The report, titled Survivor data from Femili PNG’s first decade, is authored by Professor Stephen Howes and Estelle Stambolie of the ANU Development Policy Centre. It draws on data from the more than 7,000 survivors who have been admitted as Femili PNG clients over the last decade. It utilises the Femili PNG Case Management System (CMS) on which client data is securely and confidentially held.
The report will be launched at the Femili PNG 10th anniversary dinner on August 3 2024.
The full report can be downloaded from the ANU website.
Survivor numbers
Between July 2014 and June 2024, Femili PNG admitted 7,452 survivors as clients. About 10% were repeat clients. Including dependants, Femili PNG’s assistance over this period extended to 20,683 individuals.
Almost three times as many survivors become Femili PNG clients every month compared to a decade ago. Monthly intakes fell slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, but are now growing again, and reached an average of 87 in 2023-24 (July-June financial year).
More than 40% of clients are now walk-in. Significant numbers are also referred by the police, health facilities, and businesses.
At any one time, Femili PNG is trying to help about 800 to 900 survivors. Case workers in the three offices manage between about 45 to 75 open cases each. Cases are closed on average after just less than a year.
Survivor characteristics
Most survivors who come to Femili PNG are female adults (83%). 9% are female children, 5% male adults and 3% male children. Their average age is 30. 81% of adult clients are married, and 70% have dependants. 10% of clients have a disability. Survivors have very varied educational backgrounds, but on average are better educated than the general population. 28% of adult clients are tertiary educated, 25% have only primary or elementary education, and 9% have no education at all. 10% of adult clients are self-employed, 36% are wage earners, and 53% are not in paid work.
Survivor abuse
81% of survivors who come to Femili PNG do so as a result of intimate partner violence; 13% due to child abuse; 3% as a result of non-intimate-partner sexual violence; and 2% on account of sorcery-accusation-related violence (SARV). Goroka has a much higher share of SARV survivors (17%), while Lae has a higher share of child abuse survivors (15%). About 90% of survivors have experienced violence prior to the incident which they are reporting. Substance abuse is reported as a major cause of abuse (mentioned by 30% of adult survivors), alongside issues relating to adultery and polygamy (29%).
For adult survivors, the perpetrator is most likely to be their current or former intimate partner (92%), while for children it is most commonly a parent or guardian (61%).
Survivor objectives
At intake, case workers work with survivors to help them articulate their short- and long-term objectives. 83% of adult clients want a restraining order. Children (and their guardians) have more mixed objectives, but about half want the perpetrator arrested. Unfortunately, as the report reveals, though survivors can be helped in various practical ways, often the objectives formulated at intake are unrealistic, and are not achieved.
Referrals and case conferences
Femili PNG works in close coordination with partner service providers to deliver results for survivors. On average, about 20 to 30 survivors are referred each month to the police, courts and health facilities. Case conferences are held to develop plans with partners for complex cases. The data suggests that the number of case conferences may have fallen in recent years, suggesting that this is an area where more work is needed.
Basic services
Five basic services are provided to a majority, and in some cases, nearly all clients: provision of information (94%); basic needs, such as food and clothing (77%); legal advice (65%); counselling (64%); and safe transport (46%).
Beyond these basic services, Femili PNG helps many survivors access three specialised services: emergency accommodation, restraining orders, and relocation. These are discussed in each of the next three sections.
Emergency accommodation
Femili PNG operates one safe house, the Bel isi Safe House (BISH) in Port Moresby. It also supports its clients with basic needs and case management in a range of safe houses operated by NGOs and churches, and supports those operators with their resource requirements. A quarter of Femili PNG’s clients are supported with safe house accommodation. The average stay has increased to about 50 days, but this is about twice the median (typical) stay, as there is a long tail of long-stayers. On a typical day Femili PNG now supports 85 survivors and their dependants in safe houses across the country.
The average number of BISH residents has grown from 9 at commencement in 2018-19 to 17 in 2023-24. BISH capacity utilisation has increased over the same period from 38% to 79%.
A higher percentage of child (43%) than adult (22%) clients use safe houses, and children have longer average stays. Many adult clients also have dependants, so, in fact, slightly more than half the individuals Femili PNG supports in emergency accommodation are children.
Restraining orders
Many more of Femili PNG’s clients are able to access an Interim Protection Order (IPO) from the courts than a decade ago. Now, on average, about 20 are granted an IPO per month, compared to less than 10 or even five in the first few years of operations. However, the number peaked as early as 2019-20. 76% of survivors who come to Femili PNG want an IPO, but only about 20-30% actually get one. The median time from intake to lodgement is 23 days, and then from lodging to granting four days, meaning there is a four-week period from intake to obtaining the protection of an IPO. Reducing this time would provide greater protection for survivors. Only half as many longer-term Protection Orders (POs) are issued compared to IPOs.
Relocation and business kits
A small number of survivors are relocated with their consent to their home village or another location for their safety. Relocations were highest in the first few years of operations, but after an internal review have remained at levels of around 3-6% of intake since 2017-18. Start-up business kits are also used to support a small number of survivors, and about a third of these are given to relocated clients. About 50-60 kits are issued to survivors every year.
Survivor outcomes
The best way to measure the difference Femili PNG is making for those survivors who request its help is to ask them. Femili PNG regularly asks a sample of clients for feedback. Nearly all clients report either a full resolution or partial resolution of their problems and that the services Femili PNG provides help protect them from further violence. 86% of clients are extremely satisfied with Femili PNG’s performance. Although the client feedback surveys are biased towards clients who make more use of Femili PNG, the findings are strongly supportive of the conclusion that the organisation is making a real difference in the life of survivors.
Conclusion
Femili PNG’s CMS enables the organisation to track its ability to help survivors over time, and across its three centres. Many of the results shown are very positive. Femili PNG today assists many more survivors than a decade ago, and helps many more of them access safe house accommodation and restraining orders. At the same time, the analysis also shows important remaining challenges. In particular, although Femili PNG is able to help many more survivors obtain restraining orders than when it began, the trend is not upwards. And most survivors who say they want an IPO still do not get one.
Download the full report here.
