SPC admits that more political will is needed to address gender equality in the Pacific

The manager of the Human Development Programme with the Secretariat of the Pacific Coomunity (SPC), Linda Petersen (pictured), says there needs to be more political will to address gender equality in the pacific.

Delegates from around the Pacific are attending the 10th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women in New Caledonia this week, with the theme being ’Pacific Women, Pacific Plan: Stepping up the Pace to 2010.

Linda Petersen adds she hopes the conference will produce more action at country level.

She says traditional and cultural attitudes are some of the issues that are tied up with hindering gender equality in the region.

“As a result we’ve got the lowest parliamentary representation of women in the world, we’re struggling when it comes to getting women into higher levels of education but also putting in place the mechanisms for more equal processes to be able to get right up to the top of political leadership levels.”

Linda Petersen also says many of the government agencies that are tasked with implementing more equal development, are under resourced.

Source: RNZI