This year, CEVAW is co-hosting our 2026 International Symposium with our Fijian partners, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) and the University of the South Pacific (USP). We highly value their collaboration, efforts and contributions to the Symposium, which builds on our partnership, and collaboration over the past three years.

But our partnership, and history of collaboration, goes well beyond the Symposium.

Urgent work with the University of the South Pacific

USP is a public research university with locations spread throughout its twelve member countries in the Pacific region: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Our partnership was born from USP’s desire to learn the most advanced knowledge and successful approaches to reduce violence against women, which the university’s Vice-Chancellor and President said would help them to “adapt proven programs for use”. So what work have we been doing together?

• CEVAW Chief Investigator Distinguished Professor Asher Flynn and Research Fellow Dr Emma Quilty worked alongside USP’s Dr Natasha Khan and Soro Ramacake to explore how victim-blaming and entrenched gender norms impact victim-survivors of technology-facilitated sexual violence in Fiji.
• Dr Annie Crookes, Dr Khan and Mr Ramacake contributed to multiple chapters in our CEVAW Handbook, Eliminating Violence Against Women: A Handbook for the Indo-Pacific Region, which has been in development since 2024.
• Meanwhile CEVAW Chief Investigator Jane Fisher and Research Fellow Dr Revathi Krishna are currently working alongside Dr Crookes to implement real change, exploring polyvictimisation violence. They ask: what risk does experiencing polyvictimisation violence in early life carry into the formation of adult relationships? With the help of USP, the team are canvassing 800 students in their final year of high school to survey their experiences of violence in all forms. Read all about it here.

“CEVAW’s collaborative approach with the Fijian community is helping to co-develop a deeper understanding of violence against women in Fiji through the lens of academic research, which will serve to build more effective policy and prevention strategies for violence against women and girls.” – Dr Annie Crookes

Driving change with Fiji Women’s Rights Movement 

A leading feminist human rights organisation linking local concerns to global debates, FWRM has spent the last 40 years committing to removing all forms of discrimination against women through institutional reform and attitudinal change. CEVAW’s partnership with FWRM came from a shared vision to drive change and lead systemic transformation across the Indo-Pacific and Australia through research-based policy. So how do we collaborate?

• Chief Investigator Professor Pushkar Maitra and Research Fellow Dr Rafat Mahmood are partnering with FWRM to design and evaluate a school-based programme that promotes respectful relationships among adolescents in Fiji. The content will be developed with FWRM, education authorities, teachers and community organisations so that it is culturally appropriate and aligned with national priorities, including the Child Care and Protection Act 2024.
• In 2024, CEVAW joined FWRM at the first World Health Summit Regional Meeting in a session based on FWour collaborative paper, ‘Pacific priorities for prevention of violence against women’, which delved into the hidden root causes of violence against women and the different research approaches being used.
• FWRM helps host CEVAW’s PhD students and Research Fellows during their fieldwork in Fiji, fostering meaningful connections and exchanges.

“In Fiji and the Pacific, where there is high prevalence of violence against women, the urgency of translating evidence into effective policies, prevention strategies and institutional change cannot be overstated.”- FWRM Executive Director Nalini Signh