FIRST LADY MRS SAROTE KONROTE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING ADDRESS AT THE 5TH NATIONAL WOMEN’S EXPO

Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, The Honourable Mereseini Vuniwaqa,

The Assistant Minister, Mrs Veena Bhatnagar;

The Honourable Cabinet Ministers and Honourable Members of Parliament;

Your Excellencies, Heads of Missions and Members of the Diplomatic Corps;

Invited Guests;

Our Women Artisans from all around Fiji;

Members of the Media;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Ni sa bula vinaka, Namaste, Noa’ia ‘e Mauri and a very good morning to you all.
Thank you so much for having me and for the warm welcome this morning. I am absolutely delighted to be here. Before I proceed to deliver my address, I wish to remember the late Dr. Jiko Luveni – the woman behind the inception of this mammoth, game-changing event, the National Women’s Expo. I have, in one way or another been part of this great event over the past few years and it was always a pleasure to see that even after her departure from the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Luveni remained attached to the event and continued to show her full support year after year towards the National Women’s Expo. As the Ministry carries forward this great legacy left behind by the late Dr. Luveni, I wish to congratulate the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation for progressively taking the event a notch up each year.

I have seen the products displayed at this event grow in quality and craft year after year. The theme for the 5th Fiji National Women’s Expo, “Think Equal, Build Smart, and Innovate for Change” is aligned to the UN theme for the International Women’s Day and it is a very apt one indeed.

The achievement of the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires transformative shifts, integrated approaches and new solutions, particularly when it comes to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Based on current trends, existing interventions will not suffice to achieve a gender equal planet by 2030. Innovative approaches that disrupt “business as usual” are central to removing structural barriers and ensuring that no woman and no girl is left behind.

Innovation and technology provide unprecedented opportunities and it is vital that women’s ideas and experiences equally influence the design and implementation of the innovations that shape our future societies. We look to industry leaders, game-changing start-ups, social entrepreneurs, gender equality activists, and women innovators to examine the ways in which innovation can remove barriers and accelerate progress for gender equality, encourage investment in gender-responsive social systems, and build services and infrastructure that meet the needs of women and girls.

The National Women’s Expo is a great example of an innovative intervention in terms of the economic empowerment of rural Fijian women artisans - now being the signature event and one of the key platforms for women’s economic empowerment in Fiji. Fiji has set its trade icon in various marketing platforms with our global partners, with the main goal of promoting Fijian- Made Products.
This year, the Ministry will be hosting a total of 500 women from the four (4) Divisions and the opportunities and take-home for the exhibitors speaks volumes about the impact of the event. For example, the 2018 Fiji National Women’s Expo was a massive success which brought together a total of 340 women artisans from the four (4) Divisions who collectively raised $438,696.20 of total sales during the three (3) days event.

The National Women’s Expo offers women an opportunity to refine their designs and business management skills through product quality control, packaging and labelling, certification/licensing and financial literacy assistance. Empowering Fijian women artisans across handicraft value chains presents a unique opportunity to create business value and strengthen women’s economic empowerment. Capturing these opportunities will require understanding of the specific needs of women and addressing critical barriers. To this effect and in lieu of the 5th National Women’s Expo, the Ministry is seeking to conduct a rapid gender sensitive value chain analysis and market assessment of selected Fijian handicraft products that have the potential to support rural women’s income diversification and economic empowerment.

In recognition of this signature event and platform to the women artisans, the Fijian Government has made its commitment in staging its 5th Expo with the objective to develop and empower women to participate in the economic sector of our nation.

I am told that in preparation to this year’s Expo, the Ministry in partnership with the Fiji Arts Council convened five (5) Craft Shows, for the selection of quality and marketable products to be part of this National Expo. I commend this effort and the focus on quality and marketability in taking this event to the next level.
Some significant segments had been organized for this year’s Expo as build-up programmes and those that will feature during the event. Two such programs are the Handing-Over Ceremony of Fijian Crafted Licenses and the Fiji Rural Women’s Fashion Show. Capacity-building trainings to make these two segments possible were conducted last month, whereby a total of 19 designers and 40 Licensed Women were trained from the four (4) divisions with the aim to expand their marketing opportunities and linking them to business investors. I take this time to acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism (MITT), through the Department of Cooperatives on the Business Entrepreneurial Training; and the designers who were facilitators of the workshops for designers.

Another milestone of the 5th National Women expo is the Graduation Programme for Women Artisans which will take place this morning. This is an emotional and proud moment for the artisans and the Ministry as they will graduate five (5) Women Artisans who have secured markets and ventured into their own businesses now. Through the graduation phase of women artisans, the Ministry envisages that the Private Sector, particularly the Tourism Sector would begin to engage more with artisans in the Informal sector, which is made up of up to 64% women.

The Tourism Industry holds Fiji’s largest share of GDP with the total proportion of 25% (ADB 2019), yet the contribution of women in this share is still invisible. Therefore, the need for strategic interventions in elevating the status of women and providing means of this shift from informal to formal employment in a cross-sectoral method is very important.

I commend the Ministry’s continuous partnership with development partners and stakeholders in providing opportunities and marketing platforms for our rural women artisans and nurture them with skills/knowledge for economic empowerment.

Ladies and gentlemen, the national Women’s Expo will be an ongoing Programme of the Ministry for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation with Government recognizing the role women play in the Handicraft and Fashion Industry in Fiji, which has become a sensational platform and a signature event for Fiji.

One the initiatives of the Ministry at this year’s Expo, is the demarcation of the Women Artisans who are Fijian Crafted licensees. This is one approach the Ministry is working on towards graduating Women out of the Expo and expanding into their own businesses. The Fijian Made Programme through the technical advice of MITT and Fiji Arts Council, has progressed confidently through this Event since 2015 and again this year, where more than 50 women will be receiving their Fijian-Crafted License for the first time.

To the women artisans present here, congratulations for making it this far. The Fijian Government envisages that this national platform will be instrumental by generating innovative entrepreneurial ideas and approaches to better operate your small businesses and as a means of livelihood to your individual families and respective communities while promoting the Fijian Made brand. Initiatives would be meaningless if you did not have the potential to do justice to it.

You have proven that your hands craft the best of all artistic products in our country and that you are highly capable of taking your knowledge and skills to a higher, more competitive level. It is this passion and drive that will continue to be your number one tool in trailblazing to the next level in every aspect of economic participation. You are setting examples for other women as well who may not have realized their potential and I urge you to support each other and always maintain a sisterhood in your journey to progress.

With these words, it is my pleasure to declare the 5th National Women’s Expo - Open. Thank you and God Bless.