Correctional Services Solomon Islands (CSSI) will launch its first gender audit report at a special event in Honiara on Monday 18 June 2012.
The report “Cooling Agents and Panadol” is the product of a two month CSSI led audit which assessed CSSI's progress towards gender quality in its work and workforce.
The report highlights CSSI's success as a leader for gender equality within Solomon Islands and regionally.
The CSSI has established a women's network and the Pacific Islands Regional Correctional Women's Conference, provides gender training for staff and has set targets for increasing the number of females in CSSI's ranks and executive.
The report also finds that there are ongoing challenges and opportunities for CSSI to strengthen its gender equity work, particularly in areas such as building gender awareness and expertise within CSSI and working with inmates to change attitudes towards gender based violence.
“This audit provides CSSI with an opportunity to review what we have already done and what is planned and to refine our policies and practices to ensure that we achieve the successful outcomes that we aim for”, CSSI Commissioner Francis Haisoma said.
“To achieve gender equality in CSSI, we require the will to remove barriers. We also need to develop a suitable framework to facilitate change and we need the commitment to follow through and implement change,” said Mr Haisoma.
The report provides key recommendations to CSSI for advancing gender equality. The audit process was led and conducted by a team from CSSI, with support from RAMSI.
