such expertise within existing ranks and external recruitment will take time. The aim is to improve this internal and external gender capacity over time and to source capacity externally while capacity in the region, and in AusAID, grows. Management burden and costs: There is a risk of adding to the management burden of AusAID staff, compromising the quality of management and activity monitoring in the short and medium term. It will therefore be crucial that the management of the program is adequately resourced, both in Canberra/Suva and at all other participating Posts. Lack of ownership by Pacific and Pacific countries: The Pacific Leadership Program has demonstrated the critical importance of local ownership of initiatives. There is a risk that if the program is seen as an Australian led program only, there will be a backlash from both men and women in the Pacific. It will be critical to build local ownership at both the political level and the community level to avoid this risk, as the program begins to pilot interventions. The Delivery Strategy has developed a number of approaches to assist in mitigating these risks. These include: A strong policy engagement component within the Initiative, including through the PIF and the bilateral Partnerships for Development, to encourage Governments to articulate and pursue national policy actions that promote gender equality within countries which the Initiative is able to support; The formation of a high level Pacific Advisory Board for the Initiative that will include eminent Pacific women and men in order to assist in advocating for gender equality across the region, and to advise the PGEI on appropriate strategies, entry points and activities; The adoption of a 10 year duration for the Initiative, and within that an iterative, rolling design process that invests in research and evaluation to ensure activities are appropriate to context, and that only activities that have a solid evidence base of effectiveness are supported to expand to scale; An overt focus on building the capacity of Pacific organisations government and civil – society to both better advocate for effective policies and services, but also to deliver – programs; The adoption of multiple delivery modalities based on assessment of capacity and performance at country level to deliver, and further the overt targeting of the Initiative resources to areas where there is commitment and capacity to deliver change; The establishment of the Gender Equality Hub will provide a dedicated and high quality resource to support country level planning and implementation of activities.
such expertise within existing ranks and external recruitment will take time. The aim is to improve this internal and external gender capacity over time and to source capacity externally while capacity in the region, and in AusAID, grows. Management burden and costs: There is a risk of adding to the management burden of AusAID staff, compromising the quality of management and activity monitoring in the short and medium term. It will therefore be crucial that the management of the program is adequately resourced, both in Canberra/Suva and at all other participating Posts. Lack of ownership by Pacific and Pacific countries: The Pacific Leadership Program has demonstrated the critical importance of local ownership of initiatives. There is a risk that if the program is seen as an Australian led program only, there will be a backlash from both men and women in the Pacific. It will be critical to build local ownership at both the political level and the community level to avoid this risk, as the program begins to pilot interventions. The Delivery Strategy has developed a number of approaches to assist in mitigating these risks. These include: A strong policy engagement component within the Initiative, including through the PIF and the bilateral Partnerships for Development, to encourage Governments to articulate and pursue national policy actions that promote gender equality within countries which the Initiative is able to support; The formation of a high level Pacific Advisory Board for the Initiative that will include eminent Pacific women and men in order to assist in advocating for gender equality across the region, and to advise the PGEI on appropriate strategies, entry points and activities; The adoption of a 10 year duration for the Initiative, and within that an iterative, rolling design process that invests in research and evaluation to ensure activities are appropriate to context, and that only activities that have a solid evidence base of effectiveness are supported to expand to scale; An overt focus on building the capacity of Pacific organisations – government and civil society – to both better advocate for effective policies and services, but also to deliver programs; The adoption of multiple delivery modalities based on assessment of capacity and performance at country level to deliver, and further the overt targeting of the Initiative resources to areas where there is commitment and capacity to deliver change; The establishment of the Gender Equality Hub will provide a dedicated and high quality resource to support country level planning and implementation of activities.
pacific-gender-equality-strategy.docx