A prominent United Nations official has paid Papua New Guinea a visit.
The executive director for UN Women, Dr. Phumzile Miambo-Ngcuka’s visit coincides with the commemoration of UN's 16 Days of Activism, which started on November 25th.
November 25th marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and will last until December 10th, which will be the Human Rights Day.
Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka is also the UN Under Secretary-General visiting PNG to strengthen existing partnership with the government and private sector.
She is also here to rally support from civil societies to accelerate efforts to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment in the country.
During a press conference yesterday afternoon, she said while the efforts by the government, through the review of legislation and initiatives by partners such as churches and NGOs, are commendable, gender-based violence remains a pandemic in PNG.
"We must strengthen our resolve to end violence against women and girls.
“Local studies show that in PNG, 60 to 80 percent of women and girls are victims of violence, most frequently by intimate partners," she says.
She adds that there is a need for scaled up funding for strategies and police addressing violence against women and sorcery-related violence.
"It is only a legal obligation and a moral interactive, but a sound investment," she says.
"Across the world, robust funding towards efforts to end the pandemic of violence is woefully lacking."
Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka has called on PNG to join the UN Secretary General's *UNiTE Campaign for the global community to focus in the theme of "Orange the World: Raise money to end violence against women and girls".
Ending violence against women and girls has been a strong theme in the work of the UN Women in the country and she acknowledged and appreciated the active work the civil society and the government are doing to put up an end to this atrocity.
Current initiatives include the safe city programs that promote markets and safe transportation for women in Port Moresby.
Also included is the solidarity campaign Sanap Wantaim: The new Normal, organised by the National Capital District Commission (NCDC) and UN Women, with NCD Governor Powes Parkop leading the way.
The campaign is co-funded by the Australian Government and NCDC is driven by youth groups to get city residents involved in making Port Moresby a safer place for women and girls to live in.
Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka says a national change of such value was an excellent initiative.