In September of 2005, women from rural and urban areas throughout the Macuata Province, Fiji, met to create a strategic, ten-year sustainable development plan. The three-day workshop was first time Fijian women had formally organized for the purpose of improving the socioeconomic and environmental health of their communities. As a result of the meeting, the Macuata Soqosoqo VakaMarama (Macuata Womenís Organization) is the first NGO in Fiji to have a strategic plan for the next 10 years, a valuable model for other women’s leadership groups.
Macuata Province is located in Northern Central Vanua Levu, the second largest of Fijiís 300 islands. The region is less developed than the rest of Fiji, and the population is limited by scarce resources and insufficient infrastructure. Poor roads restrict shipping and travel and there is little adult education. In the Macuata Province, a typical day’s work ends at noon, with dinner at three o’clock, because there is no kerosene for light after sunset. Most native forests were relinquished to plantations and the province is very dry. Some villages have no water tanks to store rain water and climate change threatens to raise sea levels and contaminate fresh ground water reserves as well as displace the villages closest to the seashore. Within these limitations, the women of Macuata came together to develop an innovative plan to overcome infrastructure limitations and preserve their environment and resources.
The current Macuata Women’s Organization grew out of a traditional women’s group formed in 1961 for wives of District Chiefs to support their husbands. Since its inception, the group has developed the community by encouraging children’s education and has paid for its activities by selling, mats, oil, sasa brooms and fish. However, after the success of the September meeting, the group is now a recognized NGO and plans to disseminate the “Macuata Soqosoqo Ni Marama Strategy Plan, 2006-2015” to 106 villages of the Macuata Province.
The Macuata Womens’ plan addresses five separate goals; sustainable community development, sustainable livelihood development, education in the community, preservation of culture and tradition and conservation of the environment. The strategy encourages women to become developers, participate in decisions and voice their opinions to policy makers. A major goal today is to build native tree nurseries to replenish lost forests. In addition to the environmental damage, loss of native plants brings about a corresponding loss of traditional knowledge and medicine. Over the next ten years, Macuatan women’s development and conservation ideas will be coordinated and implemented through the group.
Last year, Global Greengrants Fund gave the women a $2,500 grant to sponsor the September planning workshop. Without the GGF grant, the meeting would have been impossible. As a result of the planning meeting, the Macuata Women’s Group received a grant from the World Wildlife Fund to put their sustainable development plans into action. Additionally, a representative of the Ministry of Women attended the planning meeting and would like to replicate this unique model with other womenís groups throughout the country.