Despite the challenges, there is progress | Resident Coordinator Simona Marinescu

Reverend Siaosi Salesulu,

Honourable Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, Prime Minister of Samoa

Excellency Sujiro Seam, Ambassador of the European Union for the Pacific,

Taua Faamoemoe Taua, President of SUNGO

Fuimaono Ofoia, CEO of SUNGO

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

UN Colleagues & Partners,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the United Nations Secretary-General and the Country Team in Samoa, I wish to thank SUNGO for the organization of the Forum as part of the 16 days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, a landmark annual campaign of the United Nations and of our humanity. This campaign serves as a reminder every year that the world is still not a livable place for so many people who continue to face discrimination and violence on gender grounds.   

WHO estimates that about 1 in 3 women (over 30%) worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Furthermore, 27% of women aged 15-49 who have been in a relationship have experienced violence by their intimate partner. There are roughly 738 million women who have been victims of violence by the people they love and care for. In Samoa, this rate stands at over 53% (1 in 2 women and almost double the global rate) as the Demographic and Health – Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey of 2019-2020 has identified.

Worse off, globally, it is estimated that up to 1 billion children aged 2–17, have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional violence or neglect in the past year, a large part of it is domestic violence. In Samoa, these are 90.8% of all children.

This is a shadow pandemic that, unlike many others, is actually preventable at no additional cost for society.

Yet, changing this reality seems to be more complicated as triggers of stress in family relationships continue to multiply at this time of compounding challenges for our humanity and the planet.  

We commend the commitment of Samoa across the Government, civil society and the community to end violence against women and girls and continue progress on recognition and protection of human rights to ultimately end all forms of discrimination in the society.

We take this opportunity to once again express our appreciation to our partner, the European Union for its vision and dedication to more inclusive, violence-free societies that drive the Spotlight Initiative globally and for the substantial investment made through the Spotlight and the Pacific Partnership towards ending suffering for women and girls across the region.    

In addition to addressing one of the most complex dynamics in the society, the Spotlight Programme aligns with the reform of the United Nations through enabling integrated programming and action and full oversight by the Resident Coordinator system.

But above all, by placing great emphasis on the role of the Civil Society in bringing about social transformation, the two programmes funded by the European Union are redesigning the partnership landscape at the community level, empowering civil activism for social good and generating more sustainable results than projects alone can ever achieve.

The highly active Civil Society National Reference Group that the Spotlight has established has taught us a great lesson about the importance of effecting change through the hearts and the hands of those who operate where change is needed, deep in the community where policy and law alone can hardly make an impact.

The role that the National Reference Group on behalf of the CSOs in Samoa has played to date can be seen through everything that the Spotlight has achieved over the last two years – increasing awareness and respect for women’s rights, providing a space for CSOs to mobilize their advocacy and service delivery programmes, facilitating country-wide consultations on the prevention framework, assessing the work of village safety committees and, very importantly, monitoring the relevance and effectiveness of UN-led interventions across the 6 pillars of the Spotlight.

In recognition of the valuable role played by the National Reference Group, we involved its representatives in the review of the human rights account of Samoa for the 3rd UPR this year and, through the Joint Steering Committee of our programmes, in the Social Protection initiative among others.

The joint work to date includes assessing capacity gaps in the EVAWG space, enhanced support to survivors of violence during the COVID-19 pandemic including strengthening the 24-hour helplines through Samoa Victim Support Group and Faataua le Ola during the State of Emergencies, ensuring access to information, services and support for vulnerable families. During the 2020 period, the help lines assisted 3,467 people of which 617 men, 643 women and 2,167 children.

The Talanoa/Let’s Talk’ Forum in 28 villages, the Transformational Leadership Training for 300 women & girls, the Psycho-Social Support Training of Trainers for CSO representatives, amplifying the voices of survivors through ProjectRahab as well as the consultations hosted by the CSOs for the Law & Justice Sector Plan 2021 – 2025, the National Policy on Gender Equality & Rights of Women and Girls 2021 – 2031, the National Policy on Inclusive Governance 2021 – 2031, the Inter-Agency Essential Services Guidelines for Out-of-School Continuing Sexuality Education are just a few examples of the important contribution made by the civil society on the EVAWG agenda in Samoa.

We are deeply thankful to SUNGO for its role in leading the civil society movement in Samoa for leaving no one behind as the country is addressing some of the most pressing socio-economic issues.

As we are about to learn some critical lessons from this first phase of the Spotlight through the ongoing Mid-Term Assessment, we do hope that our partnership with the civil society will gain in quality in the next phase of the Initiative.               

The Healing Campaign activism that the civil society has conducted in partnership with the United Nations over the last 2 years in Samoa has been labelled by the Spotlight Secretariat as best practice in using culture and art as a form of expression towards enabling societal change.

We must stand united to end the abuse of women and girls, one of the most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violations on earth.

We wish SUNGO and the Forum great success and look forward to learning more from you all as to how best to serve the cause of freeing women and girls from all forms of insecurity, inequity and injustice.

Faafetai Tele Lava. Soifua.