. Thank you, Saini. Some very good insights from you as a political candidate. Saini is another one who has been through the trenches and her views need to be taken seriously if the situation is to be improved. So all the three speakers have spoken. We now have about 40 minutes for questions and discussions. So I encourage all the participants, the audience to send in their questions. We already have some questions here and we will start with that. But please continue making comments and writing down questions. Okay. So the first question I have is for Dr. Karen Baker. She pointed out that Fiji has the Pacific's highest female representation in parliament. And the question we have is to ensure continuity. Should Fiji, like other Pacific island countries, consider introducing a CODA system to ensure parity for the long term? Is it necessary to do that? I'll answer first, but I'd really also love the perspective of my other panelists on this as well. Because it is a tough question. Should Fiji introduce a CODA, possibly? CODAs are very controversial. They're hard to get public support for because people feel really complicated emotions when we're talking about quotas. You've got ideas of what's democratic and what's fair. And it's sometimes hard to reconcile quotas with that. So I think it's a more urgent solution for parts of the Pacific that have really low rates of women's representation in politics or no woman at all represented in their parliaments. For Fiji, it's a different situation. So yeah, I don't think that I have a proper answer to it. But I'd love to hear the perspectives from my other panelists. Monica, what are your views? When I was first asked that, I think it was way back in 2006, I felt Fiji had a more open system in terms that many of my voters were males at once. I had a kind of equal proportion, if you like, in 2006. And I felt that the women that had stood up had worked very hard and just like the men had. And even if you look at it from that time, age now to 11, there's been an increase and it's got nothing to do with quota systems, but just working as hard as everybody else. Because I don't think we really have, even though I said women don't vote women, you do have women that do vote women, but you have men that vote women as well. So for me, I think once you begin to get a quota system and you begin to reach that, I have a feeling you may end up having a gender imbalance. Men, may have difficulty too after a while, because what I've found is that, I'm not saying men are not educated enough, but you find that the women, once they get into these arenas and fields, they actually excel. And they do well. In our case for Fiji Labour Party, we have people like we've got a lot of farming areas, we've got people from more different areas. And they have their support. Whereas most of our women that I've come through are mainly urban dwellers. And most of them are able to handle themselves pretty well. I don't know if that kind of answers, like Karen, I'm like not, let's say, quota system for Fiji is a big question mark. I was more towards, I think women can handle it. And I think they've been handling it pretty well. That's my take. May I see, can we hear from you? Sorry, did you ask, Shaleem, sorry. Yeah, please, Eunice, if you could share your views as well. Yeah, I'm asking you for your views, Eunice, your input. Eunice or Saini? I'm sorry, Saini, my apologies. All right, that's all right. So, yes, as we said, we've made a commitment to it. And I get all both sides of the argument, but a commitment was made in 1995, fought very hard by all sectors of women's representation in Fiji, including the NGOs. We are at a good spot right now, but it doesn't mean that we stopped there. 30% is aspirational and we should be putting some firm commitments to getting it through, because the other thing is that it can become an elitist sort of representation. We need to, for example, if there is a woman who is a market vendor, you can't expect somebody from the business sector to be able to articulate the challenges and the laws that need to change for women in that sector. So, that is why we need to strive a little bit harder, and I'm grateful that the party is taking this on board as a commitment. Thank you. Thank you, Saini. Okay, the other audience question is, for a woman to be nominated, how important are qualifications and social background and status? This question, I mean, I'll put it to any one of the panelists to answer. Maybe start with Monica? When we get people, when they put in their nominations, we normally interview them and you find that status, social status, their backgrounds, it's not so much as that as so much as what they can bring to the table. Many of these women that do come through with their nominations usually are, well, they know what they're doing in their areas and they know their field. So, for me, a qualification in terms of having a degree or something to me doesn't really matter so much as they know the area, the field that they're in, the areas that they're going to be wanting to represent, who they're representing, and if they're able to get out there and be able to do what's, you know, to do the needful to get out there and help people and to get things moving. I don't think, because most of our, we're Labour, so most of our candidates have been from the working field, has always been from the working field. Yeah, thank you. Saini, do you want to share your views? Sure. So, under this system, you know, retail politics is how things are run and it's all about numbers, but that's not to say that we, you know, diversity is not essential, it's not essential, it is. And I think, and that's part of what we try to do in terms of orientation for our candidates. You know, when you're a community leader, that's great, but you come in, you need to make sure that you at least, you know, have an army of 30 people who are going to eventually going to be your polling agents for starters, so that your representation matters in the first instance. Having said that, you also need to be very aware that, I mean, their qualifications and status shouldn't really matter, but you need to be mindful at the end point is that you're going into Parliament to make laws. Cabinet positions are secondary. You're going in there to make laws. So, for starters, you need to be able to learn how to read text and to understand, you know, about what's happening. And there's a lot of community leaders who have that down pat. It may not be academic, it's just something that comes to them naturally. And similarly, so entrepreneurs who know how to build from scratch. Those are the kinds of minds that we need in Parliament. But remember, you are fighting to get into Parliament to make laws. Thank you. Dr. Baker, do you want to share your views? I don't really have much to add, except from the research that we've done across the Pacific. I think like qualifications are important in some cases, status is important in some cases, but it's really about showing credibility as a leader. And that credibility looks different depending on where you are and who you're looking to represent. So, I would probably put community service as higher in terms of what you need to prove than qualifications and status, not that those things aren't necessarily important, but just that, yeah, proving that you're capable and you're a legitimate leader is a lot broader than that. May I just add something? Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. There was something Saini did say. When, if you do get through into Parliament, it is very important that, like she said, you're able to read and to at least be able to write and to communicate right. Because like I mentioned in my presentation, there's a lot of reading to be done. There's presentations you need to make your own speeches. You can get help with that if you like. But in most cases, you're doing your own research, you're doing your own writing. So, these are the areas that women do need help. And they, the one form is to fight the elections. The other one is to get in and the other one is to how do you take that journey forward. And if you're not equipped for that, it becomes quite difficult. And even if you're very capable, it's not translating into where it should be translating and how it should be translating. That's just a little adding. Thank you, Monica. Saini, you raised the issue of how much of a stumbling block campaign financing can be. So, what are the solutions? Are there any ways of overcoming this major hurdle for female election candidates? Well, this is, I'm glad you asked that question. And before I answer that, I just want to respond to Aurea, who's just popped up a question about something I responded to earlier about whether it's, you know, apart from being legislators, you need to keep it real with the community. That's very valid. But in the past parliamentary system, they used to give actual allocations to parties where you could have offices everywhere to make sure that you kept your pulse on the issues arising from constituents. So, thank you for that comment, Aurea, that you're quite right. Now, a response to the question about finances. Culturally, I mean, I know for Fijian women, it's very hard to ask for money from strangers and to be able to, I think, Monica mentioned it as well, to sell yourself, that you can do something, you know, the retail politics element of it. And that's not to say that it's impossible. So, that's why when I made my presentation, I was hoping that there could be a space where we could help eliminate this barrier to help women overcome this lack of confidence about asking for money. Because if you don't have money, your campaign capability is going to be very limited. Now, whether that's training, maybe even people who do sales and marketing could be really good mentors because they can do cold calls and ask people for money on the phone just like that. It's difficult for people who are new entrants into political spaces to be able to do that. These particular words you can use, whether that's in your mother tongue or in English, there is a process to how to ask for money. And I think that's probably one gap that we could collectively try and fix together. Okay, thank you, Saini. Does anyone else want to add to what Saini has said? Okay, if not this, we have a question here for Dr. Karen Baker from Professor Vijay Naidu of the University of the South Pacific. This is a really interesting question. Dr. Baker, can you please explain why Guam Kaneki and Mohai Nui have more than 50% representation? Yeah, thank you. That's a really good question. In terms of the French Pacific territories, a lot of it is to do with gender quotas, because they have very strict gender quotas. Basically, you vote for a party list rather than an individual candidate and each party on their party list has to have zippered women and men candidates. So if you have a man at number one, you've got to have a woman at number two, number four, number six, all the way down. So that's, like, you can't get around that in New Caledonia and French Polynesia. And that's why you get quite gender equal legislatures, because of that rule and that the strong party system. In Guam, the high levels of women's representation are relatively recent and they don't have a gender quota. So there's a lot of potential reasons for it. They have very strong matrilineal traditions in Guam. They have strong traditions of women's leadership in the community. And so that probably helps. They also have a woman governor. So having women's leadership at that highest level and that visibility, I think, is also really important and encouraging more women to come forward and encouraging voters to vote for women. So those are potentially two parts of it. But I don't like there's no kind of one reason you can point to in Guam why the number of women is so high, which suggests, you know, it could potentially happen anywhere in the Pacific. Thank you, Karen, for that. Now, I've got a rather long question, but an interesting question from Dr. Andreas Koch from the University of the South Pacific. So please bear with me while I read out this question. We heard that there are two major challenges for women female election candidates. One is second to change in the social perceptions of women's leadership skills in politics and beyond. There is forced trust in women's skills and capabilities. Both challenges can hardly be truly overcome without challenging gendered power structures in society, AKA patriarchy, with the goals to foster a new revised social value and norm base. So how can that be best achieved? I'm aware that this is a large question and discussions have been ongoing for a while, but I'd appreciate any ideas from the panel and from the audience. So any one of you three can, you know, attend this question. How to convince and encourage women to become politically active and overcome the barriers such as patriarchy? What can be done in concrete terms? What more can be done? He's talking about fostering women's skills to be capable and strong candidates. It's enough being done in these areas, you know, from a young age. So any one of you three can attend this, you know, have a go at this question first? I think, okay, I guess we're all looking at each other to say who goes first. So you go first, Saini. So in terms of patriarchy, I mean, first of all, one of the biggest challenges there is that it's cultural as well. And then while you don't want to go, you know, charging in with a hard line feminist view, you know, you are asking for votes. And while you do want changes, you want it to be organic. And, you know, something that they're feeling from the heart. One thing I can suggest is, you know, the framing and the optics of women. And this is where the media is very important. For example, if you're having media articles that are talking about how women's dress sense is in Parliament, I don't think that does a lot for women, for women's active participation because they're more than what they're wearing. I think a lot of our female MPs in Parliament at the moment do excellent jobs in raising the issues of their constituents. But in terms of it's going to take a while because we are still very traditionally rooted, still culture plays a big game in how politics is practiced. But, you know, for example, if media could be a bit more assistive perhaps to framing women in a life that is more positive and things that they bring to the table and things that they articulate, I think that would be a very good first start. The other thing also is social media. I mean, that in itself is an issue that is rife with debate. But a lot of times there are women politicians or women involved in politics who get really appalling stuff written about them, whether that's true or not. That's a whole other debate. But I think a lot of that would probably need to start from homes and then, of course, from schools about what is appropriate. And of course, again, the media would be a very valuable platform for raising women's optics in a more positive light. Thank you. Thank you, Saini. Monica, do you want to add to that, please? Maybe. What's happened in our case in our party is that in 2006 we had 31 women candidates standing and on two of us come to Parliament. And we also found, like Saini said, again, media in how they are able to use the space they have pre-election or during election to be able to... I think they've done that. I'm not going to say that they haven't tried or attempted. They have had pages, some of them have had pages representing and talking about candidates per week or per day or something like that. They were doing that. So I wouldn't just say that they haven't totally. But yes, I do agree. Media is one. Social media is another one. Parties themselves can put in more emphasis on women and their training. And I think we've had family come up who have done a tremendous job trying to get the women's view before the elections. We've also had, if I'm not mistaken, idea internationally have done training on the different formats that have been used in election. But then again, coverage. And also, I think I mentioned in my presentation, some women are probably very good at a discussion at a table or within the caucus. But they may not be all that... They may not be at ease speaking in a general forum. So there are a lot of things that women need to go through in terms of training and being able to articulate themselves. Yeah, so it's not only just training. It's also the platforms that they require or they can be given to express themselves. Thank you. Thank you, Monica. Dr Baker, have you got any insights from your research into this issue? Well, I would just support the excellent ideas that have been put forward so far. I'd also, I guess the main thing is that you can't separate women's political representation and leadership from issues of gender equality more broadly. It's all part of the same process. And just having a woman in politics, if you don't make any changes to society more broadly, won't help. You've got to do it all. Having women in politics is one part of the solution. It's not the whole solution. So keeping that kind of, that holistic mindset I guess is really important. Thank you, Dr Baker. We have a follow-up question from Lena Tamal of IDEA. And the question is could public funding of political parties and election campaigns be part of the solution? Should funding be earmarked for female candidates? This is public funding. Should they receive a subsidy, a state subsidy? Maybe we'll go with Monica first. I think particularly with the percentages we do have, it would be good to have that because it would be helpful. I think there was, I can't remember right now offhand, but it was one of the NGOs, it was one of the NGOs that was supporting the, was it Emily? No. It was one of them that actually came forward and they were raising funds or they were able to find funds to help women actually run the campaign. We saw some years ago, I can't quite remember how that went, but yes, women do need help. Yes, if there is some allocation, but how that's going to work, I don't know. But maybe as mentioned, as soon as you have your candidates lined up and you do have the women there, maybe collective funding could be put forward for the training. It's very important for the training because without the training, it can get really, really difficult for women to figure out or to feel their way around. Also, they need that support. You can't just send them out there and expect them to know exactly what to do. In our parties, we have training sessions. As soon as the candidates come in, I'm sure all the parties do that, you have training sessions. And in my case, we had, we had a management board, we had our senior, senior members who would come with me along to campaigns to assist me and to sort of, if you like, hold your hand for a little while until you are good to move on on your own. So you get your party support for getting public support or funding from it to assist all the women across the board. Actually, not just the women, the men as well, because many of them also need that assistance to actually know what to do once they let out there. So yeah, that's what I take. Thanks. Thank you, Monica. We'll go with Saini next. Sorry, could you just remind me what the question was again? I'm sorry. No worries. I can repeat the question. Could public funding of political parties and election campaigns be part of the solution that is state subsidies for female candidates, not just to help the election campaigns, but also to address some of the root causes of the problem of female backwardness, what Dr. Andreas raised. It is certainly a question. Okay, so what I understand happens now is that the political parties do get funding from parliament, but that depends on how many seats that they have. And that is not segmented by gender. It's left for the party to manage for their parliamentary work. So perhaps that's a good idea then that if we do get allocations given from the state right now, maybe we should carve off a bit of it to make sure that we lift up women's representation. However, it doesn't cater for other parties not in parliament and to get women ready right now. So if state funding could be given, that would be ideal for sure. The mechanics of it of course is always going to be the challenge. Thank you, Saini. Next, we have a really interesting question from Dr. Avinash Kumar, the University of the South West Pacific. This question is first for Monica and then for Saini. And the question is, given that there are only a few women in Pacific parliaments, to what extent do the men MPs represent women's views in parliament? Are male MPs aware of the women's issues and do they represent this feeling and adequately in parliament? Monica first and then Saini. Look, I've not been in parliament for quite some time right now, but neither have I been actually listening to everything. But, you know, so I'm not really in a, but I do, okay, put it this way. When we had issues, when we had things that we needed to sort out, and we had male minister or somebody, they would actually say, look, we've got solutions to that problem. And if you want, we can sit down and talk about it. I've seen your presentation. I've seen, I've seen your request come into my office to do with, you know, a particular thing. I go, you know, and they would say we could sit and talk about it. Also, if there were things that we needed to say, we could take it to one of the MPs at that point in time to say, look, this is what it is. When I was in parliament for the six months, a lot of things, what had happened is that all the women MPs got together, and they had begun a group that would look at all the women's issues. And I had somebody come over from Sudan and just said to me, not Sudan, but it was SDL that time and just said, look, if you women can agree on things, we will support you. It was just as simple as that. If you women can agree on things, we will support you. It was, to me, that sort of spelt out a lot of things. So if instead of taking things in fragments or in portions, you know, each women parliamentarian trying to do their own, when it came into a group formation, and we certainly discussed things, we could take it forward quickly because most of the issues are similar. So I do believe that to a certain extent or to a large extent, if we spoke to our male MPs, they did. I can't speak for what's happening right now, but definitely during that time. Thank you. Thank you, Monica. Stélie, what are your views? Thank you, Dr. Singh. So in terms of how we do things and ensuring that there's a gender lens in how we are advocating issues, we have a very robust parliamentary caucus system where we try and bring in the issues that are arriving from voters who are bringing issues up with their representatives, our three representatives. And then we, so I think for us, it's mainly because I think we have two women. So that gender lens is kind of automatic and we're women who can be very vocal as well. So, and just to give an example, we had a question by Honourable Lenora that was not, there was this allowed in the last parliament where she was asked to ask a question about women market vendors in Norsori who were prevented from selling their produce inside and had to sell their produce near the public toilets. And of course that got, you know, that question was not allowed to be asked. But, you know, for issues like that, it's not even a gender issue. It's a dignity issue. Why would you want to sell produce outside near the toilets? So I think we have a very strong parliamentary caucus system where we talk through these issues before every parliamentary sitting and then before we have to follow the questions. And if I could just give a quick shout out to young people who want to get involved in politics. This is the time, even if you're still thinking about in the distant future. Join the political party so you can understand how the structure of how things work because it's not just going into parliament, you know, advocating for issues. There are actually, you know, stringent party procedures and systems that you have to be disciplined about before you can actually advocate. So I would really encourage, and I'm sure Monica would, I don't want to speak for FLP, but I'm sure that's something that, you know, we don't encourage young women to get involved with the party structures now, not just as the youth thing, but actively become involved with how the mechanics of the parties work. Thank you. It seems that there is another problem area. And we have a follow up question, a related question from Bill Kunawatu, who says, there is a big gap between policy makers and women in grassroots communities. How can we balance the system in ensuring a coherent representation at national level in line with the no one is left behind Bill? So let's go with Monica first. Look, with the current system, unfortunately, you know, you have the one, one boundary. So even if you're voting for somebody, you really can't, you know, if you're in an area, you don't have a real representation, you know, you don't have a real a rep who you can actually go out to and talk to. But there are structures in place in communities, particularly with the, in the, you know, in the different, if you like, ethnical groups, there are structures. You have whether it is, you know, the church, whether it's a manly, whether it's the, the matangali, whether they are structures. And many of these structures work and they're able to take up, they have leaders who actually can bring these up to the necessary forums. But again, by the time it gets from where, you know, you've got the questions to the policy makers, some things get lost in transition sometimes. So if you really want something done, you need to get that connectivity going and you need to follow it through. That's the only way I can sort of, you know, say if you do want it to go from grass root level to the policy or to the table, you need to follow it through and you need to find somebody who can help you through it. Thank you. Thank you, Monica. Saini, do you want to add to that? Yeah. So I think because of the COVID situation and the lockdowns, our MPs have been quite limited in their ability to go out and talk to, you know, the rural, the constituents and voters out there. And we used to try and do that regularly, even with constrained funds. Technology is a little solution, but it's nothing like pressing the flesh, you know, holding hands and actually having all those face to face discussions. I remember, way before I got involved in politics, when Mikberos was a politician, he always used to, and that was because he was given, you know, in those days, they were given a parliamentary allocation for constituency visits. So he would put up ads in the paper, I'm coming here for constituency visit, and it was what struck me about it was that the regularity of how we put out those notices. So that's one way of trying to ensure that the grass root concerns are echoing up to the policy and parliament level. So if there were, you know, we're trying to do the best that we can under these situations, but ideally, and I think there were earlier discussions about having party offices, we are required by law to have party presence in four divisions of the one constituency. But, you know, it's so large and to be able to make sure that those offices are running well and man to be able to receive the issues from the constituents and from the voters, I think if there's more allocation given to political parties through the elections office like they do in Australia, I think that would be very beneficial. Okay, thank you, Nacey. Okay, this is the final question from me. First for Dr Baker, and then Monica, and then Nacey. I want to discuss the role of the news media, which can make or break candidates in any election. Around 10 years ago, I supervised an MA thesis on print media coverage of female candidates in two Fiji elections. And the students as much she did a really good job. She found that female candidates were not only invisible, but also stereotype. So they had to disadvantage right from the beginning. Now the findings were not entirely surprising. We know that this problem exists, and that it's a worldwide phenomenon. Okay, so in my opinion, it's a serious problem, but an understated one and an ignored problem in the Pacific. So my question to the three speakers is, I mean, are you able to comment on this problem? How big is it in your opinion? And how can it be addressed? Dr Baker first? Sure. It is a huge problem. And I'm just adding on to that. So there was a question from Facebook on the role of social media as well, which is another aspect of this and how women candidates and women politicians are treated on social media. But yeah, like you said, in both of these cases, the kind of more traditional media and social media, this isn't a Fiji issue or a Pacific issue. It's found all over the world and it's an ongoing challenge. And I'm not sure anyone's really managed to solve it. I would say like, there's probably opportunities given how under resourced a lot of the media outlets are across the Pacific for women candidates to be really proactive and say, you know, here's a story. Here's some news trying to get more publicity that way. But that doesn't solve the kind of the overarching, I think this is a really common theme in today's seminar, the kind of social norms that shape how women and politics are perceived. And we see that coming through on social media, we see that coming through in the more traditional media outlets. And that's a much bigger problem, much more difficult to solve. Thank you. Monica, your turn. Look, I agree with what she said. If I just may say something, with everything there's a start, if you look at our parliament's way back in the 70s, we didn't have that many women representing us, but they were good political women. And over the period of time, we've had increases, women had to fight their way, you know, like everything else. And I believe that those that started off, you know, set a benchmark, those that have continued that are trying, they're also setting or setting a path, if you like. And I think sooner or later, you will have women who would take an interest to know, it's a deciding fact on which direction you want to see your country go. If you have a vision, if you want to be part of a vision, then you need to stand up and make yourself known and be counted, accountability of a person. So we have a lot of women who got a lot to give. Yes, like the same stereotype. Yes, again, it's your audience, how they're going to perceive you, how they want to see you at the end of the day. All of that, does it matter to the candidate? Yes, to a certain extent. No, if you're wanting to just trailblaze. If you just want to keep going, do what you have to do to get, we need to get to. That's just what I'd like to add. Thanks. Cheney, you have the last say today. Lucky me. So in terms of your research about, you know, women being invisible in the media, I'd say that there are two elements to that. First, in terms of the news weirdness of what women are saying, and those are judgment calls by the newsrooms, I think there's also maybe a space there for female candidates to be given training about how to articulate issues to make it newsworthy. That's a skill in itself. So there's probably space there for interaction between parties, NGOs, and the media. The other issue of why women would be invisible is because you can be visible, but if you advertise yourself, and that costs, especially during campaign season, the price just increases threefold. So there's two elements to that. Now, what would be interesting to understand, Dr. Singh, is the correlation between your findings of invisible women and the seats one, because there are a lot of parties who do, who did have very good women candidates, not necessarily in the media, but they're in Parliament now. So I suppose I will just round off with that. Thank you. Thank you. So very interesting and interactive session has come to an end. In closing, I want to thank our three speakers for their deep insight into what I would say is a really critical issue. Your contribution today is putting the spotlight on a long-standing issue and what I consider an ignored problem, and bringing it out and highlighting it is the first step to addressing problems of this nature, hidden problems of this nature. I hope the news media reports this webinar so it can reach a greater number of people. This is really important. Our thanks also goes to our audience as well. Your participation, questions and comments, added rigor and value to today's seminar. Our appreciation to the idea team for creating the space to discuss issues critical to Mernigia, including entrenched problems like gender inequality. So thank you, Rajan, Raycheli, Vikash, and Shonin Suva, and Adi, Lena, and Jenny in Canberra. See you all at our next webinar. Thank you. Thank you very much, Vinaka Vakalewa, everyone. Hope to see you at the annual forum on women in politics next month. Before we go, can we have you turning in your video so I can have a screenshot for us? Okay. Okay. Sorry, Rajan, I sent everyone packing off too early. It's all right. I think this is a new way of getting group photos. I want to write some more people coming in. Okay. Thank you for all your beautiful smile. Thank you very much, Dr. Selen, for an excellent moderation. Thank you. Thank you, Adi, for the opportunity. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Bye, Saini. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Adi. Bye. Thank you, Manika. Bye-bye.