Labour mobility has the potential to provide opportunities for women in sending countries, including Vanuatu, to improve their livelihoods, develop skills for economic participation and provide resources for entrepreneurial and business pursuits. Targeted support is needed, however, to help reduce barriers to women’s participation in labour mobility and support women whose family members travel to fully benefit from their family’s labour mobility journey and mitigate the negative impacts of family separation.
The purpose of this report is to summarize good practices and lessons learned on support for Ni-Vanuatu women in labour mobility, gathered through the implementation of IOM’s Enhancing Labour Mobility Governance in the Pacific project, funded by the IOM Development Fund. In particular, this report draws on lessons learned from the design and piloting of IOM’s Woman i Redi (WIR) workshop in 2024 – a one to two day workshop targeted at women interested in labour mobility participation- as well as insights from the Gender Inclusive Labour Mobility workshop held in May 20251, jointly with the Department of Labour and Employment Services (DOL) and the Department of Women Affairs (DWA).
The insights presented are based primarily on these sources and are not drawn from comprehensive surveys or large-scale data collection; they should therefore not be considered exhaustive. Rather, the report should be seen as an initial step toward a more in-depth and contextualized understanding of women in labour mobility in Vanuatu. While based in the Vanuatu context, the lessons learned from these activities have relevance in the broader South Pacific region.
Read the full report HERE.