News
This page collects stories on developments throughout the Pacific in promoting women in politics. Because many news sites in the Pacific archive their stories after a period of time, we have replicated the stories in full on this page, to keep an archive on efforts and article in the region. We thank all Pacific news colleagues for their contributions in sharing stories on women in politics. If you have a story we have missed, please send it to the PacWIP team on pacwip@gmail.com.
Cooks Parliament speaker Hon. Niki Rattle says positive discrimination needed
12th February, 2013
A forum in Sydney over the weekend investigated ways to get more women into Parliaments across the Pacific. The Speaker of Cooks Islands Parliament, NikiRattle says its getting women elected is tough and some form of positive discrimination is necessary. The forum was part of the $320 million AusAIDprogram announced last year at the Pacific Forum by...
Pacific Women MPs join forces at Sydney Forum
11th February, 2013
by Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor, for The Australian Fifty women parliamentarians met over the weekend in Sydney, from federal and state parliaments in Australia, New Zealand, and countries across the Pacific – from Papua New Guinea to Samoa, from the Marshall Islands to Vanuatu. Countries without women MPs were represented by other women leaders, such as Solomon...
Future Leaders of the Pacific Conference wrapped up Friday
10th February, 2013
“We need more women in power in the pacific” – Adi Tafuna’i, Future Leaders of the Pacific Conference, 7 February 2013 The Future Leaders conference addressed women’s empowerment, climate change, democracy in the Pacific, non-communicable diseases, and seabed mining. Aspiring young leaders representing 15 Pacific Island nations met with regional political leaders in Pago Pago, American Samoa, for a...
Here Are the Women! – Women empowering women as decision-makers with community radio
09th February, 2013
Saturday 9 February Suva, Fiji Islands Twenty-two community radio producers and broadcasters, project managers and programme officers from Nausori, Labasa, Suva, Solomon Islands and Tonga have gathered at FemLINKPacific’s community media centre for the annual Young Women’s Media and Advocacy Skills training with the support of the International Women’s Development Agency and UNESCO ahead of the inaugural Pacific Islands Community Radio Roundtable and...
Move to boost women MP numbers in Pacific
06th February, 2013
THE percentage of women MPs in Pacific nations is the lowest of any region in the world. That statistic may soon change with the launch of an AusAID project in Sydney this weekend. New forum brings together Pacific women MPs: Female members of Pacific parliaments are meeting in Sydney in February at a new forum designed to encourage...
Female Pacific MPs come together in Sydney
04th February, 2013
Female Pacific politicians will meet this weekend to work on initiatives aimed at helping to lift the numbers of women in their parliaments. The Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships Forum (PWPPF) is the first important step in new a five-year project funded by AusAID. The forum has been arranged by the w.comm parliamentary group and by the...
Ms. Gloria Guttenbeil Pole’o appointed new Tongan Parliament Clerk
02nd February, 2013
Gloria Guttenbeil Pole’o was appointed as the Clerk of the House effective on Monday 28 January 2013, the Office of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga announced. Lord Fakafanua the Speaker of the House confirmed the appointment was approved by the House, in accordance with Clause 19 of the Legislative Assembly Act. Gloria holds a BCom/LLB (Economics) having worked for seven years as...
Historic election of three women into Palau Congress
22nd January, 2013
The 6 November 2012 Palau General Elections landed three women into Parliamentary seats. Successful women Senate candidates Kathy Kesolei(incumbent), Rukebai Inabo, and J. Uduch Senior will soon take their seats in the National Congress. Out of a total 29 member Congress, 16 incumbents including Senate Vice President Ms Kathy Kesolei were re-elected, along with 13 new members including Ms Rukebai Inabo, and Ms J. Uduch Senior....
“Balancing the Power”: FWRM promotes temporary special measures
12th December, 2012
Click here to see the Public Service Announcement In effort to ‘balance the power’ in Fiji, the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement is promoting women’s political participation through Temporary Special Measures (TSMs). This Public Service Announcement explains what TSMs actually are and the why they are urgently needed to fast-track gender equality in Fiji, where women are still lagging behind in...
Young Women Face Double Whammy in Pacific Islands
12th December, 2012
BRISBANE, Australia, Nov 26 2012 (IPS) – With youth populations growing faster than jobs in the Pacific Islands, young women, who are also confronting social pressures to conform to traditional gender roles, account for the highest rates of unemployment in most countries. Female youth unemployment in South East Asia and the Pacific region is 14.2 percent,...
PNG MP Loujaya Toni with draft copy of the new Country Gender Assessment
13th November, 2012
PAPUA New Guinea will soon have an evidence-based report on gender assessment. The Country Gender Assessment (CGA) is about identifying gender development, its challenges whilst encompassing the national constitution and enabling laws and policies that speak about gender and addressing them head on. The 2011-2012 document when completed will have statistically hard evidence that will...
Luganville Deputy Mayor congratulates Vanuatu women candidates
12th November, 2012
Deputy Mayor of Luganville Town, Elizabeth Tasso Sihos, has congratulated all women candidates around Vanuatu for their struggles to contest in the national election despite the fact that none of them secured a seat. Sihos congratulated them for the initiative they took to make sure equality prevails in leadership roles and decision makings at national level. She encouraged the women...