BY BEN BILUA
WOMEN movements in the region have spent the whole of last week brainstorming issues surrounding the theme for 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and 7th Meeting of Pacific Ministers for Women conference.
“Our Ocean, Our Heritage, Our Future – Empowering All Women in the Blue Pacific Continent” is the theme of the conference which begins next week.
Experts from various organisations will present their views on Women Economic Empowerment (WEE), Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Gender Responsive Climate Justice (CJ) while moderators took stock of key points that would later be compiled into a discussion paper to be presented before the leaders.
Impacts of the Covid-19 on all national and regional commitments surrounding gender equality in general is also a key challenge for the participants going into next week’s 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women.
Journalists from the Pacific region are also following the discussions after undergoing a brief workshop on how to report effectively and write impactful news during the conference.
Speaking to journalists during the workshop one of the trainers and Solomon Islands senior journalist Priestley Habru said these meetings provide a forum for meetings and consultations that aim to sustain momentum towards gender equality in the Pacific.
He told journalist that the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the challenges that women and girls face and that re-affirmation of gender equality as inextricably linked to achieving sustainable development for all is paramount.
Habru emphasized that journalist must approach the conference with knowledge of women’s economic empowerment, deliver audience focused story telling on women as development leaders and overall provide a wide rage coverage of the progress made by Pacific governments in realizing gender equality and the commitments made by Ministers to Pacific women at the 2021 ministerial meeting.
Habru is supported by Australian-based trainer and ABC journalist Prianka Srinivasan with 18 journalists trained to cover the Triennial meeting.
