Women’s economic empowerment is an important component of the Australian Government’s aid policy and programming in the Pacific. There is a critical need for research to provide an understanding of the challenges to realising the goal of women’s economic empowerment and an evidence base from which development programming can proceed.

This report details findings of research undertaken with coffee smallholders at four sites in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, comprising a quantitative survey of 143 households and qualitative interviews with 64 respondents, both male and female. The research was undertaken as part of the Do No Harm research project, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development program.