A powerful contingent of female leaders descended upon Nelson’s Dockyard last Saturday. These influential figures, some journeying from as far as Fiji and other Pacific islands, convened for a two-day Gender Equality Forum.
The forum served as a platform to share the unique experiences of small island communities and explore how gender equality can act as a catalyst for economic growth. Discussions tackled a wide range of issues, from the role of businesses and parliaments to that of civil society organizations, all with the shared goal of fostering a more equitable future for these island nations.
“With everybody that got up on this stage, I found salient points, and they called this an Equality Village because that is what we are trying to generate now—a gender equality village and we are all participants in this village,” Dr Hepburn-Forbes remarked.
“I think the discussion today has underscored the centrality of gender equality in meeting the sustainable development aspiration of small island developing states. I also want to emphasize that the new program of action that will be adopted this week on Friday, we are not going to make progress unless we make progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Embedding gender equality in these frameworks is an important milestone but it is not an end in itself because gender equality has been in international frameworks from Beijing to SDGs, but progress has been mixed and I think the importance of financing for gender equality is something that we will need to take more seriously going forward,” Themba Kalua, United Nations Resident Coordinator for Samoa said.