Pacific Leadership Programme

The Pacific Leadership Program (PLP) is an initiative of the Australian aid program that supports influential Pacific leaders to shape and lead developmental change.

PLP recognises the pivotal role that leadership plays at all levels in a nation’s path to development, and the importance of collective efforts to bring about inclusive and durable change for the public good. It identifies influential individuals, organisations and coalitions in the Pacific and supports them in their exercise of ‘developmental leadership’ – that is, leadership involving collective action for the public good resulting in legitimate policies and effective institutions. PLP also invests in sharing lessons and building knowledge of Pacific developmental leadership.

The Program employs a political economy approach to development, recognising the roles of context, history and agency in determining how collective action can affect policies and legislation. PLP is adaptive, learning iteratively from program experience as well as from international research, with an emphasis on developmental leadership practice in the Pacific.

Since 2008 PLP has supported developmental leadership efforts regionally, nationally and sub-nationally in Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The Program secretariat is based in Suva, Fiji.