Speaker: Dr Priya Chattier, Pacific Research Fellow, State Society & Governance in Melanesia Program, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific

Larry Saha Room, HA2175 Haydon Allen Building (22) The Australian National University

Abstract

This paper presents empirical findings on one aspect of the work of a transnational feminist research project, based in Canberra, Australia, whose goal was to produce a better standard or metric for measuring poverty across the world. The epistemological approach that underpins this paper is shaped by an explicit recognition that existing measures of poverty in Fiji suffer from two problems. First, they are insensitive to gender and second, they reflect the values and priorities of experts rather than those of women and men who have experienced poverty. In addressing this shortcoming, the methodology adopted in the paper was shaped by feminist principles of participatory research. Here gender was made central to the question of poverty measurement where research participants in sex-disaggregated groups explored the ways in which gender related to poverty and hardship and whether women and men differed in their responses to the same questions. In presenting the findings, this paper seeks to recognise and value the knowledge of participants, and deepen our understanding of the lived experiences and priorities of poor women and men in Fiji. The paper is aimed at moving beyond household measures of poverty by using individual as the unit of analysis. In concluding, the paper will argue how gender perspective could contribute to widening the concept of poverty by identifying the need to measure poverty in a way which accounts for its nuanced and individualised qualitative information.