ROYAL PNG CONSTABULARY: NETWORKING ON GBV ISSUES

 

Crime fighters armed with data skills

Department of Personnel Management Senior GEDSI Officer Amelia Raka (seated) and National Family & Sexual Violence Unit Coordinator Superintendent Delilah Sandeka at the Violence Against Women data workshop.

The PNG-Australia Partnership is supporting the law and justice sector to better measure incidences of gender-based violence (GBV) and use this data to help inform policies and services to help combat sexual assault, workplace sexual harassment and GBV.

Among the twenty officers who attended the week-long workshop was RPNGC Family and Sexual Violence Coordinator, Superintendent Delilah Sandeka, who said the training would help improve the way her organisation collected and presented data on gender-based violence. 

“I now know what support to provide to researchers and what information to give them,” Superintendent Sandeka said.

This information will help guide the allocation of resources and the provision of services across the 46 Family and Sexual Violence Units (FSVU) nationwide, which are part of the frontline support services for survivors of family and sexual violence.

Another to attend the training was Amelia Raka, Senior Gender Equity, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) Officer at the Department of Personnel Management (DPM).

Department of Personnel Management Senior GEDSI Officer Amelia Raka.

Ms Raka said the training equipped her with the skills to measure the prevalence of gender-based violence. 

She said the five-day training had given her the knowledge and confidence to undertake a national baseline survey, sanctioned by the DPM, to measure how many public servants experience gender-based violence in the workplace.

“I see the potential for us to carry out a baseline survey on the rate of violence that happens within the public service such as sexual harassment, workplace bullying and the use of power and authority to disadvantage certain officers within the organisation,” she said.

Constitutional and Law Reform Commission GEDSI Officer, Vincent Gigmai, said the training helped broaden his understanding and ability to undertake GEDSI-related research. 

Mr Gigmai said the training in data analysis and the presentation of findings was particularly useful.

“We have enough data, but the problem is we do not know how to present it in a way that will influence policy makers, legislators and parliamentarians and this course really fills the gap and brings forth everything we need to know,” Mr Gigmai said.

FSV police officers, who are the frontline officers at provincial police stations, at a training.