Business Coalition For Women (BCFW) Family & Sexual Violence (FSV) Forum ignites organisational change
‘Bel isi subscribing companies consider policies and procedures to respond to & prevent cyber/online violence’
Bel Isi PNG’s innovation is three-fold, including partnerships, increasing resources through company subscriptions and galvanising leadership to prevent and respond to FSV. Enforcing focus areas 1 & 3, seven (7) Bel isi subscribers, Air Niugini, Nambawan Super Limited, Kina Securities, PNG-Australia Transport Sector Support Program ( (TSSP), Australia Awards PNG, Westpac & BSP Financial Group strengthened their partnerships and forged new ones by attending BCFW’s 4th annual FSV Forum in November. The BCFW FSV Forum provides the platform on which business leaders and the larger private sector push for greater awareness about FSV.
This year, the FSV Forum comprised of a series of events; a panel discussion, booth exhibition and a presentation on the key findings from the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) survey to measure the success of implementing the FSV policy. Themed as Cyber/Online violence, the forum aimed to help FSV Workplace Contact teams (WCT) to;
(a) Understand what constitutes cyber violence, how to address it and support those impacted by it,
(b) Increase awareness on legislations on cyber/online violence and understand how the reporting process works’ and;
(c) Showcase the existing referral pathways and the services available in the community
The main event of the forum was the panel discussion where representatives from the Office of the Public Prosecutor,
National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA), Equal Playing Field and Department of Information & Communication Technology shared insights into cyber violence in PNG.
“My key take away is the obvious absence of a coordinated approach and FSV response amongst the GoPNG (government of PNG) responsible enforcement authorities coupled with lack of financial and human resources to effectively and efficiently handle FSV Cyber Security issues” said Jeane Sliviak, Gender Equity, Disability and Social Inclusion Adviser from the PNG- Australia Transport Sector Support Program (TSSP).
“For me, it was an eye opener, as I never realized that cyber or online violence was actually on the rise and was something that can be pursued as a legal matte….I mean we hear stories about people being hacked on their FB accounts or people using other people’s images, but I never knew that we had avenues to report this and that this was a crime’ added Ritchilyn Barrios, Executive Manager Human Resource Services, Air Niugini.
The discussions uncovered that employees sometimes used company issued cell phones, laptops or internet to perpetuate cyber violence and in response, organizations are tightening their workplace procedures, with some taking a step further to develop policies to prevent and respond to cases related to cyber violence.
‘In terms of impact which the forum has had on my role, it would be the inclusion of the FSV Cyber Security elements in the TSSP FSV Prevention and Response Policy during its review exercise in 2023” shared Jean from TSSP.’
“Thanks to the forum I now know that there are forums out there that we can go to for assistance when we have such a situation” said Ritchilyn from Air Niugini.
Through the forum also, Office of the Public Prosecutor, Bel isi subscribing company BSP Financial Group, and the Bel isi case management centre operated by Femili PNG, were able to come to the aid of an FSV survivor’s plight from the Highlands region.
Furthermore, BCFW and International Finance Corporation (IFC) are nearing the completion of the End-line survey with three (3) companies. This survey will help these companies to better understand the impacts of FSV in the workplace, as well as to find out whether there have been changes in the prevalence, impacts, attitudes to and support for staff affected by FSV. The end-line survey is a follow-up to the baseline research completed in 2020 titled ‘Workplace responses to Family & Sexual Violence in PNG: Measuring the Business Case’ Findings of the research will be presented in early 2023.