Violence against women and girls costs the economy approximately $300M per year - Rakuita

In Fiji, violence against women and girls costs the economy approximately $300 million per year.

SPC's Principal Strategic Lead, Mereseini Rakuita highlighted this at the Pacific Islands Chief of Police Gender Family Harm Workshop in Nadi, adding this is equivalent to 7 percent of Fiji’s GDP.

She says it affects everyone including various family members, the communities that these families live in, the services that these family members will access (which includes the police), the government is also affected (productivity) and the society as a whole is affected by the violence that is experienced in families.

Rakuita further says this is the cost of the impact of Gender Based Violence – from the police, health services, judiciary, counselling and social services, lost productivity etc.

She says statistics tell us that as a region we have the highest prevalent rate of Gender Based Violence in the world.

Rakuita further says while 1 in 3 women worldwide would have suffered some form of violence in their lifetime, for us in the Pacific, its 2 in 3 women – double the global average.

She says intimate partner violence or family violence continues to be one of the gravest and most pervasive forms of human rights violations in the world today.

Rakuita adds this is why we say that family violence is not a private matter but that it is everybody’s business.