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Performance indicators and results |
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Qualitative assessment |
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Key results |
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Administered items - Women's programmes |
| Output 2.2 Women's policy |
Performance indicators |
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| Research and advice to government and assistance in coordination, communication and consultation on a range of issues affecting women. | Quality: Degree of satisfaction of the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister's Office, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, and the departmental Executive, as expressed through formal and informal feedback mechanisms, with the quality and timeliness of advice and the achievement of key tasks. |
| Administration of specific domestic violence programmes. | Feedback from non-governmental organisations and other
stakeholders concerning consultation and communication processes. Quantity and diversity of public information materials and activities disseminated. Cost of Outputs - $5.1m |
The Senior Executive of the Office of the Status of Women (OSW) met regularly with the Prime Minister's Senior Adviser (Legal and Women's Affairs); the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, and her advisers; the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; and the Executive Coordinator of the Social Policy Group of the department.
OSW also met with representatives of state and Commonwealth government departments, the business sector, national women's non-government organisations (NGOs) and international organisations, as well as academics, researchers and other individual women.
OSW regularly received positive feedback from the Prime Minister's Office and from the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, particularly in relation to its briefings on women's labour force participation.
Consultations and workshops held with women's organisations throughout the year were well received. The OSW websites attracted 12,000 contacts per month and Women'sNEWS and other information services attracted strongly positive comments at survey.
The Honouring Women initiative also generated considerable positive feedback, both for OSW and for the women who took part as Honouring Women ambassadors.
OSW provided both day-to-day support for the Prime Minister and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, and advice to government on the impact on women of policy, legislation and programmes. OSW also directly managed a number of programmes, including those described below.
Women's policy is informed, developed and implemented by the two branches of OSW: the Strategic Policy and Development Branch and the National Policy and Programmes Coordination Branch.
The two branches are responsible for a very broad range of issues, including women's economic and labour force issues, specialist policy, women's leadership and representation, communications issues, health and wellbeing of women, Partnerships Against Domestic Violence (PADV) and prevention of sexual assault.
During 2000-01 OSW developed and launched a strategic plan setting out policy and work directions for the years 2001 to 2003. The plan's key goals are ensuring economic self-sufficiency and security for women throughout their lives, achieving optimal status and position for women, eliminating violence in the lives of women, and maintaining optimal health and wellbeing throughout women's lives.
During 2000-01 OSW examined a wide range of legislation prior to its introduction into Parliament, to assess its likely impact on women and to ensure consistency with government policies. In particular, OSW continued to monitor the drafting of legislation relating to the treatment of superannuation in circumstances of marriage breakdown. OSW also provided advice to government on a range of legal issues affecting women, including welfare reform, the Sex Discrimination Amendment Bill, the Family Law Act, the Family Law Advisory Group, child witness protection, and Australia's National Action Plan on Human Rights.
OSW is the lead agency in producing Australia's report on the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Preparations - including consultations with key stakeholders, such as government agencies and women's groups - for Australia's combined fourth and fifth reports recommenced following the completion of the Government's review of the United Nations treaty committee system.
OSW is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Beijing Plus Five Outcomes Document, which arose out of the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Women, held in New York in 2000. These are internationally agreed plans for achieving equality for women by addressing 12 critical factors: poverty; education and training; health; the economy; power and decision making; human rights; armed conflict; institutional mechanisms; the media; the environment; violence against women; and the girl child. OSW developed Australia's Beijing Plus Five Action Plan 2001-05, which was released in March 2001.
OSW was the lead Australian agency at the 45th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York in March 2001. The session focused on the commission's 2001-06 programme and working methods; the implementation of the Beijing outcomes document; and the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS and racism.
OSW was represented on the interdepartmental steering committee which prepared Australia's country note for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development project, Family Friendly Policies: The Reconciliation of Work and Family Life.
OSW contributed advice regarding women's participation in the labour force to inform the drafting of government responses to International Labour Organisation conventions, and the development of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's pregnancy and work guidelines.
OSW continued to participate in a range of projects encouraging greater participation by, and recognition of, women in leadership and decision-making positions.
At the Australia Day Awards ceremony in January 2001, the Prime Minister launched the Honouring Women programme, which aims to increase the number of women who are nominated for awards and honours. OSW is implementing the programme in partnership with a distinguished network of ambassadors - some 30 high-profile and diverse women from all states and territories - who have been using their public engagements to raise awareness of the extraordinary achievements of Australian women and to encourage their nomination for awards and honours.
As part of honouring women in the International Year of Volunteers, OSW published monthly profiles of female volunteers in Women'sNEWS.
The evaluation, by Mioche and Associates, of OSW's Executive Search Pilot Programme and its Early Warning System, both of which identified board vacancies and suitable female candidates to fill them, indicated that the programmes were effective in increasing the number of women nominated for, and appointed to, positions on Commonwealth-controlled boards. At 31 December 2000, women held 32.8 per cent of positions on Commonwealth boards, an increase of 3.9 percentage points since June 1996. The 2001 Commonwealth Budget provided four-year funding of $2.4 million for the further development and refinement of those services.
The Budget also provided $5.6 million for the establishment of a Women's Development Programme that will fund targeted research, policy and service development projects responsive to women's needs and circumstances, and will encourage and support women's contributions to government policy formulation. The programme will also support women's capacity-building and mentoring activities.
The OSW websites - www.osw.dpmc.gov.au and www.padv.dpmc.gov.au - were accessed, on average, 12,000 times a month during 2000-01. New resources and links to other government information - including information on the Australian Women Speak national conference, the Indigenous Family Violence campaign, 2001-02 Budget initiatives for women, the Honouring Women programme, and OSW's 2001-03 strategic directions - were regularly added to the websites. The 2001-02 Budget provided $5.5 million to develop a women's information strategy, Informed Choices, to improve access to government information for and about women.
In June 2001, OSW convened a round table of officials from federal, state and
territory government agencies to discuss ways of responding to the problem of
sexual assault against women and to commence work on a national approach to
combating sexual assault. OSW continued to manage the PADV initiative and use
it to inform advice provided to government.
More information about this initiative
OSW took the lead role, in conjunction with representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO), in the planning and hosting in Canberra of the Second International Meeting on Women and Health, conducted by the WHO Centre for Health Development. OSW's contribution meant that Australian speakers were well represented at the meeting and played an active role in moving forward the international agenda on women's health.
OSW provided secretariat support for the Commonwealth-State Ministers' Conference on the Status of Women held in April 2001, and for relevant advisers' and officials' meetings throughout the year. OSW coordinated responses to ministerial correspondence, other correspondence and parliamentary questions on notice, and prepared the Women's Budget Statement and Budget highlights for the 2001-02 Budget. The OSW general information line received and responded to an average of 50 calls a week.
Among activities to raise awareness of women's contributions to Australia, OSW, through funding from the National Council for the Centenary of Federation, commissioned the research into and writing of a book documenting the contributions of ordinary and extraordinary women to Australia's history.
| Administered item | Performance indicators |
|---|---|
| Women's programmes | Quality: Prevention of domestic
and family violence through awareness raising and other activities, including
conferences; community education; seminars; publications; research; and
providing support for services, stakeholders and the general public. Provision of grants, especially to non-government women's organisations, to support national secretariats and/or projects that contribute actively to government strategies for women and enable a diverse range of women's views to be considered. Administered Expenses - $5.9m |
As part of a formal process ensuring ongoing advice and feedback, the Senior Executive of OSW met regularly with the Prime Minister's Senior Adviser (Legal and Women's Affairs); the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, and her advisers; the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; and the Executive Coordinator of the Social Policy Group of the department. OSW also met with individual women, peak organisations and service providers through a number of project management and consultative mechanisms.
Feedback from women's organisations, particularly regarding OSW's capacity-building project, was very positive.
The PADV initiative attracted significant interest and many commendations. The effectiveness of the PADV approach to domestic violence was recognised in the 2001 Budget, which committed $16.5 million over four years to supporting the Commonwealth's participation in a collaborative strategy to prevent and reduce the incidence of sexual assault on women in Australian communities.
The prevention of domestic violence is a major part of the Government's strategy for strengthening families and creating healthy, safe communities. The $50 million PADV initiative was established in 1998 by the Commonwealth Government, in cooperation with state and territory governments, to find better ways of preventing and responding to domestic violence. Through PADV, Australian governments work together with the community to test new approaches, identify good practice and share knowledge.
Approximately 105 projects have been funded under PADV since January 1998; many have been completed or are nearing completion. Projects funded in the first phase of PADV ($25 million to June 2001) were designed to test innovative approaches to the prevention of domestic and family violence; to test and refine services which exist to respond to the effects of violence in women's and children's lives; and to test and develop strategies for working with men to prevent and reduce violence. Many of the projects funded under PADV's first phase, while managed by government departments, were implemented by community organisations. Outcomes of the completed projects will inform and refine existing policy and service provision.
The second phase of PADV, which began in 2000-01 with funding of $25 million to June 2003, focuses on family violence in Indigenous communities, children at risk, and working with men.
As part of the initiative, a continuous national evaluation of both the strategy and the individual PADV projects produced regular bulletins discussing outcomes and information emerging from projects, as well as reports focused on specific interest areas. The national PADV newsletter, which has over 3,000 subscribers, continued to disseminate information on projects and key activities.
A successful national forum on working with men who use violence, Men and Relationships: Partnerships in Progress, was conducted in Sydney in November 2000 by OSW in conjunction with the Family Relationships Branch of the Department of Family and Community Services. This was the first time that the issue of violence against women had been raised at a forum attended by both men's services and women's services and a broad range of stakeholders.
Another successful national forum, Rekindling Family Relationships: A National Forum on Family Violence in Indigenous Communities, was held in Adelaide in April 2001. Indigenous people constituted approximately 80 per cent of those who attended and took part as speakers, facilitators and general participants. The forum was designed by a two-day planning workshop, held in Canberra in November 2000, which was attended by representatives of Indigenous communities from all states and territories.
Walking Into Doors, an innovative, community-led campaign to fight domestic violence in Aboriginal communities, was launched by the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, Senator Amanda Vanstone, in April 2001. Well-known musicians Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter were the public faces of the $300,000 campaign, which aimed to provide support and inspiration for local communities to build a future without violence.
The first round of funding under the Indigenous Family Violence grants programme - a four-year programme announced in August 2000 - saw 30 projects chosen from over 130 applications. A mentoring service was also funded by the programme to provide support to the projects.
A research project on the incidence and experience of domestic violence among people over the age of 50 years, the largest national study of its kind in Australia, was undertaken in 2000-01. The research findings, which were produced in the PADV report Two Lives - Two Worlds, outline the needs of older people experiencing domestic violence in their lives.
One-day seminars were held in Hobart, Broome and Townsville to showcase PADV, to disseminate information from projects in other states and territories, and to encourage the implementation of new approaches identified in the course of the projects. In total, 14 showcasing seminars have been held since the initiative began.
The Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse, created and funded through PADV and based at the University of New South Wales, continued to undertake research to inform the PADV task force and OSW. It also disseminated information through its website, www.austdvclearinghouse.unsw.edu.au, and directly to more than 1,800 individuals and organisations on its mailing list.
This was the second year of the Government's three-year contract for three national secretariat services to assist three women's organisations - Business and Professional Women Australia, the National Council of Women Australia and the YWCA - to work collaboratively to represent the views of women and to inform policy formation. The national secretariats and OSW held monthly teleconferences to discuss progress against detailed work plans, which included both collaborative actions and additional areas of common interest, such as national workshops for mental health, consultation with government, and consultation within the women's sector.
This year OSW used $60,000 to fund two streams of capacity-building exercises for women's organisations, designed to build on the strengths of those organisations so that they might more effectively serve and represent the views of their members as well as change policies and practices to benefit women.
Half of that funding was allocated to a whole-of-sector programme aimed at strengthening the capacities of national women's NGOs to change policies and practices to benefit women. OSW held workshops in Brisbane in April 2001 and in Adelaide in June 2001, building on the success of the previous year's programme, which included workshops in other capital cities. This work will be expanded to include regional locations and the remaining metropolitan areas.
The remaining $30,000 provided intensive capacity-development support to three organisations to assist them to build a policy profile relevant to mainstream - public, private sector and philanthropic - funding and policy bodies. These organisations were the Women's Action Alliance, Guides of Australia, and the Catholic Women's League.
OSW supported 10 other projects, summarised in the table below, specifically to enable women's NGOs to inform mainstream policy or improve the representation or status of women in their constituencies.
| Organisation | Funding | Project goals |
|---|---|---|
| Association of Women Educators | $9,000 | As the second phase of a pregnancy, parenting and school completion project, to produce best-practice guidelines for school communities to support girls and young women who are mothers (or pregnant) to complete their secondary education. |
| Breast Cancer Network Australia | $25,000 | To increase the representation of women with breast cancer in policy decision making, through the development of a national strategy and the recruitment of consumer representatives. |
| National Association of Services Against Sexual Violence | $25,000 | To identify successful strategies for women and children from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, as the second phase of a project that commenced in 1999-2000. |
| National Council of Single Mothers and their Children | $25,000 | To build on last year's successful 'sole parent proud' project, using networks for single-parent families in regional, rural and remote areas to provide mentoring, friendship and training in leadership and decision-making activities. |
| National Women's Justice Coalition | $25,000 | To enhance legal access for women in regional, rural and remote areas through links and information flows between government, services, networks and communities. |
| Older Women's Network of Australia | $25,000 | To encourage older women in community leadership roles, through promotions, focus groups and workshops. |
| Women With Disabilities Australia | $25,000 | To conduct a national forum to examine legal issues regarding the reproductive rights of women with disabilities, under the 'sterilisation and reproductive health of women with disabilities' project. |
| Women's Industry Network Seafood Community | $25,000 | To provide professional development, support and mentoring to encourage the advancement of women into leadership and decision-making roles in the seafood industry. |
| Women's Rights Action Network Australia | $10,000 | To promote greater focus on women's gender issues in a range of community organisations. |
| Womensport Australia | $6,000 | To develop a database to assist in promoting suitably qualified women into sports leadership and senior management positions. |
In addition to its major programmes, OSW supported a number of projects designed to assist, and advance the status of, Australian women.
One prominent example is Women'sNEWS, a monthly newsletter, accompanied by a website (www.womensnews.net.au), which promotes the exchange of information between women's NGOs and government.
OSW continued to support Australia's representation at international forums, including the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Gender Integration.
With assistance from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, OSW arranged a series of consultation meetings across Australia with migrant and refugee women. The meetings were convened by members of the Federal Parliamentary Advisory Group to the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women and canvassed the concerns of migrant and refugee women regarding women's economic status, social and community status, and access to services.
OSW also sponsored the attendance of women from rural and remote areas at the national small business summit of the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, and sponsored the participation of several Indigenous women in the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre training programme.
| Contents | Secretary's review | Departmental Overview | Report on Performance | Supporting the Cabinet | Management and Accountability | Financial Statements | Appendixes | Glossary |  |
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| Copyright © 2001 Commonwealth of Australia Last Updated: 5 January, 2002 |
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