Gender and Social Inclusion in Bank of Papua New Guinea
Mrs. Elizabeth Genia
Assistant Governor, Bank of Papua New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
The Bank of Papua New Guinea is the central bank of Papua New Guinea. In this role, the Bank has a leadership position in the nation’s monetary, economic and financial services activities and, increasingly, a strong positive influence in PNG’s social development.
One of the Bank’s core functions is to regulate financial institutions and financial services providers. Over recent years this has led to a strong focus on ensuring fair and equitable access to financial products and services for all Papua New Guineans. ‘Financial inclusion’ has since become a national strategic program.
Gender and social inclusion (GESI) started to build momentum. In 2019 the Bank held a series of meetings about establishing a GESI team within the Bank. Staff from all levels across all departments and locations participated in an online survey as the first step of an Organisational Gender Assessment. The Survey helped assess general attitudes to and knowledge of GESI issues. The Survey’s findings were insightful, honest and sometimes uncomfortable. Focus group discussions and workshops were then conducted to present and discuss Survey findings and to gain a better understanding of the implications of the results.
The Bank of Papua New Guinea launched its GESI Policy and its Implementation Strategy 2020- 2022 in December 2019.
The GESI policy neatly complements the Bank’s financial inclusion work, by highlighting and addressing gender-related inequity, inequality and discrimination in accessing and using financial products and services. However, the Bank’s GESI philosophy goes further, to provide a way for individuals to receive support in cases of discrimination.
Since the GESI launch, the Bank has achieved a number of important milestones:
- A number of GESI Focal Point members have been appointed and received training, so that each group and department within the Bank is represented. The roles of the GESI Focal Point members are to RECOGNISE, RESPOND AND REFER employees facing gender-based violence issues so they can receive help and support.
- The GESI Help Desk was established in February 2020.
- The GESI Steering Committee was also established that year, to provide overall direction and leadership for program implementation within the Bank.
- Family and Sexual Violence trainer training for 20 Focal Point members led to 220 staff being able to participate in awareness sessions, resulting in an increased number of disclosures reported to the GESI Help Desk.
- Since establishment, the GESI Help Desk and the Bank’s ‘Pathway to Safety’ program have supported employees to safety and to courts granting protection orders.