Pacific Practice Note Series

The new 2021 Pacific Practice Note Series focusses on gender equality and empowerment.

Development of the series has been led by Pacific Women, garnering learnings from many of its 192 partners over the nearly 10 year life of the program (2012 to 2021). The Practice Notes capture and share the lessons learned, successes and experiences from partners supported by Australia through Pacific Women. This knowledge will help to guide other gender equality initiatives and programming such as Australia’s new Pacific Women Lead program that commenced in 2021.

Topics covered in the Pacific Practice Note Series includes:

1. From Participation to Power: Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in the Pacific: Pacific Practice Note Series-WEE

This Practice Note addresses the shortfall of many WEE initiatives to meaningfully address women’s empowerment.

It provides practical recommendations for implementing empowering approaches within economic development programs.

The key learnings gathered and assessed in the Practice Note aim to help advance the conversation from ‘economic participation’ to meaningful ‘economic empowerment’ for initiatives in the Pacific.

 

2. Gender Transformative Approaches (GETA): Pacific Practice Note Series_GETA

This Practice Note shares programming approaches that have led to gender transformative change in Papua New Guinea, with the intention to influence policy, action and practice to include principles of gender transformation.

It has been developed by Pacific Women’s Support Unit in Papua New Guinea (PNG), partnering with 14 of its implementing partners including local civil society organisations (CSOs), INGOS, academic and research institutions, and women human rights defenders. The 14 organisations are: UN Women; Oxfam in Papua New Guinea; Kup Women for Peace; Papua New Guinea University of Technology; Kafe Urban Settlers Women’s Association; FHI 360; Queensland University of Technology; Business Coalition for Women; Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation; International Women’s Development Agency; Population Services International; UNICEF; CARE International in Papua New Guinea, and the University of Canberra.

 

3. Small Grants, Big Results: Pacific Practice Note Series_GRANTS

This Practice Note highlights the catalytic role of community-based and women’s organisations to women’s empowerment and social change, this Practice Note provides an evidence-base of successful small-granting approaches and strong partnerships, to influence funders to expand small granting programs. The evidence from the Women’s Fund Fiji and several Pacific Women partners indicates small grants can lead to significant results.

 

Knowledge to guide future programming 

Pacific Women has reached an estimated 1.45 million Pacific women, men and children since 2012, through partnerships with Pacific organisations and gender equality advocates. From 2021, the Australian Government continues its commitment to gender equality through the new Pacific Women Lead program.

To capture and share the expanse of Pacific Women partners’ experiences, lessons learned and groundbreaking gender transformative approaches, a suite of knowledge products has been developed including the Pacific Practice Note Series. This knowledge will guide future gender equality initiatives including Pacific Women Lead.