Press Release

STATEMENT BY THE ACTING DEPUTY COMMISSIONER ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2024 – INSPIRE INCLUSION

Posted by Media Team 08 March 2024

Each year on the 8th of March, the world comes together to celebrate International Women’s Day. A day set aside to renew the commitment in achieving gender equality and the rights of women.

With this year’s theme “Invest in Women – to accelerate progress”, I am pleased to support this message today as a woman in leadership taking the lead role in the fight against corruption in Fiji and being a voice for our young girls.

Corruption, as we all know it - is a cancer which eats away at our society, it steals from the vulnerable, restricts access to the most basic resources, destroys trust and is one of the greatest enemies of progress of all time.

Corruption also breeds inequality and vice versa, therefore, it is crucial that concrete steps are taken to address gender inequality as well as to encourage and promote women empowerment. Women empowerment can become a powerful tool to mitigate corruption as it will then disrupt the very social mechanisms that allows corruption to flourish.

Women have an essential role to play in the fight against corruption as they can act as agents of change and have time and again assumed leadership positions within the different segments of society as they have contributed meaningfully to society.

Here at the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC), fifty-four percent (54%) of its leadership positions are held by women. The Commission believes that it is essential as a nation to continue to empower women as well as promote gender equality. And by doing so, will we ever see progress in the fight against corruption and build a nation which is then free from corruption.

Kofi Annan once said “Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance”.