Ministry of Women's Affairs

Introduction

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is the government’s source of advice on issues relevant to advancing the well-being of women and ensuring they are able to make their full contribution to New Zealand.

The mandate of the Ministry is to:

• provide advice on policy that will improve the status of women
• provide suitable women nominees for state sector governance bodies
• manage New Zealand’s international obligations in relation to the status of women, in particular under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The Ministry advises the government and supports it to achieve its desired outcomes for women specified in the Action Plan for New Zealand Women.¹ These outcomes include meeting the diverse needs of all women in New Zealand. The Action Plan refers specifically to the New Zealand Disability Strategy and a focus on disabled women.

The government also seeks advice on policies relevant to the well-being of women.

The Ministry provides independent, high-quality policy analysis and – in collaboration with public service colleagues, Māori women, and NGOs – supports interventions that achieve the goals the government has specified. It ensures access to expertise and information about the status of women throughout the policy processes of government.

Working alongside others can involve joint policy work, external critique, committing resources, connecting colleagues to knowledge, or promoting gender analysis to enrich the quality of policy advice. The Ministry operates primarily by targeted influence and as a catalyst, through:

• monitoring progress, and stepping in when it is timely to do so to refocus effort upon outcomes for women
• leading policy processes when mainstream agencies are not active in a critical area or where additional complementary leadership is needed
• influencing, through assisting with policy processes led by mainstream agencies
• direct intervention by providing suitable nominees for state sector governance board

Level 1 Activities: Universal responsiveness to disability issues

Accessible government information		Achieved / available	Planned this year	N/A
Agency’s websites
	Meet e-government Web-Guidelines 2.1	Priority 1 and 2	None
	Tested for accessibility for disabled people	User tested	Testing by professional users and assistive technologies
	Adapted to increase accessibility to disabled people	Achieved
	Downloadable files available in HTML, not only PDF	Achieved
Other publications and public information available in alternative formats.		Not achieved	None
Agency makes available alternative forms of contact		Mail, Phone, Fax, Email	None

Accessible government buildings and sites		Achieved / available	Planned this year	N/A
All agency’s buildings and sites meet statutory and regulatory access requirements (eg NZS 4121)		Area responsibility of tenant is compliant	Seek compliance by landlord of their area
Agency’s buildings and sites have Building Code compliance certification		Achieved
Agency’s buildings and sites audited for accessibility by Barrier Free NZ Trust		Audited by Wrightson Associates	None
Agency’s buildings and sites accessible.
	Frontline staff receive training in disability responsiveness			N/A
	Reception areas accessible			N/A
	Counters lowered for wheelchair users			N/A
	Telephone staff familiar with using NZ Relay service		Training planned for all staff
	Other accommodations		Implementation of audit recommendations

Accessible government services	Achieved / available	Planned this year	N/A
Service policies and procedures include reference to disability issues			N/A
Information/data on services provided to disabled people is recorded			N/A
Service staff receive disability responsiveness training			N/A
When contracting for new or up-graded IT applications and environments, contracts include a requirement to ensure accessibility by disabled users			N/A

Responsive government employment practices		Achieved / available	Planned this year	N/A
Human Resource policies and procedures include EEO issues for disabled people			Review of all HR policies & procedures
Recruitment and selection of vacancies responsive to disabled people		Phone and email contacts provided	No changes planned
Human Resource staff familiar with EEO issues for disabled people See ‘Disability responsiveness training and resources’ below			Training planned
Disabled staff are supported
	Individual assessments of workplace accommodations or support are provided	Available for all new staff, and after accommodation changes
	Accommodations provided to disabled staff		Nothing is planned. The Ministry has no disabled staff.
	Disabled staff provided with opportunities for career advancement		Nothing is planned. The Ministry has no disabled staff.
	Agency supports a disabled staff network group		Nothing is planned. The Ministry has no disabled staff.
	Internal agency newsletters promote the positive presence of disabled staff people		Nothing is planned. The Ministry has no disabled staff and no internal newsletter.
	Other support provided to disabled staff (please list)		Nothing is planned. The Ministry has no disabled staff.

Level 2 Activities: Disability perspective included in ordinay work

 

Disability responsiveness training and resources	Planned this year	N/A
Disability responsiveness training offered to all staff	Planned
Promotion of the Disability Perspective Tool Kit within your agency This website resource will be brought to the attention of all policy analysts.	Planned
Other Inductions of new staff will include the NZ Disability Strategy, and provided copies of the Ministry’s Implementation Plan.	Planned

Disability perspective included in ordinary work		Planned this year	N/A
Key documents to incorporate a disability perspective
	Cabinet papers	Ongoing
	Policy and procedure papers	Ongoing
	Strategic documents (eg Statement of Intent, Managing for Outcomes and key strategies)	Ongoing
	Legislation		N/A
	Consultation with disabled people/groups	Ongoing
	Other (please indicate)		N/A
All policy development and policy advice prepared by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs incorporates diversity analysis. This involves consideration of issues, options, and implementation for a range of groups of women, including disabled women.		Ongoing

Implementing the NZ Disability Strategy beyond your agency	Planned this year	N/A
Agencies, Crown Entities, boards, reference groups, etc, that your agency is responsible for are encouraged to consider disabled people and disability issues (eg staff/membership supports the inclusion of disabled people, compliance with level 1 activities is encouraged, your agency’s purchase agreements require compliance with the Disability Strategy, and where appropriate requires the provision of any data/information on disability issues/disabled clients)		N/A
Other (please indicate)

Level 3 Activities: key Disability focused work your agency is leading

1. Action Plan for NZ Women monitoring indicators

Description

One of the Ministry’s roles is to monitor the indicators of progress for the high-level outcomes of the Action Plan for New Zealand Women. Considerable progress has been made in the last year to identify an initial set of indicators that can be extracted from existing data collection.

The Ministry has worked closely with relevant agencies to agree on relevant indicators and also to identify the data necessary to support such indicators.

The technical development of these will be completed in 2006/07. Further indicators will also be developed for intermediate outcomes that are currently not fully covered.

One of the four priority areas selected for monitoring activity in 2006/07 is the Disability Strategy.

Desired Outcome

The Action Plan for New Zealand Women defines clear outcomes for the status of women within New Zealand and sets out the initial tasks and actions across government that are necessary to achieve those outcomes. It also provides a framework for identifying future tasks and actions required to achieve its outcomes.

It is important to monitor the implementation of the Action Plan to know what impact the actions of government departments have had in relation to achieving the identified outcomes. The diversity and aspirations of women, and the range of circumstances in which women live their lives, require monitoring that reflects this lack of homogeneity; distinguishing, for example, progress for disabled women compared with non-disabled women.

The purpose of monitoring implementation of the Action Plan is to ensure that it is possible to know the impact the tasks undertaken have had in relation to achieving the outcomes set out in the Action Plan.

Accordingly, the focus of the monitoring undertaken by the Ministry is not on checking implementation of actions and projects relevant to the Action Plan. Rather it will be on reporting on the contribution that actions and projects undertaken by departments have made towards achieving the outcomes and objectives of the Action Plan.

Neither will the monitoring focus be on providing an overall picture of the well‑being of women but it will provide an overall picture of the combined impact that actions of all relevant departments have made towards achieving the outcomes of the Action Plan.

Outcome measures and timeframes

There are no outcome measures developed yet for this work.

Links to Strategy objective and action

Objective 6 – Foster an aware and responsive public service:

Action 6.1 – Develop mechanisms to ensure that all government policy and legislation is consistent with the objectives of the New Zealand Disability Strategy

Objective 14 – Promote participation of disabled women in order to improve their quality of life

Action 14.1 – Promote women’s rights and provide opportunities for disabled women to achieve the same level of economic wellbeing and educational attainment as men

Action 14.5 – Include the perspectives of disabled women in the development of all strategies

Action 14.6 – Ensure the Ministry of Women’s Affairs undertakes a leadership role in promoting the participation of disabled women, to improve their quality of life

Objective 15 – Value families, whānau and people providing ongoing support

Action 15.2 – Improve the support and choices for those who support disabled people

Action 15.6 – Work actively to ensure that families, whänau and those who support disabled people can be involved in policy and service development and delivery, and in monitoring and evaluation processes where appropriate

2. Nominations Service

Description

The Nominations Service of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs will:

• maintain contact with the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) so that when requested we can provide advice and assistance to them
• maintain contact with the ODI so that they can identify women on their database who meet the Nominations Service’s skills and governance criteria
• invite suitable candidates, identified by ODI, to join the Ministry database
• when women choose to identify as disabled on the Nominations registration form, record this information

Desired outcome

The work of the Nominations Service will contribute to disabled women’s participation in leadership and decision-making on statutory boards and committees.

Outcome measures and timeframes

The Nominations Service will report annually on:

• the number of self-identifying disabled women on the Ministry’s database
• the number of self-identifying disabled women on the Ministry’s database who are appointed to statutory boards and committees.

Links to Strategy objectives and actions

Objective 5 – Foster leadership by disabled people

Action 5.1 – Encourage disabled people to take part in decision-making as service users, as staff in the delivery of services, and in the governance, management, planning and evaluation within all services that disabled people access

Action 5.3 – Model the inclusion of disabled people in leadership roles within government departments, in order to encourage leadership by disabled people within all organisations

Action 5.5 – Establish a register of disabled people for government appointments

Objective 14 – Promote participation of disabled women in order to improve their quality of life

Action 14.1 – Promote women’s rights and provide opportunities for disabled women to achieve the same level of economic wellbeing and educational attainment as men

Action 14.6 – Ensure the Ministry of Women’s Affairs undertakes a leadership role in promoting the participation of disabled women, to improve their quality of life