Regional gender and development specialists are calling on Pacific governments and regional organisations to boost efforts to ensure that development benefits men and women equally.
Participants at the second annual Pacific Gender and Development Partners Meeting held in Nadi, Fiji, earlier this month agreed gender equality is not being adequately prioritised in the Pacific region, despite long-standing commitments.
The principal focus of this year's gathering was the Pacific Regional Gender and Development Partners Cooperation Framework.
The framework, spearheaded by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, is a mechanism for enhancing agency coordination and collaboration.
The SPC's Human Development Adviser Treva Braun says: achieving international commitments to aid effectiveness requires all partners to ramp up their internal systems for gender responsiveness and develop better teamwork.
The participants of the meeting, including the SPC, USP and NZAID agreed that regional agencies need to develop systems for collaboration, such as a way to track funds allocated to gender specific activities and ensuring the necessary gender analysis is done.
