Chairwoman of the Women Entrepreneurs Business Council (WEBC), Eseta Nadakuitavuki has called for more women to join decision-making roles, boards and councils to fight the deadly disease of corruption.
Ms Nadakuitavuki highlighted this during the launch of the anti-corruption toolkit for women–owned micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Fiji yesterday in Suva.
She said women should take up these roles to fight corruption with a known vaccine of “transparency”.
“As women entrepreneurs or women-owned businesses not only play a crucial role in the community, but more importantly contribute positively to the national economy,” Ms Nadakuitavuki said.
“It is vital that all women whether you work in a corporate body, own a micro size business or medium sized enterprise are made aware of what constitutes corruption, what laws and institutions are used to prevent and fight corruption. and also most importantly, whom you can ask for help when you are confronted with a potential instance of corruption.”
She added that WEBC was grateful to this partnership with the United Nations Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption project (UN-PRAC) where the toolkit would help by offering tips and tools on how to protect MSME businesses against corruption.
“When we approached UN-PRAC, our request was to train our members on anti-corruption initiatives specifically for MSMEs.”
She also highlighted that most studies so far focused on aggregate measures of corruption and failed to explain why the correlation between women’s representation and levels of corruption occurred.
“It further shows the different forms of corruption and that the inclusion of women in local councils is strongly negatively associated with the prevalence of both petty and grand forms of corruption.”
She said, however, the reduction in corruption was primarily experienced among women.
