- Five key messages about women and leadership
- Initiatives Supported by PWL
- Grants Supporting Leadership
- Resources and Research
Five key messages about women and leadership
The following five key messages help explain the importance of working to increase women’s participation in leadership and decision making in the Pacific.
1. The Pacific region has the lowest level of women’s political participation globally.
2. Temporary special measures have been introduced in the region to increase women’s representation at the national and sub-national levels.
3. Working in Pacific Island countries requires an adaptive approach, to support a fair and better balance in women’s and men’s leadership roles and opportunities.
4. Supporting women’s participation in all levels of decision making is key to reducing poverty, promoting the quality of economic growth, democracy, and increasing wellbeing of women, girls and their families.
5. Supporting women’s leadership and decision making must occur at all levels. Just focusing on political representation at the national level is not enough.
These messages are premised on a commitment to eliminate discriminatory social norms through generational change and the development of enabling environments that support women to be decision makers at all levels, including in families, communities, places of employment, business and local and national government.
Read more in the 2021 Thematic Brief: Thematic-Brief_Pacific-Women-Leadership.pdf
Initiatives Supported by PWL
Promoting women’s leadership is a key outcome for the Pacific Women Lead (PWL) portfolio, which is implemented by four delivery partners including PWL at the Pacific Community (SPC) programme.
Working across SPC and its 22 Pacific Island member countries, the PWL at SPC programme supports multiple divisions and programmes with women in leadership activities, such as through:
SPC Principal Strategic Lead - Pacific Women and Girls: This role looks across the whole organisation to see what SPC is doing as an institution on gender equality, seeking gaps and opportunities to sustainably mainstream gender equality as part of the people-centred approach to science, research and technology across SPC. The role is undertaken by Mereseini Rakuita, Fiji, who continues to dedicate her life’s work to the empowerment of women and ending violence against women and girls.
Women In Leadership (WiL): The WiL programme is seeking to enhance the representation of women in leadership roles within SPC, and thereby ensure more women meaningfully inform and participate in the strategic and programmatic direction of the organisation.
Coordination and collaboration: Support to events such as the annual Pacific Islands Forum Women Leaders Meeting (coordinated by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat), the Meeting of Pacific Ministers for Women held every three years as part of the Triennial Conference of Pacific Women, and other key events representing women in leadership.
Grants Supporting Leadership
Grant support is provided directly to civil society and other partners, along with SPC member governments, for their women’s leadership projects. Funding may also be provided to key initiatives or regional convenings focussing on women in leadership and decision making.
PWL at SPC programme grants support a wide of initiatives, not limited to leadership, as listed on the grants webpage.
The broader Pacific Women Lead portfolio – including all four delivery partners and not just SPC – has a significant focus on leadership and decision making initiatives for women, such as Balance of Power.
Resources and Research
More than 170 publications, feature stories and other resources on women in leadership, with a focus on the Pacific, are available on SPC’s Pacific Data Hub site for PWL: Pacific Women Lead - Pacific Data Hub (on PDH, search leadership)
For Pacific-specific research on women in leadership and decision-making, refer to the Toksave Pacific Gender Resource project webpage.
