“Herstory: Women working in corrections” book  tells the stories of pioneering women working in prisons in Solomon Islands and how collectively they fought for women to be considered equal to men in the male-dominated security sector. Sukwadi Media worked with the CSSI Women’s Network over nine months on this participatory research and media project to bring the book and a film to fruition, with funding support from Australian Government.

The book HerStoryis the collective story of 24 women who worked in prisons and correctional services from 1986 to the present day. These women have a combined total of 377 years of service to CSSI. It is the first time Pacific correctional officers have published their own history of service.

Free download e-version is available: http://d1009381.my.ozhosting.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Herstory-Booklet-FINAL_BLEED2.pdf

Riots broke out in Solomon Islands on 24 April following the parliament’s controversial election of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. Despite the country peacefully holding its first elections since the end of the regional assistance mission earlier this month, frustration with the political system has been fomenting for some time and the riots were targeted with political meaning, as argued in a submission for the Australian Institute of International Affairs “Australian Outlook”: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/riots-solomon-islands-day-after/

In a recent article for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Dr Anouk Ride argues that donors need to be more cognizant of, and responsive to, local conflict risks in where and how infrastructure is delivered. Using the example of Solomon Islands, she tracks the impacts of previous infrastructure decisions on conflict and gender equality in the local context. Read more: http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/infrastructure-conflict-and-the-pacific-risks-and-realities/

An analysis of the impact of the switch in bilateral relations from Taiwan to China is provided today in a new article by Dr Anouk Ride published in Australian Outlook, the online publication of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. An outline is given of implications of the switch for conflict, with some guidance about how donors can respond and encourage early intervention in conflicts which could arise in Solomon Islands in the next few years. Read the article online: http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/after-the-switch-the-new-china-solomon-ties-conflict-and-international-aid/

At the inaugural Native Lens Film Festival in Honiara, a team of local    and international judges awarded the film “Herstory: Women working in corrections” coproduced by the Correctional Services  Solomon Islands (CSSI) Women’s Network and Sukwadi Media the  award for Best Feature Film 2019. Herstory is a participatory  documentary film that tells the stories of pioneering women who were  the first to work in prisons in Solomon Islands. These women tell their  personal stories of achievement and how they collectively fought for  women’s rights in a once male-dominated workplace.

Dr Anouk Ride, co-producer initially accepted the award on behalf of the film-making team then, at a ceremony yesterday, this award was formerly handed over by co-producer Wendy Gebe to the CSSI Commissioner.

A new report “Women’s Experiences of Family Violence Services in Solomon Islands”  was launched today in Honiara as part of the celebrations for the 16 Days of Activism  Against Gender Based Violence. The Solomon Islands Government has taken a number  of measures including the gazetting of the Family Protection Act 2014 (FPA) in April  2016. Three years later, this research discovers women’s sense of safety and satisfaction  with family violence services including courts, counselling and refuges, health services  and the most often used service: police. The findings are based on qualitative analysis  of approximately 10% of all service users: a total of 126 interviews with service users  across five provinces, plus 24 interviews with service provider staff. The findings  triangulate violence survivors’ perspectives on service provision, situational factors and  personal agency in order to provide recommendations for the future of the FPA system.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT ONLINE

Women still lack adequate influence in setting security agendas, yet there is evidence that significant gains can occur when a more gender-sensitive and inclusive approach is taken, Anouk Ride and Meg Keen write in this analysis on Policy Forum: https://www.policyforum.net/too-few-boots-on-the-ground/

In a recent article in Policy Forum, Dr Anouk Ride and Gina Kekea outline how the State of Emergency in Solomon Islands is creating problems of governance and trust of civil society in the ability of government to uphold their citizen’s interests. The article also points to critical reviews of use of emergency powers by other Solomon academics and institutions. Read more here: https://www.policyforum.net/together-or-apart-against-covid-19-the-solomon-islands-state-of-emergency/

Although as of June 1, 2020, Solomon Islands had no coronavirus cases, there was a national economic recession plus restrictions on people’s movement, gatherings, education and business activities. For rural areas, two of the biggest changes have been increased circulation of people—those who moved out of Honiara and back to the provinces—and reduced cash flow. A new report by WorldFish Solomon Islands details what this means for fish, local fisheries mangement and food security across a sample of rural communities in the country. Read the report here: https://www.worldfishcenter.org/content/changes-and-adaptations-village-food-systems-solomon-islands-rapid-appraisal-during-early and a summary of findings on Devpolicy https://devpolicy.org/coastal-fisheries-in-a-pandemic-solomon-island-and-vanuatu-experiences-20200729/

Authored by local researchers in five countries and edited by Prof. Diane Bretherton and Dr Anouk Ride, “Community resilience in Natural Disasters” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) is gaining renewed interest in times of COVID19 where communities are dealing with an unprecedented health crisis and differential access of support from government and international actors. The book details how aid and government interventions can help or hurt local community resilience in disasters (including chapters and cases from Kenya, Indonesia, Pakistan, Solomon Islands ,Myanmar, Mexico and Australia) and is currently available directly from the publisher https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230114289 and from major retailers including Target USA https://www.target.com/p/community-resilience-in-natural-disasters-by-anouk-ride-diane-bretherton-hardcover/-/A-80966315

Hero-ine, a short action film, questions who are the heroes around us in cases of family violence? The Solomon-made production by Sukwadi Media was launched as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence with local family violence service Family Support Centre on November 30. It has since become one of the most-watched Solomon films of 2019 and been screened at the Native Lens Film Festival, along with other Pacific films produced under the film4gender project of the Pacific Community Filmmaking Consortium. Watch the film here: Hero-ine_Short Action Film – YouTube

Dr Anouk Ride was invited to be part of a special edition of Development Bulletin on security with an article “Solomon Islands Long Summer of Discontent: Security Challenges” available online today: https://lnkd.in/gu2-en4 The edition is produced by the Development Studies Network in close collaboration with, and support from, the Australia Pacific Security College, ANU. Thirty respected Pacific Island and international academics, development and security professionals provide a wide-ranging exploration of the unique and urgent security needs of Pacific Island nations in the special edition, which is open access and available to all to read.

As the looting and destruction of widescale riots in November 2021 drew to a close, Dr Anouk Ride provided an analysis of its causes, development and some initial reactions to the interpretation of the events for The Interpreter, a daily publication of the Lowy Institute. Read the analysis here: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/honiara-smoke-subsides

In an analysis for the Australian Institute of International Affairs’ publication, Australian Outlook, Dr Anouk Ride argues that a myriad of immediate security risks must be addressed if Australia’s gift of support for the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force is to not break in 2022 and/or 2023. Read more: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/solomon-islands-security-blame-breakable-gifts-after-riots/

An interactive tool to support women, youth, community leaders on how to review their local fisheries management practices and knowledge was presented today to the Cultivating Equality: Advancing Gender Research in Agriculture and Food Systems Conference, a gathering of researchers from across different Pacific countries and CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) centres.

Available on the Pacific Community (SPC) website, this Community-based Fisheries Management Plan Reviews – Facilitation Guide, co-published by SPC, WorldFish and the University of Wollongong, sets out a participatory process for women, men, and youth to have a say in what the rules are for fishing in their coastal area, who makes the rules and how they are enforced.

The guide offers tips to support facilitators in conducting effective participatory reviews of community-based fisheries management (CBFM), including through the active engagement of people of diverse backgrounds, ages, and genders. It is accompanied by a set of data collection sheets to record involvement of women, youth, and men in decision making.

“Community-based fisheries management is vital for food security and livelihoods in the Pacific. It allows each community to manage their fishing, harvesting and other effects of human use of their coast and marine areas. We need processes like this review to ensure that no one is excluded from decisions about their fish and aquatic foods, and as we know inclusive decisions are more likely to be upheld over time. The guide is designed to be used by community facilitators, with activities to capture indigenous knowledge and management aspirations, using oral storytelling and visual tools that can allow everyone to participate,” said Dr. Anouk Ride, Representative of WorldFish.

Community-based Fisheries Management  is a key priority for coastal fisheries in the Pacific premised on the understanding that each community is responsible for its respective marine environment. It enables communities to assume this lead role in managing fisheries and adjacent coastal areas and resources. The guide uses a diagram of a fish that symbolizes the CBFM plan where participants write down their suggestions and decisions.

“In its first trials of the tool in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, the tool was found to increase the role of women and youth in decisions about coastal fisheries management and in representation on decision-making committees,” said Céline Muron, SPC Information and Outreach officer.

The preparation of this guide was funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and produced with support from the European Union and Government of Sweden through the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership (PEUMP) Programme.

Useful link:
Community-based Fisheries Management Plan Reviews : https://bit.ly/3DxN23K

Markets are crucial to food security and social stability in the Pacific, however, mismanagement is threatening these vital community resources, Elizabeth Kopel, Meg Keen, and Anouk Ride write in an article pointing to research in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands about factors that make markets so important for security. Read more: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/18377/why-local-markets-matter-pacific-security

Dr Anouk Ride and Dr Tania Miletic from the Initiative for Peacebuilding at University of Melbourne examined ways out of escalating conflicts between the West, China and the Pacific over an intended security deal in two articles published today. An article in The Guardian looks at ways Australia, China and Solomon Islands can demilitarise and descalate tensions locally and regionally, read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/05/tensions-are-high-between-china-and-australia-over-solomon-islands-but-its-in-everyones-interests-to-simmer-down while another article in Pursuit looks specifically on what Australia can do to better balance its support to countries in the Pacific to prevent conflict https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/stepping-carefully-amid-conflict-in-the-pacific

In a few days, on July 1^st the borders of Solomon Islands will open, after a long period of restrictions (since March 2020). As a researcher based within the country, I have mixed emotions about it.

The day after Cyclone Harold in April 2020, I was on the campus of Solomon Islands National University looking at the damage to offices and equipment caused from the high waves. A fellow academic from the neighbouring office wandered over to where I stood on the sand and we stared out at the sea (now calm).

He told me he’d just been hired to head up a research project that was formerly to be done by an overseas academic. We both had invites to have one on one meetings with the overseas academic on a visit to Solomons, meetings both of us wondered whether were worthwhile, information would be extracted from us, but for whose benefit? Now, that visit had been cancelled due to closed borders, my friend had been hired to conduct the interviews and the analysis. “Maybe this situation will be good for us” he said, meaning local and locally based people. We laughed the sort of laugh you have after a day of tension during the disaster.

He was right, the closed border was good for us. With the combination of travel restrictions due to COVID19, the black lives matter and various decolonization movements becoming more prominent, it seemed like more researchers, aid and development agencies were talking a new language, words like “decolonizing”, and “localizing” flew about in meetings, as overseas professionals scrambled to recalculate work for “local”, “indigenous”, “locally based” and “area based”, rather than overseas staff.

After the initial economic shock of COVID19, all of my friends in the development and research sector had work, created by the closed border situation. I felt like a recruitment consultant, fielding anything from 3 to 10 requests a week for people to do jobs on the ground, recommending people and doing countless references. It took a little later, but other sectors came on board, like the media, with local rather than foreign journalists producing the stories on international news networks.

Local people through negotiation and necessity took on higher responsibilities than before, some also negotiated better pay and conditions, pointing directly or indirectly to the gender and racial biases that afflict aid, particularly in the labyrinth of donors paying the contracting agency paying the local consultant working with the local agency that hides ultimate responsibility for the cleaves in power that arise. “Charge big!” “negotiate!” “they’ll have so much underspent travel money this year, spend it” I told friends and they laughed but they also built up their allies to do just that. Networks of professionals arose, meetings were held to share problems, and associations of professionals that had been stale and self interested, became more vibrant and useful to their members.

Local professionals were visible, paid well, better networked and more vocal about issues such as funding models, research methods, hiring biases and other structural constraints they’d faced in the past. It was a good time to be a local linked internationally, but it was still a bad time to be a local.

The economy shrunk, joblessness and crime grew, shortages of food through reduced domestic and international trade was a concern, medical services were woefully ill prepared and everyone knew the State of Emergency could be used to stifle criticism if the powers that be so chose. Add to that natural disasters, periodic shutdowns of various services and businesses, and political dissent over the government’s approach to diplomatic and economic affairs and it was a time of worrying. We worried a lot, about the day to day matters like getting food, Panadol, antimalarial medications, power and internet cuts, and about the future, “where is the country heading?” being a common topic of conversation and its conclusion.

There is that saying about Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, how the feminine dancer Ginger did everything Fred did while also being in heels and dancing backwards. I often feel like local researchers do the same working day as foreign professionals while the internet and power cuts out, fielding calls about funerals or family needing loans, monitoring the latest disaster warning and helping a friend navigate what to do about her corrupt boss.

I have stopped making of lists of issues that arise each day in person, on my phone and on my messenger and how random they are. Crisis management is not episodic but as regular as sipping tea, and just as regularly people joke about it, but have little time to dwell. The connectedness that is the joy of living in the islands is also a dull ache, especially in islands in poverty, conflict and political strife.

So, now, July 1^st is coming. The “internationals” will be booking their trips to Solomon Islands, to do the backlog of work that is there to be done but will the dynamics have changed? They’ll have anecdotes and new phones and apps that make me laugh at my untechnological self, I am looking forward to seeing some of them. I think of George Soros and the need for open societies, Solomon Islands being closed has narrowed politics for sure, and can often fuel dictatorships, maybe open borders will open new ideas and opportunities as well. Don’t write them off, I think to myself about the internationals, neither locals or internationals have all the answers so there needs to be an exchange, and one day soon I too will travel. The visitors to Solomons will be friendly and generous, “we’ll have coffee”.

I got an email from a researcher, he’s coming to do interviews for a “case study”, he says it with great certainty and confidence. I react to myself: Cannot local researchers do a case study? What good is being a “case” in someone else’s study these days? Has nothing changed the past 2 years? I feel a sense of frustration rising, leave the email unanswered and close my computer.

I look out at the airport, all that uninhabitated space of runaway tarmac, surrounded by roadside markets and houses. The borders are opening, but will opportunities for locals shut down? And our minds, how are our minds? Are they wide enough to see that borders can be chosen, and in our choices we all birth these invisible lines, throbbing with power, lines that separate locality and mobility, in our professions and our lives.

Dr Anouk Ride www.anoukride.com