This dissertation explores how two international development agencies—the Regional Rights Team Community Paralegal Program and the Peace Corps Vanuatu Volunteer Program—support community development initiatives in rural Vanuatu. It examines the strategies these programs use to empower local communities by building skills, knowledge, and leadership so community members can drive their own development. Using a qualitative case study approach and an insider perspective, the research analyses program documents and community experiences to assess how international development initiatives can strengthen local participation and self-determination. The study also provides important insights into Vanuatu’s social and historical context, the role of aid and human rights, and the potential for community-led development to create sustainable change.
Fifteen years after the first landmark study in 2009, the Vanuatu Women’s Centre (VWC), in partnership with the Vanuatu Bureau of Statistics (VBoS), has completed the Second National Survey on Women’s Lives and Family Relationships. The 2024 survey provides a comprehensive, nationally representative dataset on the experiences of women and girls across Vanuatu’s six provinces and two urban centres.
In addition to updating the data on women who experienced physical or sexual assault, the 2024 survey reveals the complex dynamics of coercive control, emotional abuse, financial violence, and the emerging threats of technology-facilitated abuse. It also sheds light on the intersection of violence with natural disasters, a critical area of enquiry for our climate-vulnerable nation.
The findings presented here are not just statistics. They represent the voices of 2,769 women who shared their stories, often for the first time. These women want to be heard: our hope is that community and national leaders will listen to their experiences, and take action to stop the violence now, for the sake of future generations of ni-Vanuatu women, children and men.
Read the full survey Here
