Vanuatu Gender and Investment Climate Reform Assessment

This Report is the result of collaboration between the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.Research for the Report was primarily carried out during a mission to Vanuatu from April 21–25, 2008. The mission team was led by Amanda Ellis (World Bank), and included Sonali Hedditch (IFC), Kristie Drucza (AusAID), Anna Hutchens (AusAID consultant), Clare Manuel (The Law & Development Partnership), and Vijaya Nagarajan (AusAID consultant). Jozefina Cutura (World Bank consultant) and Kristie Drucza (AusAID) undertook useful preparatory research from March 3–7, 2008. This mission led to the publication Women in Vanuatu: Analyzing Challenges to Economic Participation1 , from which this report heavily draws.This Report is one of six Gender and Investment Climate Reform Assessments undertaken in six Pacific nations including Vanuatu. The Report analyses gender-based investment climate barriers which constrain private sector development and identifies solutions to address them. Four investment climate areas are considered:Public private dialogueStarting and licensing a businessAccess to justice, the courts, and mediation, andAccess to, and enforcement of, rights over registered land.In each area the Report considers legal, regulatory, and administrative barriers to private sector development with a gender perspective. It asks whether women face different or additional constraints to those faced by men. And it makes recommendations aimed at ensuring that women benefit from ongoing efforts to improve Vanuatu’s investment climate on the same basis as their male counterparts.