Bottom-up Governance and Leadership Program for Women in the Pacific

Press Release: Brisbane, 29 April 2009

The Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC) is actively implementing the two-year project entitled “Bottom-up Governance Leadership Program for Women in the Pacific” (BGLP). Funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), BGLP aims to increase Pacific women’s knowledge of leadership and governance and support their local governance initiatives in the Pacific. FDC is pleased that the implementation of BGLP has now progressed to the training stage.

In response to its public announcements, FDC received over 160 applications from women from the four target countries of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga. FDC selected 68 participants to take part in the BGLP on the basis that these women have previously demonstrated a passion for leadership and bottom-up governance. The selection of women includes a number from rural and remote communities, many of whom have not had previous opportunities for such training.

FDC has also entered into MOUs with five local affiliates to support BGLP in the four BGLP target countries.  They include:

  • Solomon Islands National Council of Women
  • Civil Society Forum of Tonga
  • People's Action for Rural Development Inc, Papua New Guinea
  • The Microfinance Competence Centre - PNG Institute of Banking and Business Management
  • Partners in Community Development Fiji

Feedback and inputs were sought from these affiliates and other partners for the refinement of the BGLP course curriculum at a recent initial training workshop held in Nadi, Fiji, on 2 and 3 April 2009. The BGLP training program covers a variety of themes, including modules on: Democracy and Ethics; Governance; and Leadership. The training materials will soon be made available to participants by way of an e-learning knowledge management platform on the BGLP website http://www.bglp.org/ and in hardcopy.

After completing the training curriculum and assessment, BGLP participants will be encouraged to design a local initiative to improve the involvement of women in governance and to assist women to participate more actively in leadership roles. Ten of the original 68 BGLP participants will be selected, based on the quality of their proposals, to attend a fully-funded Participatory Project Management (PPM) Workshop. From this group, five selected applicants from the PPM workshop will then each be awarded US$5,000 grants to develop their proposed local governance initiatives.  These projects are likely to be ones which support women’s representation in local civil society activities.

For further information about the BGLP or FDC please feel free to contact:

Dr. Vladimir Pacheco, Senior Training Coordinator and Research Fellow, FDC – vladimirpacheco@fdc.org.au Phone: +617 3217 2924

Ms. Carly Stephan, Project Officer, FDC - carlystephan@fdc.org.au Phone: +617 3217 2924

Ms. Luse Kinivuwai, Pacific Regional Representative, FDC - lusekinivuwai@fdc.org.au Phone: + 679 354 4305

A copy of the press release in PDF format is available here.

ENDS