Pacific National Councils of Women Forum

This free, online event is hosted by the National Council of Women of Australia and the National Council of Women of New Zealand. We would like to bring together sister organisations to discuss our common issues, establish new relationships and networks, and look forward to future collaborative action.

Saturday 18 May, 1 – 4 pm (NZ, Fiji)/11 am – 2 pm (Australia East Coast)

Friday 17 May, 3-6 pm (Rarotonga)

The Forum is in two parts – Webinar and Discussion groups.

Webinar

Three panelists with extensive experience in working for gender equality across the Pacific will discuss their views on the most pressing issues facing women in the region today. Read about these fabulous women below.

Discussion groups

We will reconvene as a standard Zoom call, and join break out groups to discuss:

The Care Economy, hosted by Chiou See Anderson
Climate Justice, hosted by Natalie Kyriacou
Women’s Health, hosted by Suzanne Manning

We will then come back together to hear summaries of the discussions and talk about next steps.

We'd love to see as many people as we can so we can amplify and learn from as many voices as possible. Links for both parts and further information will be sent two days before the event. Please send us a message if you have any questions: info@ncwa.org.au

SPEAKERS

Fijian feminist human rights activist Noelene Nabulivou, is a determined voice of disenfranchised women and people for over 40 years. As the Executive Director for Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality, an organisation she founded with others in 2011, Noelene is part of a collective effort to ensure justice for all Pacific women, including those deprived of socio-economic benefits due to their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sexual characteristics, socio-economic status, location, disabilities,ethnicity, and more. She works with diverse Pacific women, gender diverse people and local communities, in coalitions and social movements, and with governments, UN and development agencies. Noelene is known for the political care, sharpness and passion of her work.

Some of her roles include:
 Convenor, Women Defend Commons Network
 Convenor, Pacific Feminist Community of Practice
 Co-Convenor, PICAN Working Group: Gender and Climate Justice
 Movement Committee Member, Pacific Islands Feminist Alliance for Climate Justice
 Co-Convenor, Pacific Feminist SRHR Coalition
 Convenor, Pacific Partnerships to Strengthen Gender, Climate Change Response and
Sustainable Development
 Co-Chair (CSOs), Pacific Gender Coordination Mechanism
 Chair, Regional Committee for the Pacific Human Right Conference on SOGIESC, and many other movement roles.

Tara D’Sousa is Senior Adviser Inclusive Development Gender for the Manatū Aorere, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs, based in Wellington for five years. In this role she leads the development, implementation and review of Aotearoa New Zealand’s IDC Policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. Prior to this Tara worked in Public Sector and NGO roles, in public health, social services and international development. Tara’s journey with community development has been lifelong as a student activist, and then working in rural and slum development contexts in India.

Tara has recently undertaken relief assignment roles for Manatū Aorere. She was Development Counsellor to Aotearoa New Zealand’s Jakarta Embassy with overall responsibility for the New Zealand Aid Programme in Indonesia, and more recently she was Acting Head of Mission in Niue. In supporting New Zealand’s bilateral partnerships at Posts in Indonesia and Niue, Tara was able to apply gender equality and social inclusion expertise to focus on priority population groups of women, children, people living with disability, indigenous, remote, and rural populations.

Tara has four adult children and three mokopuna.

Stephanie Copus Campbell AM has championed gender equality and social inclusion over her 30-year career, spanning community, academia, NGO, private, philanthropic and government sectors. As the Australian Ambassador for Gender Equality, she is the lead advocate for Australia’s work on gender equality across all aspects of foreign policy.

Stephanie is a founding Director of Femili PNG Board and continues to actively support its new social impact coffee business, which supports female coffee growers as well as providing assistance to survivors of family and sexual violence in PNG. From 2014 to 2022, she was Executive Director of the Oil Search Foundation where she led the establishment of a USD $100 million organisation to ensure resource companies give back to the community in a way that makes a sustainable, positive difference. Previously, she was the head of the Australia Government’s aid program with PNG, and also served as head of Australia’s bilateral aid programs to Fiji, and of Fiji, Tuvalu and Pacific regional programs.

Stephanie is passionate about protecting Australia’s unique wildlife. She is a wildlife carer and rescuer for ACT Wildlife, and advocates for biodiversity protection.

In 2021 Stephanie was made a Member of the Order of Australia.