Case Studies

The Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) has supported the development of senior leadership development programs in Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Solomon Islands to prepare women leaders for senior executive and board leadership positions.

Businesses are more productive and more profitable when there are more women in leadership. Diverse leadership brings fresh perspectives, broader experience, and more inclusive decision-making. Yet women in the Pacific remain underrepresented in leadership roles, with almost one-quarter of all boards having no women directors and only one-fifth of chief executive officer positions being held by women (PSDI 2024).

In response, local organizations in Fiji, PNG, and Solomon Islands requested PSDI’s support to increase the representation of women in business leadership, including through a series of senior leadership programs. In partnership with the local organizations, PSDI has developed and supported delivery of these programs, which are helping build a pipeline of qualified and confident women leaders. By supporting locally led delivery and program ownership, PSDI aims to implement a sustainable model that enables the programs to continue independently, without ongoing PSDI support.

Papua New Guinea

PSDI first supported the Business Coalition for Women (BCFW) to develop and deliver a Senior Executive Women in Leadership Program (SEWLP) in FY2022. Since then, BCFW has continued to deliver the program independently using the PSDI-developed materials. By the end of FY2025, BCFW had delivered the program to an additional 18 cohorts and 307 participants, mostly from the private sector, and had independently expanded its offering to meet emerging needs.

 “We now have a component on ESG [environmental, social, and governance] within the senior executive women program, which is something all people at that level need to understand,” said Evonne Kennedy, executive director, BCFW.

In fiscal year (FY) 2022, PSDI also supported the PNG Institute of Directors (PNGID) to strengthen its board director training by developing an updated curriculum for its Director Development Program. The program covers essential corporate governance topics such as roles and responsibilities of directors, board strategy, financial oversight, and risk management, and includes a module on inclusive decision-making.

In FY2025, PSDI worked with Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) and PNGID to develop a new module in the program dedicated to state-owned enterprise (SOE) governance to prepare potential leaders for the specific challenges associated with serving on SOE boards. KCH and PNGID launched the new module in May 2025. PSDI also supported 25 women leaders from PNG, identified by KCH, and 7 women from Solomon Islands (see below) to be the first cohort to undertake the director development program with the new SOE director module.

“We are already seeing results from our intervention in this area. Since the program began in 2021, women’s representation on SOE boards has grown from just 2% to 19%. This is real progress, bringing us closer to our target of a representation of 30% of women on SOE boards by the end of 2025,” said KCH managing director, professor David Kavanamur, in his opening remarks at the launch of the program.

Fiji

In FY2024, PSDI worked with the Fiji Institute of Chartered Accountants to develop an SEWLP for Fiji, and supported the training of two Fiji-based trainers to implement the program. The Fiji SEWLP aimed to support women to build confidence, expand their skills and knowledge of business operations, and establish networks with other women in senior positions in the private sector.

The first cohort of the program was held over 2 weeks in August 2024, with 25 participants. At the graduation ceremony, graduate Naina Ragigia shared how the course helped her recognize her existing and transferrable skills, stating that “[the course] gave us that self-realization. We are good managers in our own way. You’re managing yourself, you’re managing your family. If you’re doing things right at home in that space … you could apply that [and] do whatever you want.”

The Fiji Institute of Chartered Accountants delivered the training to 67 women across three cohorts, including in Suva and Fiji’s Western Division, and is planning more in FY2026.

Solomon Islands

PSDI also supported the Institute of Solomon Islands Accountants, Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce, and the Solomon Islands Women in Business Association to develop an SEWLP for Solomon Islands. The 4-day program, which covered networking, communications, risk management and resilience, organizational culture and leadership styles, financial skills, and governance, was first delivered in Honiara in July 2023. The partners have since delivered the program five times to 63 participants.

The three partners have also collaborated to form a new joint entity—the Women’s Executive Leadership of Solomon Islands (WELSI)—which was launched in October 2024. WELSI is designed to support professional and businesswomen to advance into executive leadership by raising awareness of key leadership issues and providing tools, networks, and guidance to help them navigate their career pathways. WELSI has now assumed responsibility for the continued delivery of the SEWLP in Solomon Islands.

In FY2025, PSDI also worked with the Solomon Islands–Australia Partnership for Governance to support a group of seven women leaders from Solomon Islands to travel to Port Moresby to complete the PNGID Director Development Training Program (including the new SOE director module) as part of the Solomon Islands–Australia Partnership’s pilot SOE Director Development Program.

Participants of the program indicated that they had increased confidence and were already planning to apply what they had learned.

“Going through this program has built my confidence in my professional career going forward,” said Needy Taingeia from the Solomon Islands Ministry of Police, National Security, and Correctional Services. “After this program I plan to be a part of small boards and to utilize the skills [from the training] in the executive management team I work in.”

The training also sparked ideas about what could come next for women’s leadership in Solomon Islands.

“For me, going through the program has given me some ideas as to how we can bring it back home through WELSI. We have good, capable women locally that can lead this training,” said Pamela Alamu, chief executive officer of the Institute of Solomon Islands Accountants and one of the founders of WELSI. “This is something I want WELSI to be looking into and doing a similar type of program … I see this as the next step to the senior executive women leadership [program].”

In June 2025, PSDI facilitated a reflection session with the partners from Fiji, PNG, and Solomon Islands to share experiences, successes, and challenges in delivering the Senior Executive Women’s Leadership Program. The session aimed to strengthen collaboration and knowledge sharing, and inform future program delivery across the Pacific. Participants all expressed interest in forming new partnerships and expanding their training offerings in response to growing demand.

Since 2022, these PSDI-supported training programs have provided more than 400 women in Fiji, PNG, and Solomon Islands an opportunity to gain the skills, networks, and confidence to prepare them for senior executive and board roles. PSDI’s approach of partnering with local institutions and supporting their capacity to continue delivering and expanding these programs independently has been effective in ensuring the programs are sustainable—meaning more support for more women leaders over the long term.

Graduates at the graduation ceremony of the SEWLP. © Jason Chute

This case study is taken from the PSDI FY2025 Annual Progress Report. Read the full report here.