HIGHLIGHTS

Our Vision For all women – resilience, real choices, thriving society

Small but influential

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is the smallest government department, but we don’t let our small size limit our impact. Our job is to work on issues that will improve the lives of New Zealand women. We do that by focusing our efforts on areas of greatest need and where we can make a difference – see ‘Our priority work areas’. Sometimes we lead government programmes, but more often we work with other, larger government agencies, identifying and filling the gaps in research and policy, and ensuring women’s interests are looked after.

The smallest government department
Budget	$4.46 million
Staff	37

Policy not advocacy

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is not an advocacy organisation – that is the role of the non-government agencies with whom we work closely. Instead the mandate of the Ministry is to:

• provide advice to government on policy that will improve the status of women
• provide suitable women nominees for state sector boards
• manage New Zealand’s international obligations in relation to the status of women.

The government’s priorities for women

The Ministry’s work is guided by the Action Plan for New Zealand Women, which sets out the government’s priority outcomes for women – economic sustainability, work-life balance, and well-being.

Economic sustainability is largely about women having enough income to do the things they need to do to care for themselves and their families. The concept covers a wide range of income, employment and educational issues. Examples of areas in the Plan that address economic sustainability include pay and employment equity, and social assistance for women on low incomes.

Work-life balance is about ensuring women (and their families) have good choices about balancing paid work, family and other responsibilities. Much unpaid work is undervalued and is still done by women, so the danger is that paid work is lumped on top of women’s caring roles, affecting work-life balance. Examples of policies under the Plan that address work-life balance are paid parental leave, and improved access to child care and early childhood education.

Well-being includes safety, health and social issues – such as access to services, preventing violence against women and addressing the physical and mental health concerns that specifically affect women. The Taskforce on Sexual Violence is an example of a programme that fits within this priority.

The Action Plan priorities fall within, and support, the government’s three broad focus areas of economic transformation, families – young and old, and building national identity.

Almost 70% of women's work is unpaid compared with 40% of men's work time

Our priority work areas

For the next year the Ministry will focus on the following areas:

Improving economic opportunities and choice, especially for low-income women

The key projects cover:

• improving the participation of women in modern apprenticeships and industry training
• reducing the extent to which gender stereotypes and gaps in information limit career choices
• assessing whether gender-based occupational segregation impacts on wider economic performance.

Balancing caring roles with paid work

The Ministry’s primary focus in this area is in improving the accessibility and quality of out of school services. This includes working with other relevant agencies to develop a five-year action plan for out of school services.

Better sexual and reproductive health

The Ministry’s efforts are currently focused on assessing the quality of sexuality education delivered in schools. Sexuality education seeks to improve the ability of young people to keep themselves safe, in the context of healthy relationships.

Improving safety from domestic and sexual violence

The Ministry has a leadership role on the two government taskforces on family violence and sexual violence. On domestic violence, the Ministry also has work streams on the effectiveness of protection orders under the Domestic Violence Act 1995 and on the potential role of victim advocates.

In July 2007, a sexual violence unit will be established in the Ministry. This unit will have responsibility for managing a two-year research project to assess the differences between rates of reported offences and convictions, and to assess the adequacy of services for victims. The aim is to increase the conviction rate for sexual offences and improve the services and support provided to victims.

Fact: 1 in 5: proportion of NZ women who have experienced sexual interference or assault 1 in 20: proportion of NZ men who have experienced sexual interference or assault

Māori women in leadership

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is working in collaboration with Te Puni Kōkiri on the ‘Whānau Leadership Project’. Whānau are a crucial change agent for positive Māori development and an accelerant for realising Māori potential and ‘Māori succeeding as Māori.’ The main aim of the project is to identify the accelerants of whānau leadership and examine how whānau can leverage off those accelerants. It will also identify the critical success factors for Māori women in leadership and decision-making areas.

Meeting New Zealand’s international obligations to women

New Zealand speaks strongly for women in international forums and works hard to meet its obligations in relation to the status of women. The Ministry is the lead agency for this work. In 2007/08, the focus will be on:

• preparing for the presentation of New Zealand’s sixth report on its implementation of CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) – our four-yearly ‘report card’ to the United Nations on the status of women
• supporting ministerial attendance at the annual meeting of Australasian women’s affairs ministers (MINCO).

Women in leadership: our Nominations Service

The government has a target of 50 percent representation on state sector governance boards by 2010. The Ministry’s Nominations Service contributes to this goal by identifying and nominating women with the right skills and experience to serve on state sector boards and committees. It also monitors progress toward that goal – currently 41 percent of such board members are women – and it supports the efforts of the private sector to improve women’s representation on commercial boards, where representation is much lower, at only 7.1 percent for New Zealand’s top 100 listed companies.

Percentage of women on boards of:
Top 100 NZSX listed companies	7.1%
Crown companies (Government-owned businesses)	35.4%
State sector statutory bodies	41.0%

Meeting diverse needs

New Zealand is made up of a diverse population. We value our relationships with a range of groups of women, and seek to understand their differing life experiences, needs, issues and priorities. In particular, we engage with:

• Māori women, as tangata whenua and as individual members of society
• non-government organisations, such as the National Council of Women, the Māori Women’s Welfare League, and PACIFICA
• groups with particular needs, such as young women, older women, rural women, women with disabilities, ethnic women and refugee women.

Measuring effectiveness

The Ministry monitors the impact of the Action Plan for New Zealand Women, using indicators agreed with the agencies responsible for implementation of different parts of the Plan.

Directly measuring the impact of its own policy advice on outcomes is more difficult, because changes in outcomes typically happen slowly over years and are the result of many different inputs, of which the Ministry’s policy advice is but one. Like other policy agencies, it therefore has to rely on less direct measures, such as independent review of the quality of its policy, the views of stakeholders and the satisfaction of the Minister.

How we use our resources

Where the money comes from Amount ($ millions) 

Crown	4.46    = 97%
Other Departments	0.14    = 3%

 
Where the money goes Amount ($ millions)

Staff costs	2.80    = 61%
Operating costs	1.37    = 30%
Rent	0.23    = 5%
Other	0.16    = 4%

Get the full Statement of Intent

This publication provides highlights from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MWA) Statement of Intent 2007-2010 (SOI).  Copies of the full SOI are available from the MWA Communications Unit at the address below, or access the SOI online at
www.mwa.govt.nz/news-and-pubs/publications/soi-general

Contact details

Ministry of Women’s Affairs
48 Mulgrave Street
Thorndon
Wellington 6143

PO Box 10 049
Wellington 6143

Tel: (04) 915 7112
Fax: (04) 916 1604
Email: mwa@mwa.govt.nz