SFG3315 V1 Gender Action Plan Tina River Hydropower Development Project January 31th, 2017 1 List of Abbreviations CBSP Community Benefit Sharing Pilot CDF Community Development Fund CLCs Community Liaison Committees EAP East Asia Pacific ESIA Environmental and Social Impact Assessment ESMP Environmental and Social Management Plan GAP Gender Action Plan JSDF Japan Social Development Fund LALRP Land Acquisition and Livelihoods Restoration Plan M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MECDM Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology MMERE Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification MWYCFA Ministry of Women, Youths, Children and Family Affairs SP Solomon Power SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats 2 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................2 Introduction .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Organization of the GAP............................................................................................ 16 Rationale .................................................................................................................. 17 Strategic Objectives .................................................................................................. 18 SWOT Analysis .......................................................................................................... 18 Ownership ................................................................................................................ 21 Resource Requirements ............................................................................................ 22 PAD Indicators .......................................................................................................... 23 Action Plan and Results Framework .......................................................................... 25 3 Introduction The Tina River Hydropower Development Project (TRHDP) is a 15 megawatts hydropower scheme on the island of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, 30 km south of the capital Honiara. The TRHDP is managed by a dedicated Project Office under the supervision of the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification (MMERE), and will supply power to the Honiara grid – providing more reliable and plentiful power than the current overburdened supply from diesel and reducing the retail price of electricity for consumers. The hydropower infrastructure will be constructed, operated and owned by an independent power producer and will sell electricity to Solomon Power (SP), the national utility. The TRHDP is complemented by an additional grant-supported operation funded by the Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF – the “JSDF Project�), with the objective of establishing the institutional arrangements and capacity for affected communities to effectively manage benefit sharing revenues from the TRHDP as well as improving their basic services through financing investments in access to clean water and electricity. This Gender Action Plan (GAP) has been put together to guide the mainstreaming of gender into the TRHDP with a particular focus on ensuring that women are not negatively impacted by the project and promoting equal opportunities for women and men to participate in project benefits, supported by the World Bank’s East Asia Pacific (EAP) Gender and Energy Facility. While the Tina River Project will have national impact through the provision of more reliable and affordable electricity, this GAP is principally concerned with the impact of the project on the lives of communities within its immediate footprint area. This focus of the GAP mirrors the localized approach adopted by the Project towards impact mitigation and benefit sharing. Areas of focus within the project for gender assessment and analysis included: 1. Land Acquisition and Livelihoods Restoration Plan (LALRP) 2. Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) (which itself was based on the ESIA, and will also inform the ESMP of the Project Company) 3. Community Benefit Sharing Pilot project, supported by the Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF) 4. Community consultation, participation and decision making 5. Organizational capacity within the project team Given the baseline of gender inequality in its footprint area, the Tina River Hydro Project has an opportunity to include design and monitoring measures that will, at a 4 minimum, not exacerbate existing challenges faced by women, while at the same time aim to promote their participation and wellbeing. This opportunity is strengthened by i) recent national level policy commitments on gender equality, and the support of donors for the same; ii) the willingness and openness of the Project Office, as the main entity responsible for implementation, to promote gender equality; and iii) dedicated resources for supporting gender mainstreaming in the project through the World Bank’s EAP Gender and Energy Facility and within the proposed JSDF Project. Research Process and Findings This GAP was prepared based primarily on interviews with project-affected women and men, with project office staff, and with government and other key stakeholders conducted during fieldwork, as well as on an initial review of project documents. Fieldwork was carried out in the Solomon Islands between November 14th and 26th 2015. Data was gathered from a combination of Honiara-based key informant interviews and field visits to villages in the project area. The goals of this in-country research were: i) To participate in and observe the Project Office (PO) staff and consultants as they carry out meetings and consultations, with a view to understanding the extent to which gender issues are relevant to, and mainstreamed in, project work; ii) To conduct focus groups with groups of women in a selection of villages throughout the project area to understand their priorities, challenges and participation in the project to date; iii) To verify understanding about the project history and plans as gleaned from document review, and source additional data on gender from the PO; iv) To consult with the PO team on the project’s key gender issues, and the extent to which these can be/are being actively incorporated in daily work and future strategy; v) To consult with the key stakeholders, who will be responsible for implementing the gender action plan, on potential priorities and challenges; vi) To gather further data from relevant government representatives about gender in the national policy and legislative context. Focus groups and interviews with men and women were conducted in the following communities during fieldwork: 1. Horohotu 1: A village of 62 households located in the downstream area of the Bahomea district, on the west banks of the Ngalimbui River. It is a settler 5 community (i.e. made up of families who are not indigenous to the project area and who typically have no inherited land rights there). 2. Managikiki: This village is upstream of Horohotu in the core project area and is inhabited by 38 households, all of whom are indigenous to the Bahomea region or territory. 3. Grass Hill: This village is downstream from Managikiki and close to the current access road from Honiara. It has 7 households. Fieldwork findings represent combined observations and analysis from interviews, focus groups and community visits; these are organized under the following thematic areas, which will form the basis for recommendations made in the GAP: 1) Gendered Division of Labor 2) Access to and control over land and productive resources 3) Needs, Priorities, Challenges and Perspectives 4) Participation and decision making 5) Access to project benefits 6) Organizational capacity for gender mainstreaming  Capacity for gender mainstreaming in responsible institutions  Gender balance in project staffing and implementation  Collection and analysis of gender disaggregated data  Existing measures aimed at promoting gender equality Gendered Division of Labor  The project has done a very good job of collecting a representative data sample from the project area on gendered division of labor, as part of the SIEA process. This data sample establishes a useful baseline from which to measure changes to men’s and women’s activities and time use as the project progresses (see pre-mission note on Gender in the Project and Country Context).  Women describe themselves as farmers, with the responsibility of working on the land. Some of the produce grown is consumed in the home, but most is sold at the market in Honiara. Women also have responsibility for managing the costs and income associated with sale of produce, and arranging transport to and from the market.  Consequently, women commonly earn a significant proportion of household income. One government interviewee noted that women are often beaten up because they hide money from their husbands. This interviewee emphasized the importance of including men in any livelihood extension or small business development scheme that is aimed at helping women to augment their incomes.  With the advent of the project, women perceive both opportunities and potential threats to the value they gain from the sale or consumption of crops. To the extent that productive land, trees and crops are lost, displaced 6 or compromised by the project, there is a concern about the difficulty of establishing access. However, with the improved road and inflow of people the project will bring, women recognized that there could also be opportunities for small roadside stands and potentially more frequent transportation to and from the Honiara markets.  Additionally, women are responsible for running the household – this extends to management of household income for settling debts and purchasing consumables and equipment for the household, as well as looking after children, performing household chores and ensuring their families are clothed and nourished.  Both in the focus group and in the interviews with female tribal leaders, women appeared initially at a loss when asked to describe the work that men did in their households. There was some laughter when one woman said ‘nothing, really’, but at the same time there was tacit agreement about the truth of this statement. A few women mentioned hunting or fishing as an occasional activity carried out by men; men were also credited with clearing land and construction-related activities. During interviews and discussion, men themselves echoed these answers, stating a strong preference for cash- based work, which was sporadic, unreliable and often difficult to find. Both sexes acknowledged that, to a far greater extent than women, men tended to occupy their time with decision-making and leadership matters in the community.  Interviews with the Project Office staff reiterated fieldwork findings, and also highlighted the practice of what is termed ‘allowance farming’, whereby village participants (mainly male) attend government or donor meetings about developments happening in their area, motivated primarily by the prospect of being well compensated for their time with per diem and allowances. Although the project has ended this practice, staff stressed that significant effort was required to try to change expectations around it.  Many villages lack an easily accessible source of running water. Women therefore have the responsibility for fetching and carrying water from the nearest river or stream for household use, which is physically wearing, time- consuming and presents water safety issues when the river is flooding.  The tribal women leaders noted that the degree to which men helped their wives and female relatives by sharing the workload varied on a household- to-household basis. The practice was generally acknowledged to be quite rare, but more common in households where women were educated and comfortable with asserting themselves. When asked about why the division of labor was practiced by gender in the way they described, most women cited ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’. However, when questioned about how they saw and would like to see the roles of women evolving and changing for their daughters and granddaughters, several women expressed a strong hope for increased opportunities for girls and for greater parity between men and women. 7  Women noted that infrastructure improvements brought about by the project (for example improved access roads, rural electrification and clean water access) had the potential to reduce the burden of labor they faced on a daily basis. Of these three improvements, clean water access seemed to elicit the most interest from women. The project has taken this priority on board, and clean water access is the focus of one of the three working groups currently being established to plan responsible spending of the community benefit share. To date, the majority of interest in working group participation has been from women. Access to and control over land and productive resources  As cited above, women are the primary users of productive land in the project area. However, perhaps given the proximity to Honiara, none of the villages visited during fieldwork appeared to be wholly - or even majority - reliant on self-grown produce. The shift away from a subsistence economy is already well advanced, with the SIEA documenting that rice, canned fish and other store-bought products form staples of the household diet.  The project’s impact on land access issues is also tempered by the fact that land acquisition will not lead to any relocation; only a relatively small number of food gardens and trees will require re-establishment and the relevant owners have been identified. In recognition of the importance of productive land access to women, the project has already recommended that senior females in households where food gardens are lost will be compensated with a cash grant once they have planted a new garden out- with the acquired land. The Project LALRP details the proposed mechanism for establishing ownership, identifying new land, and administrating cash grants; ensuring gender disaggregated monitoring of changes in land access and use will be key to evaluating the success and inclusiveness of this mechanism as the project progresses.  Land (and access to it) was nonetheless given significant emphasis by both women and men during interviews and focus groups. As mentioned in the pre-mission note on Gender in the Project and Country Context, while land descent is matrilineal in the project area, societal norms remain patriarchal. Moreover, in practice most families follow a ‘vitrilocal’ pattern of residence whereby following marriage, women move to live with their husband’s family and work on their land. With the advent of the project, many women therefore find themselves in a situation where they have no recognized/formal right to make decisions about the land on which they depend for daily farming. In interviews however, many women expressed relative confidence that despite their lack of recognized land claim, they could still contribute views and participate in decision making. Of much greater concern to women was the issue of potential misappropriation of land rentals and royalty payments (elaborated below). 8  The Project Office team observed that land, and the central importance attached to its control, is a key context in which gender inequalities are played out. Relative to legal regimes elsewhere in the world, the recognition given to customary tenure in Solomon Islands and other Pacific Island nations confers not only greater potential opportunities for traditional landowners to share in the upside of investment projects – but also a greater likelihood of contestation and complexity in determining land ownership at inception.  One of the most important determinations that the Project made was to define eligibility for the benefit-sharing arrangements. It was decided that the benefit sharing area should include all villages in the Malango and Bahomea cultural areas, both within Malango Ward, including some communities along the Tina River that will be subject to impact mitigation/livelihood restoration measures of the TRHDP by the Project Company. A total of 88 villages are in the area, distributed among 3 main clusters: 28 villages in the Tenaru Area; 24 villages in the Tangaresu River Area; and 36 villages in the Tina River Valley. These villages are located above the Guadalcanal Plains and within the three adjacent catchments of the Tina River, Tangareso Stream and Tenaru River.  In the benefit-share area, according to project staff, the landowner narrative is “fraught with elite capture, intransigent middle aged men, royalties and rent-seeking, the exclusion of women (and the majority of other men), and corruption�. One interviewee noted: “in most parts of the world, large infrastructure projects acquiring land have to deal with NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard. In Solomon Islands, it’s PIMBY – Please In My Back Yard. At the beginning of the project, a certain group of non-representative, dominant men were pushing for their tribal lands to be acquired because they saw opportunities for their own financial gain….�.  In response, the Project Office has adopted a considered strategy to reframe the language of the project’s land acquisition away from privatized assets (‘landownership and royalties’) and focus instead on the language of the community benefit share. As a result, both project staff and women leaders reported in interviews that the previous group of rent-seeking men who tended to dominate negotiation on behalf of the tribes - and who refused to accommodate female participation - have now given way to a different group of representatives and leaders (including women) who are largely perceived to be more inclusive and more representative in land transactions.  During interviews, tribal women leaders expressed a strong preference for foregrounding the inheritance of landowning rights in the project through the traditional system of matriarchal descent. The project has taken this on board (see below under ‘Access to Project Benefits’). Needs, Priorities, Challenges and Perspectives 9  Training for women, especially young women, was a high priority in the focus group setting. Women were very focused on training that could be leveraged to earn an income – either in terms of job readiness training for work during the dam construction, or in terms of skills training (sewing, food processing, gardening etc) that they could harness to start a small enterprise. Women generally expressed a feeling of helplessness that they lacked both the skills and the education to support themselves and their families outside of traditional village work, and felt ill prepared for change in the community. Women stated that they would like to be prioritized for any available jobs, even temporary and part-time work. It was clear that the project will have to continue carefully framing the number and nature of potential opportunities that may be available, in order to avoid raising unrealistic expectations.  Women also considered training, work and gainful leisure opportunities for youth as priorities, a view that was equally shared by men. Looking to the future and safeguarding the fabric of communities, protecting cultural heritage in the face of modernization and improved access into the area were also important issues flagged by women during focus groups.  Securing a safe and accessible source of potable water for household use was an area of significant concern, particularly for women, and was linked both to fears about potential water contamination and to an interest in reducing the time demands and physical strain of fetching river water on a daily basis.  Women expressed fears about potential dam collapse and flooding. In part this appeared to arise from confusion between the engineering design and functions of a hydroelectric dam on the one hand, and the tailings dam for the Gold Ridge Project on the other. In recent months the latter has been declared structurally unsound and in danger of collapse due to heavy rainfall and disrepair; should this happen, the consequence would be widespread environmental devastation. It will therefore be important to ensure that all villagers – and especially women, who may not be as vocal or as likely to be educated and literate – understand more about the operational aspects of hydro dams, and specifically the parameters of safety associated with the Tina River structure.  Both tribal women leaders and village women in the focus group expressed a high level of concern about potential repetition of the negative social impacts they had witnessed with the advent of the Gold Ridge Mine. These included alcoholism, anti-social behavior among youth, family divisions, corruption and violence. Several men also voiced this same concern, though it was noticeably more prominent in discussions with women.  Other issues identified by women included the need for better access to primary healthcare - especially for expectant mothers. Interestingly the data on maternal mortality rate (MMR) shows that while nationally, the average MMR is only 1% for both home and clinic births, the highest provincial rate is in Guadacanal, at 6% of home births and 3% of clinic births. However, the data for Honiara is 1% for home births and 0% for clinic births, presumably reflecting the fact that the Guadacanal figures are skewed by areas of the 10 island (for example, further inland from the project area and on the Weather Coast) that are much harder to reach. while the Honiara figures would be closer to those in the project area. There are currently no functioning primary healthcare facilities in the project area and most families access the tertiary medical facilities in Honiara – access which will be improved by the upgrading of the road under the project.  Additionally, schooling is an urgent need. Currently children from many villages must walk long distances (more than 8km) to and from school, and the schools themselves lack qualified teachers and are poorly equipped. Tribal women leaders spoke of the need to help parents to understand the benefits of education as a long-term investment which will in turn better equip tribal youth to participate in the changes brought about by development. One woman stated: “Most of the people who are not educated don’t participate properly, this is a worry because so much development is happening now. We need already to be thinking about the future and preparing our children and grandchildren (for it).�  Women also spoke enthusiastically about their desire to build a women’s development center in the village to house training, business activities, reading classes, and a childcare crèche. This was linked to small business aspirations: for example, with the provision of electricity, women identified the possibility of sewing uniforms as a potential source of income. Participation and decision-making  The project has tried to avoid large meetings, which attract rent-seeking behavior and make it more difficult for youth and women to participate, given the cultural taboo around contradicting more powerful relatives and neighbors. Instead, the project has taken to organizing regular small meetings in each community, a strategy that appears to be working relatively well.  In the three villages visited during the mission, meetings were attended by approximately equal numbers of men and women. However, in each place, youth participation by both sexes seemed low. This may have been because young people were either at school or working away from their villages, although several older women expressed concern that young people seemed less interested in the project despite the fact that it will impact their future.  In the settler village (Horohutu 1), 16 women and 12 men were in attendance at the meeting. Two women took front row positions alongside the two male chiefs, and participated very vocally in the discussions. Although the rest of the village women sat in a group slightly apart from the main meeting space, they nevertheless contributed to discussion by raising questions and concerns; these were generally listened to respectfully and often further emphasized by men. When asked about gender and leadership roles, all participants agreed that while women and men could (and did) work together cooperatively, there was a strong feeling that education was a vital criterion for becoming a credible representative of the village and its 11 interests. The apparent tolerance for inclusion in this village may partly be a function of the fact that an Australian aid worker, married to a local woman, has lived there for several decades and together with his wife and daughter may have helped to change norms through encouraging and modeling equality of opportunity for women and girls. Project staff also noted that settler communities tend to be less hidebound by tradition and more open and enterprising, possibly reflecting the self-selection bias of the original families who migrated to start afresh there.  In one of the three communities visited (Managikiki), despite the fact that there were more women in attendance than men, none of them participated actively in discussion; discussion was dominated instead by an English- speaking male former Gold Ridge employee who lived in the village dominated. When invited to join a female-only focus group, women stated that in the joint setting with men, they often felt unable to convey their points because of the expectations of custom. The majority of women strongly supported the notion of women-only consultations, and also expressed a desire to ensure that women would be involved in negotiations. This measure was seen as a means of ensuring transparency against corruption and assuaging the fear that their interests would not otherwise be safeguarded.  The project’s experience so far with measures aimed at the inclusion of women in formal decision making structures has met with mixed success in terms of community cooperation and acceptance. For example, during the signing of the process agreement, the stipulation that two of the five signatories from each tribe should be women was met with resistance from several tribal leaders who had already allocated all five positions to men. After negotiations, a compromise was reached by having a total of seven signatories (including an additional two women). This incident highlights some of the difficulties the project is faced with in trying to balance inclusiveness with respect for local custom and traditional village authority.  At the same time, there are also a few very active and strong male leaders in the project areas who are supportive of women and their involvement in project decision-making. One male village leader who was interviewed stated that his tribe has a committee that was set up because of the project. The committee has 7 members in total including two spaces reserved for women (a principle that the tribe embraced voluntarily). The committee is already active, interfacing as an interlocutor between the community and the project. It is hoping to set up a long-term Development Plan for the community and to this end is seeking assistance with training and facilitation from the project. It may be possible for this tribe to serve as a model of good practice for other communities. Access to Project Compensation and Benefits  Both women and men expressed trepidation about potential squandering and elite capture of benefit flows, a perspective that appeared closely linked 12 to the experience of Gold Ridge. One woman said: “Men get all the benefits but women are the landowners – men are made trustees of the land, women appoint them, then they take the money and spend it.�  Women in the focus group saw their own involvement as crucial to ensuring accountability, but expressed concern that without an external mechanism for their inclusion, it would be too difficult for them to assert a role. They therefore looked to the project to put this in place.  Women leaders expressed a strong opinion that communities should work together in groups rather than individually to manage and spend the funds from the project. They emphasized the importance of making investments with a long-term perspective, for example funding scholarships for children and establishing women’s development centers for assisting women and young girls with training and small business support.  The project office has taken these preferences on board, with an assertive stance on design measures for compensation payments that try to avoid the pitfalls of elite capture. In terms of land compensation eligibility is restricted to members of the 5 core tribes whose land was acquired by Government. 100% of people belonging to the 5 core tribes have been identified. Upon the establishment of Tribal Cooperatives for each of the 5 core land tribes, the project is working with a local bank to set up individual bank accounts for every man, woman and child in the Tribal Cooperatives, and to offer basic financial training on their use1. There will also be a customized financial product for children: a savings account from which the only withdrawals permitted will be checks for school fees until the child reaches aged 18. This measure may also help to encourage better school attendance.  The same Tribal Cooperative accounts that are set up for the receipt of land acquisition compensation and livelihood restoration will also be used to receive the 1.5% royalty that was agreed as part of the Process Agreement (which provided landowner consent for Government land acquisition) as well as income from the land lease paid through the Tina Core Land Company (the joint Government-Landowner company that will own and manage the Core Land), both of which will only be received during the PPA period. Each of these cooperatives was constituted as follows: a register of tribal members was made with full community participation, based on wontok membership rather than residence. Everyone on this registrar became a shareholder of the co-operative society when it was established. New applications to join the co-operative society (for example, new babies born and other people who want to be recognized as tribe members) can be made to a “Matrilineal Membership Committee�. This committee will be made up of women and the committee will recommend who should be accepted as a member. The final decision on whether to accept any new member will be made by all the shareholders together at the annual general meeting by a vote. Membership is for life, so those who move away from the project area will still be eligible. 1 This will also include children born after the project commences. 13  The cooperative structure adopted by the project for governance has a number of benefits in terms of gender equality and inclusion: for example, shareholding in cooperative societies will be designed to mirror the general principle of matrilineality. Only the children of the women in the tribe will inherit the right to be in the cooperative. The project is further proposing that the membership committee – charged with collecting and discussing ideas that individuals put forward for activities to be financed from the benefit sharing revenue - will be all female, with a portion of funds set aside to pay for a professional administrator to take care of compliance. Although, as stated above, the actual decision-making of which new members to admit and what activities to approve for funding will be made at cooperative AGMs and will therefore include men to ensure gender equity - this type of structure could potentially positively influence the perception and practice of women’s roles as leaders and decision makers. Conversely, it could create tensions and resistance in the community, particularly among male leaders; in order to avoid misperceptions, the project will have to conduct careful messaging and consultation as the structure is explained to the shareholders in order to gain their buy-in.  The project office is also putting considerable thought into ensuring that inclusive structures are established for the spending of funds, proposing a Charter that lays out pre-agreed eligible uses of funds, with a small amount of discretionary space in the annual budget. The project has already begun conversations in communities about establishing working groups to identify spending priorities – preliminarily, these are water, conservation and education – an exercise in which women have been heavily active.  The project’s emphasis on encouraging long-term investments in development appears to be a view held by many in the community. One male chief interviewed spoke enthusiastically about his hope of setting up a community business and offering financial literacy training to tribal members, and conversely his wish to avoid cash handouts.  In addition to the Tribal Cooperatives which will transfer funds to individual members, SIG is planning to establish a Benefit Sharing Fund, essentially a community development fund, which would receive a regular stream of funds from revenue generated from the Power Purchase Agreement and last as long as the PPA is in effect. These funds would not be transferred to individual accounts, but rather managed in a pooled fund for use in investments with broad community benefit such as water supply and sanitation, education, roads, etc. The governance arrangements for the Fund has yet to be established, but the PO aims to establish an even balance of men and women as board members/directors of the Fund. Organizational capacity for gender mainstreaming  As the primary entity responsible for project planning and implementation, it is important the Project Office has both the will and capacity to introduce and 14 monitor gender-mainstreaming measures. In terms of modeling gender balance to communities, during the mission only one female national community outreach worker appeared to be part of the team (and as a contractor, rather than office-based staff), with one other female (international) consultant in a key role as legal advisor.  Given consistent feedback from women on their preference for regular women-only consultations, the project should train and hire at least one permanent female outreach worker. As it appeared that the majority of the project office team had no significant prior experience of working on gender issues, appointing and training a gender focal point in the project office is required in order to coordinate, monitor and report on the progress of the GAP. Ideally this person could also work in partnership with an equivalent counterpart in the MMERE, the Ministry charged with supervising the project. From conversations with the MMERE representative, there appeared to a growing awareness and support for gender mainstreaming in other aspects of the Ministry’s energy portfolio.  Routine gathering and analysis of sex-disaggregated data is an area where the project needs to improve, particularly going forward in the run-up to implementation, and is a requirement of World Bank funded projects. Although project documentation includes some useful gender analysis (e.g. the ESIA and the Livelihoods Restoration Plan), the project should start tracking and disaggregating meeting attendance and participation by gender, which would enable them to identify patterns and ensure that community needs/concerns are met in an inclusive way.  From a social protection perspective, the Project has developed comprehensive mechanisms in line with international best practice. For example, the Project Company’s ESMP includes anti-sexual and gender based harassment as well as socially and culturally acceptable behavior in villages, drugs and alcohol use, and protocols around interacting with local women. The Project Company is required to provide training to workers to familiarize them with the conduct code. The ESMP also requires the Project Company and contractors to identify a quota for women and put in place strategies to ensure that this quota is fulfilled by female workers on equal pay to male workers. Fieldwork also identified gender differences in the perception of potential adverse impacts and risks as a result of the Hydro Project. The most often repeated concerns overlapped with the findings of the ESIA assessment, which included female groups in interviews but which did not include household data or and was, for the most part, not sex-disaggregated in terms of the analysis of data. Disaggregating data analysis by gender for the GAP allowed for patterns to emerge and a few additional fears to be identified, as summarized below: 15 Concerns voiced by women Concerns voiced by men River contamination, affecting River contamination, affecting community water supply and health community water supply and health Mistrust/lack of understanding/ fear Disruption of fishing around how dams operate, and potential collapse as a threat Fear of social dislocation (alcoholism, Risk to community security and drugs, anti-social behavior) from integrity with the arrival of illegal misuse of benefit streams squatters Fear of elite capture of benefit streams Fear of missing out on land compensation Fear of lack of voice and exclusion from Concern that newcomers or ‘others’ in decision making processes the community would take all the available jobs Breaking down of cultural traditions as Concern to see that project benefits a result of land changes and newcomers would be invested sustainably, to start community owned businesses Fear of missing out on potential Fear of elite capture of benefit streams economic opportunities like jobs, training etc. Concern that community youth were Concern that decision making respects not sufficiently interested in or local customs and systems of authority involved with the project Organization of the GAP The GAP recommendations are structured into strategic objective areas, each of which loosely corresponds to the categorization of fieldwork findings, as summarized below: Category of Fieldwork Findings Strategic Objective Area Gendered Division of Labor Reducing the burden of work on women Access to and control over land and and improving their livelihood productive resources opportunities through access to resources and services Needs, Priorities, Challenges and Ensuring gender equality in Perspectives opportunities for education, skill building, training and safe employment Access to project benefits Participation, decision making and Promoting the voice, participation and community safety empowerment of women, and reducing opportunities for elite capture of funds 16 and risks to women and girls Organizational capacity for gender Increasing organizational capacity for mainstreaming gender mainstreaming Collection and analysis of gender disaggregated data Following an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to mainstreaming gender in the project, the GAP recommendations are presented in an Action Plan with an accompanying results framework. Rationale The Solomon Islands Government has recently enacted a number of national level commitments on gender equality; the Tina River Hydro Project is an important opportunity for gender mainstreaming in the energy sector, for the following reasons:  The Project is high profile and a high priority for the government. It represents the most significant large-scale investment in infrastructure in the recent history of the country, and therefore will provide a model for investments that follow;  The Project will also provide significant benefit streams, which (if managed equitably and well) offer the potential to create long term improvements for families in affected communities;  The Project (and the JSDF intervention which will precede it) may present distinct impacts, challenges and potential benefits for men and women, who may have different needs and responses. These issues should be taken into account in the planning/pre-implementation stage that the project is currently in;  Although the Project Office has already started to diagnose existing gender inequalities in affected communities (for example, through the Livelihoods Restoration Plan, and Environmental and Social Management Plan) and has begun to structure ways in which the project can help, there is as yet no overarching framework or institutional structure in place to support or monitor and report on these efforts;  Gender inequalities in affected communities – as in the rest of the country – are pronounced and entrenched, particularly in the arena of participation and decision-making. This exclusion translates through to the economic realm where it contributes to the impoverishment of women as well as to inefficiencies and lost productivity, negatively impacting the whole society;  Employing a gender perspective from design through to monitoring and evaluation offers insights that allow for better targeting and improved efficiency of energy sector programs. 17 Strategic Objectives As summarized above, this Plan is organized around the following strategic objective areas: 1. Reducing the burden of work on women and improving their livelihood opportunities through access to resources and services 2. Ensuring gender equality in opportunities for education, skill building, training and employment 3. Promoting the voice, participation and empowerment of women, and reducing opportunities for elite capture of funds 4. Increasing organizational capacity for gender mainstreaming SWOT Analysis As part of the GAP process, a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) has been performed using information from the Fieldwork Findings & Analysis report. The SWOT analysis serves to identify those internal factors (Strengths and Weaknesses) and external factors (Opportunities and Threats) that are most relevant to implementing the gender mainstreaming process, links them to the relevant interventions, and gives an indication as to whether the objectives of each are attainable. Strengths SWOT Factor Relevant Intervention Outlook Project Office established Basic gender sensitization A dedicated expertise on and highly functioning as training for the Project gender is created within lead entity for Office –specifically for the Project Office, and a coordinating project community liaison officers specific focal person is implementation, with / assistants, and for a made responsible for willingness and gender focal point from coordinating and tracking commitment to the existing staff (whose gender mainstreaming mainstream gender appointment is efforts recommended in this GAP) The Project Office has Build on the existing The project has a sensible, 18 already implemented / measures to incorporate actionable and coherent gender in the project, and planned several initiatives strategy for gender that aim to create equal combine with mainstreaming that has opportunities for women complementary the support of the Project and ensure their inclusionmainstreaming measures Office, and that fully avails in the project that are both practical and of the opportunities to align with a strategic plan advance gender equality (laid out in this GAP) during implementation Solomon Islands Semi- annual progress Government has a sense of Government has high level reporting on the GAP ownership and policy commitments on implementation is involvement in the GAP; gender equality; included as a separate gender mainstreaming government line section in Project Office measures are ministries and reports implemented in stakeholders are partnership with supportive of gender MWYCFA; MMERE mainstreaming agenda leadership are engaged in monitoring and become champions of gender mainstreaming within, and potentially beyond, the project Weaknesses SWOT Factor Relevant Intervention Outlook Lack of clarity as to the Begin involving the Key long-term project long term institutional Project Company in stakeholders have an arrangements for gender gender mainstreaming opportunity to gain mainstreaming in the awareness via inviting knowledge and capacity project – and in particular their participation in the on the importance of the role of the Project Tina River Sub-Committee gender mainstreaming in Company which currently with responsibility for the project, ensuring has no plans for gender overseeing the GAP, to ongoing support for this mainstreaming which the Project Office agenda will report on an annual basis Currently, the project does Routinely begin offering Improved ability of not routinely offer women single sex consultations to community women to feel separate single-sex project affected women included and comfortable consultations as part of and recruit additional with making their community visits female community liaison opinions on the project officers / assistants to heard help with this 19 Women are already a Mandate the inclusion of No women experience a more vulnerable group in women as equal decision deterioration of living the community, and as makers in several key conditions or such more prone to community bodies / opportunities as a result adverse impacts structures that the project of the project is putting in place; ensure gender disaggregated monitoring of project impacts Currently, limited Disaggregate data by sex Just-in-time adjustments disaggregation of data by where possible and can be made to project sex in project reporting analyze implementation based on quarterly/annually to feedback from gender assess progress against analysis GAP objectives Opportunities SWOT Factor Relevant Intervention Outlook The project will create The utilization of benefit Benefit sharing funds are meaningful benefit sharing cash flows can be spent in a transparent streams that offer the designed to prioritize way that reflects priorities potential to improve the interventions that create of the whole community, lives of families (including broad, inclusive benefits particularly women and women) in affected for families and women – children communities for example, clean water access, health and education The project is creating Mandate the inclusion of Women’s voices and new structures, systems women as equal decision concerns are represented and institutions for makers in several key and they are given some decision-making at community bodies / control over decisions that community level and has structures that the project affect their lives; new an opportunity to make is putting in place institutions help to create these inclusive of women a new model for gender equality in community decision making Lessons from Reporting and M&E built Successful approaches to implementing the GAP into the GAP gender mainstreaming are have the potential to be successfully extended to transferred to other other projects and sectors. sectors and future Unsuccessful approaches projects in the country are analyzed and used as learning to guide future interventions 20 Threats SWOT Factor Relevant Intervention Outlook Measures to include Training offered to Cultural norms and women in project community men and behavior shift towards decision-making have women on gender accepting gender equality previously met with equality using locally resistance among some of appropriate content and the community men examples Project planning and Put in place an Gender mainstreaming processes are still institutional structure efforts are adjusted as evolving, posing a (the Tina River Sub- required in real time to challenge to ensuring Committee and Gender ensure continued mainstreaming is Focal Point in the Project appropriateness and completely Office) with the mandate effectiveness, and ability comprehensive at this to adjust and tweak the to reach all audiences stage; some aspects of the GAP in real time based on whether literate or not, or GAP may need to be ongoing analysis of with disabilities. tweaked at a later stage performance. Previous experience with Establish individual All individual tribal project cash-flows (from accounts for every single members benefit equally the Gold Ridge Project) tribal member to avoid from compensation, has been highly negative elite capture. Also, royalty and land lease as a result of elite capture establish a Benefit income and all of funds by a small group Sharing Fund to be used community members of men. Communities for small investment experience a high level of noted a marked increase projects that have broad satisfaction with benefit in social dislocation, community benefit and sharing arrangements alcoholism, anti-social ensure that the behavior, family governance arrangement abandonment and for the Fund is inclusive violence. This has caused of women. particular duress for women given their roles as caregivers, and their relative lack of voice in community decisions. Ownership The Project Office as the main implementing entity will be responsible for ensuring that the GAP recommendations are mainstreamed into daily operations and into the 21 relevant structures as they are set up at community level. This will include hiring required expertise and engaging Development Partners such as the World Bank, to design and implement the recommended gender trainings, and to advise on gender in monitoring and evaluation, as detailed in the Action Plan below. The MMERE, as Government owner of the project and Ministry overseeing the Project Office, will have overall ownership of the GAP. Other key stakeholders – for example, the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology; the Ministry of Women, Youths, Children and Family Affairs; Solomon Power; the World Bank; and the Project Company as well as any other key donor / partner to the project – will have the opportunity to play a key executive role in GAP implementation through participating in the Tina River GAP Steering Committee., which will have the official mandate for monitoring overall Tina River Hydro project implementation, including the GAP. The set-up of the Steering Committee will be managed by the PS of the MMERE and supported by the Project Office; the MMERE will decide on and invite initial members, with a view to adding additional members (such as the Project Company) as the project progresses. The World Bank will play a key role in implementing the GAP through supporting the Solomon Islands Government to prepare and implement the project, providing technical guidance and through advising on select gender mainstreaming activities in support of the Tina River Hydropower Project and the design and implementation of the community benefit sharing mechanism with support from the JSDF (as marked below on the Action Plan). Resource Requirements Most of the measures in the GAP are covered by the TRHDP project preparation funds or under the JSDF Project. The following items will be included in the Technical Assistance component (Component 4) of the TRHDP project to be financed with IDA and Australian grant resources: i) Community Liaison Officer (female): Local, full-time consultant to conduct regular community consultations, and to be the primary Gender Focal Point in the PO. This consultant will conduct trainings and workshops together with a specialized gender specialist, and collect data to measure the progress of the GAP. ii) Training: Short term consultancy services for a local gender consultant, and event costs, associated with running a one-day training program for the Project Gender Focal Point, members of the Tina River Steering Committee, and other key stakeholders in Honiara. The goal of this 22 training program would be to familiarize all attendees about the gender context and dynamics in the project area, to ensure they understand the contents and purpose of the GAP, and to support them in developing the knowledge and confidence to play an active role in GAP implementation and oversight. iii) Workshops: Local consultant (individual facilitator) plus event costs to conduct community level workshops in the project area, offering gender sensitization trainings for men and women in affected communities. iv) Data collection & analysis: Consulting firm to conduct a household survey and focus groups in the project area, ensuring that data collected is sex disaggregated, to provide a baseline for social impact monitoring and reporting for the project. While this exercise will provide a baseline relevant to the GAP, it will also be broadly useful in tracking the socio- economic impact of the project over time. (As the baseline will need to be followed up once the project is operational, the budget estimates reflect the costs of these two surveys.) The survey will provide a baseline for indicators suggested in the table below, and would cover income and expenditure; transit time to tertiary healthcare services in Honiara; distance to the nearest clean water supply; and current household energy sources and consumption levels. Separate female/male focus groups carried out following the planning phase will be used to investigate qualitatively issues such as: Do women and men feel informed about the road and the hydro dam, and understand their impacts? To what extent do women and men feel empowered to participate in decision making at household and community level? Do women and men feel that they have the opportunity and skills to make spending decisions over the money in their bank account? Do women and men feel that their priorities are reflected in the spending decisions for project revenues? PAD Indicators The following key results indicators from the table below are suggested for inclusion in the project PAD: - % change in project-affected community household income before and after hydropower facility commissioning (sex disaggregated) - % of quarterly meetings of the GAP Steering Committee taking place in a year - % of women who are satisfied with the way in which their individual Tribal Cooperative account funds, and those of their children, are spent 23 24 Action Plan and Results Framework2 Objectives GAP Measures Outputs Outcomes Baseline Indicator Timeframe3 1. Reducing the 1.1 Where food Eligible male and Women are Number of % of displaced gardens Prior to and post burden of work gardens are lost female householders empowered to displaced re-established with cash construction of the on women and as a result of the receive cash invest in gardens grant awarded to eligible access road improving their project, provide compensation. continued food householder (and % of livelihood compensation in security and those who are women) opportunities the way of a cash (The Project has land based grant once a new already determined livelihoods garden has been eligible householders replanted outside based on the work of TRHDP of the acquired the livelihoods land. Cash grants consultant who to be given to carried out a thorough whomever is the survey of crop and primary person garden inventory as who works the well as an ownership land, regardless of register and notation gender of the primary person working the land. There findings were (Action also specified verified at community in LARLP.) level via consultation meetings with women and men. ) JSDF 1.2 Provide clean Clean water is Community Number of Number of households Prior to and post water access in provided at more goodwill and households in in the project area with construction of project accessible sites for trust of the the project area reliable, consistent clean water access communities in project affected project with reliable, access to safe, clean 2 The source of funds for each activity are identified in the far left column: e.g. World Bank, JSDF or TRHDP 3 Specific dates to be added once contract is signed with a Project Company, or when otherwise agreed with relevant stakeholders. 25 advance of the communities, increases ahead consistent water Tina Hydro reducing reliance on of access to safe, project river water ahead of implementation clean water % of households with commencing and the project starting as a result of clean water access afterward and afterward, as well tangible benefits % of within 100 meters as reducing the households distance for women to with clean (Action included as travel to access water water access part of JSDF benefit within 100 sharing activities) meters JSDF 1.3 Provide access to Affordable grid- Quality of life % of % of households in the Prior to and post grid-connected or connected electricity improves for households in project area that have electrification other appropriate is provided to households the project area access to electricity program electricity households within that have generation project affected sites access to % of female-headed technologies in electricity households with access. advance of the Tina Hydro % of female- project headed commencing and households afterward with access. (Action included as part of JSDF benefit sharing activities) TRHDP 1.4 Construct access Reduction of time Healthcare is Average transit Average transit time Prior to and post road for the required for people in more readily time (minutes) (minutes) from project road construction project, which will the project area to accessible from villages in area villages to Honiara reduce the time access tertiary the project area taken to access healthcare to Honiara tertiary health care in Honiara. 26 JSDF 1.5 Allocate funding Women and men in Healthcare Number of Number of patients seen Prior to and post from the JSDF to project villages have facilities are patients seen by local clinic (% of construction of improve water access to primary more hygienic by local clinic which female) sanitation facilities and sanitation healthcare with and able to treat (% of which at the clinic facilities at the adequate water and more patients female) local clinic. sanitation facilities (WASH activities included under JSDF project activities) 2 Ensuring 2.1 Offer financial Women and men gain Financial Number of Number of participants Prior to and post gender equality management and new skills in management participants who are able to FM training in budgeting budgeting and skills improve who are able to successfully carry out opportunities training to i) financial management for women and successfully the range of skills taught for education, tribal cooperative men carry out the by the program (% of skill building, members ii) range of skills which females) training and workers taught by the safe employed by the program (% of (assessed by training employment project, as well which females) providers) their spouses, and to women (assessed by TRHDP householders in training the project area. providers) Provide support to potential Average Average income before Prior to FM business ventures, income before the project (sex training and including those the project (sex disaggregated) following project set up by women, disaggregated) construction via a dedicated business support advisor for core land tribes 27 (Specified in JSDF benefit sharing activities and ESMP) TRHDP 2.2 Establish a bank Bank accounts Women and % of eligible % of eligible men, Prior to and post account for every established and men have the men, women women and children FM training and woman, man and functioning for all tools and skills and children who possess an account setup child belonging to eligible beneficiaries to save and who possess an individual bank account a coop, into which manage their individual bank having been provided royalties and own finances account having with financial literacy, compensation been provided management and monies will be with financial equitable financial received literacy, decision-making management training/ guidance (Specified in and equitable LALRP) financial decision- making training/ guidance % of women % of women who are who are satisfied with the way in Annual survey of satisfied with which their individual female Tribal the way in account funds and those Cooperative which their of their children are members individual spent account funds and those of their children are spent 2.3 Provide access Women participate in Women have % project area % project area Throughout project 28 road and pre-employment improved households households with women implementation hydropower plant and/or business knowledge and with women who participate in pre- construction- opportunity training skills to acquire who participate employment or business related pre- to acquire construction- in pre- opportunity training employment construction-related related jobs or employment or and/or business jobs or establish other other income- business opportunity income-generating generating opportunity training to women activities opportunities training who are such as food interested, in sales particular women from the project area JSDF skills development component and Project Company training 3 Promoting the 3.1 Instigate a parallel Women have a Women % of people % of people who feel Throughout the voice, women’s regular, safe space to experience who feel that that their priorities are project life cycle participation consultation participate in the increased sense their priorities reflected in the spending and program to visit project and a of agency and are reflected in decisions for project empowerment communities at dedicated forum for confidence that the spending revenues of women, and least once a their voices to be the project is decisions for reducing month, headed up heard and captured on taking their project (score of 7 or higher on a opportunities by a female record concerns revenues 10 point scale, with 0 for elite capture community seriously completely disagree and of funds and liaison officer. Use Women’s (score of 7 or 10 completely agree - risks to the this as a space for participation in the higher on a 10 sex disaggregated) safety of women to gain project increases point scale, women and confidence in with 0 girls articulating their completely views, with the disagree and 10 TRHDP goal of having completely them speak up agree - sex more often in disaggregated) 29 community wide meetings Specify in ESMP 3.2 Ensure all All community Community- Number of road Number of road safety Prior to trainings TRHDP community members, including wide trust in the safety features features on the Tina and after trainings members, women, are equipped project on the Tina access road / following including and with accurate increases access road construction of the especially women, information on the access road have access to main risks and Road safety information and changes that may features % of women % of women and men training sessions result in their lives including and men who who agree that they feel on hydro dam with project sidewalks agree that they fully informed about the safety, implementation through feel fully road and the hydro dam, construction settlements, informed about and understand their issues and road crossings and the road and impacts and water safety speed limits are the hydro dam, awareness in place and understand (score of 7 or higher on a their impacts 10 point scale, with 0 completely disagree and (score of 7 or 10 completely agree) higher on a 10 point scale, with 0 completely disagree and 10 completely agree) TRHDP 3.3 Conduct gender Trainings are Women are able N/A Number of male and During training sensitization conducted and to participate as female participants in trainings for men attended by equal partners training events 30 and women in community men and at the household % of women affected women, including level and in and men who communities to male leadership decision making agree that they % of women and men Prior to training encourage men to in the feel able to who agree that they feel and following create space and community participate in able to participate in training opportunity for decision decision making at women to Men’s making at household and participate acceptance of household and community level (score gender equality community of 7 or higher on a 10 in the household level (score of 7 point scale, with 0 and the or higher on a completely disagree and community 10 point scale, 10 completely agree) increases with 0 completely disagree and 10 completely agree) 3.4 Conduct training Trainings are Community % of % of households Throughout for both project conducted and members are households participating in training construction communities attended by more aware of participating in period (men, women and community men and the risks of training % of Project Company youth) and women and Project hosting a large staff and contractors Project Company Company staff and number of % of Project participating in training staff and contractors laborers, Company staff contractors to especially to and contractors protect women, in women, and participating in particular, from workers follow training the potential guidelines for negative effects of appropriate labor influx behavior in line with compliance with WB Performance 31 Standard 2 on Labor and Working Conditions TRHDP 3.5 Include both Women and men in Electricity is N/A % of training attendees Prior to women and men the project area used safely and who are female construction in delivering understand how to productively in community use electricity safely the home N/A % of trainers who are education on the and productively in female provision of the home electricity, including safety, productive uses of electricity in the home, and managing the household energy budgeting (Specified in JSDF benefit sharing activities) TRHDP 3.6 Ensure there is Women participate Male tolerance N/A % of female Prior to and during female equally alongside men of and support representation in the construction representation at in project decision for women in Tina Core Land leadership level in making structures leadership roles Company, Tribal all key community increases N/A Cooperative Governing level institutions Committees, and Benefit including the Women Sharing Fund Governing Tribal experience N/A Committee/Board Cooperatives increased 32 Governing confidence and % of female leadership Committees4; the sense of agency in CLCs Community as decision Liaison makers in their Committees communities (CLCs) Spending of project benefit share funds reflects the priorities of men and women TRHDP 3.7 Form all-women All female coop Coop structure N/A No. of coops established Prior to matrilineal membership empowers with all female construction membership committees women to re- membership committee committees for established and assert their the tribal running successfully traditional cooperative matrilineal groups, with leadership role membership in communities rights ascertained and within the and inherited Landowner through Company traditional matrilineal Incidences of principles elite capture are avoided 4 Increase 4.1 Appoint and train Gender focal point Regular N/A % of the project’s social Prior to Organizational a gender focal established and reporting and indicators that use sex- construction Capacity for point in the functioning analysis on disaggregated data5 Gender Project Office, gender issues 4 Provisionally, it is envisaged that the Governing Committee will be a body composed of 7 men and women, elected by the membership of each of the Tribal Cooperatives at their Annual General Meetings. 5 These indicators will be finalized with the drafting of the project PAD, which has not yet been written. 33 Mainstreaming responsible for N/A % of project reports to Over the project liaising on gender Dedicated the Bank that include lifetime TRHDP issues between channel of gender analysis Project Office communication management, field for gender staff, project issues between monitoring unit, project and Tina Tina sub- sub-committee, committee and as well as other other external external stakeholders stakeholders World Bank 4.2 Provide basic Key project office staff Regular, high N/A % of the project’s social As soon as gender gender awareness and Project Company quality indicators that use sex- officer is recruited and analysis staff are trained in reporting on disaggregated data training to the gender awareness and gender dedicated gender analysis integrated into % of project reports that officer (field- project include systematic based) as well as monitoring gender analysis those who will systems run the PO, in addition to Project Number of project staff training for Company and stakeholders trained Project Company understands on gender analysis and staff (which and supports monitoring/evaluation should include GAP (sex disaggregated) familiarization with the GAP and Project their role in representatives supporting its in the implementation) community are equipped to support gender mainstreaming efforts 34 4.3 Include Tina sub-committee Active, engaged % of meetings of GAP Annually or bi- TRHDP responsibility for appointed and trained steering steering committee annually (TBD by monitoring the in GAP, reporting to committee taking place on a MMERE) GAP in the MMERE as overall ensures gender quarterly basis mandate of the project supervisor remains a Project sub- priority Evidence of Project Sub- Committee throughout committee including convened by the project GAP implementation on Ministry of Mines, implementation agenda of meetings and Energy and Rural actions taken to respond Electrification Strong to any issues identified (MMERE). This government committee will support for GAP also include representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM); Ministry of Women, Youths, Children and Family Affairs (MWYCFA); World Bank; Solomon Islands Electricity Authority (SIEA); Guadalcanal Provincial Administration; and Korea Water 35 (Project Company) World Bank 4.4 Conduct a Income of women and Income of male Average Average income once the Pre-construction household income men in households and female income before project is operational and post and expenditure tracked in project household the project (sex (sex disaggregated) commencement of survey in the monitoring and members in the disaggregated) project operations project area reporting project area is (other indicators monitored and dependent on M&E (Include in LALRP and supported with matrix for social ESIA) appropriate impacts) interventions TRHDP 4.5 Amend the The level of female Data is analyzed N/A % and No. of women Over the life of the template used by participation as a to provide a attending mixed sex project the project field proportion of overall means of consultations staff for recording participants remains measuring consultations, to consistent or efforts to N/A % and No. of women include 2 increases over time improve attending women-only additional women’s consultations columns: i) participation in number of women the project No. of grievances raised, present and ii) % of which resolved (sex concerns / disaggregated) questions raised by women 36 Annex 1: Draft TOR for the Steering Committee TERMS OF REFERENCE Gender Action Plan (GAP) Steering Committee Tina River Hydropower Project – Solomon Islands Summary The Solomon Islands Government has enacted a number of important policy commitments to gender equality. In the energy sector, gender mainstreaming is a key priority for the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification (MMERE). A Gender Action Plan (GAP) has therefore been prepared in support of the Tina River Hydropower Project and the accompanying World Bank Japanese Social Development Foundation Benefit Sharing Program. The GAP aims to help ensure that women will have equitable access to project benefits and equitable voice in project-related activities. As part of ensuring accountability for this plan as well as full national ownership of its implementation, a GAP Steering Committee will be established by the MMERE. Background / Context The Tina River Hydropower Project is being implemented against a backdrop of existing gender inequalities and social exclusion. The challenges include poor representation of women at all levels of decision-making; higher reliance by women on land-based livelihoods (particularly the cultivation and sale of market produce); landowners’ prior negative experience of the social disruption associated with the Gold Ridge Mine; the lower education and literacy rates of women; and the prevalence of certain ingrained cultural attitudes – particularly amongst some of the male elites in the project area - that normalize the subordination of women and create resistance towards gender equality efforts. In addition, experience of hydropower projects in other parts of the world, and of large scale infrastructure projects (such as mining) in the Pacific Islands, suggest that the initial disadvantages and inequalities faced by women are often multiplied by the unintended adverse impacts of these investments, that expose women to disproportionate risk. For example, loss of productive land or changes in the availability of water can negatively impact the ability of women – as the main agricultural producers - to provide food security for their families. Similarly, if women are excluded from decision making around project benefit flows into communities, they are less likely to realize meaningful gains or opportunities. Given these risks and the baseline of gender inequality in its footprint area, the Tina River Project has an opportunity to include design and monitoring measures that 37 will, at a minimum, not exacerbate existing challenges faced by women, while at the same time aiming to promote their participation and wellbeing. The GAP summarizes these measures. Convening of the Committee The Steering Committee will be formed and headed by a senior representative from the MMERE, with the support of the Project Office. Initial members will be invited to sit on the committee prior to project implementation beginning, with the possibility to later expand membership as new stakeholders become active on the ground (for example, the Project Company). Membership of the committee will be at the discretion of the MMERE, but is envisaged to include mid-senior level representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology; the Ministry of Women, Youths, Children and Family Affairs; Solomon Power; the World Bank; and the Project Company as well as any other key donor / partner to the project. Efforts will be made to ensure gender diversity within the committee’s membership. The Gender Focal Point from the Project Office will also sit on the Steering Committee. The World Bank will support training for the membership of the Committee It is suggested that the committee be convened semi-annually, coinciding with the existing reporting schedule for the project, to review progress in implementing the GAP. Scope of Work The functions of the Steering Committee will include:  Ensuring that all new members receive training and orientation (provided by the World Bank)  Semi-annual review of GAP implementation reports, provided by the Project Monitoring Unit and supported by an external consultant  Recommendations for corrective action to improve outcomes for women provided to the Project Office, if required, based on review of implementation reports  Coordination with the Gender Focal Point in the Project Office on any additional issues  High level coordination with project partners to ensure their buy-in and to raise additional resources or support as required for GAP implementation  Dissemination and publicity on the results and insights gained from the Gender Action Plan implementation  With the assistance of an external consultant hired by the World Bank, produce an annual status report summarizing the key insights and lessons from GAP implementation 38