New details about Arti Devi’s life and work underscore how lived experience, technical skill and family choices are shaping efforts to improve data-driven programming for women and girls across the Pacific. Devi, who grew up in Naselai Village, Nausori and was raised in Korociriciri Village, now serves as a Database Officer for the Pacific Women Lead programme — a DFAT-funded initiative housed in the Pacific Community’s Human Rights and Social Development Division — where she is charged with strengthening data systems and improving the quality, integrity and usability of programme information.
The profile fills out previously reported themes about women’s representation and empowerment with concrete personal and professional details. Devi is married to Jone Dagese and together they are raising a daughter, Deshna. When their child was born the couple deliberately purchased a home in a peri‑urban area so their daughter could grow up connected to community, culture and extended family — a choice Devi says reinforces the intergenerational motivation behind her work. Motherhood, she adds, has intensified her sense of responsibility to shape systems and institutions for a more inclusive future.
Devi’s career and advocacy are rooted in a lifetime of navigating environments that were not always designed for accessibility. Born with spina bifida, which resulted in a lower limb impairment, she learned early to adapt to physical and institutional barriers. At school — Korociriciri Primary and later Vunimono High School — her aptitude for mathematics and analytical thinking emerged. Those strengths carried through to tertiary study at the University of the South Pacific, where she completed a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science, a Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology majoring in Information Systems, and a Master of Computer Information Systems.
Small accommodations during her studies left a lasting impression. Devi recalls being offered more accessible seating in exam halls or early entry to settle before others arrived — measures she once considered minor but now recognises as meaningful examples of how reasonable adjustments enable equal participation. “Access matters,” she reflected, summarising a perspective she brings to data governance and programme design.
Her professional path began with an internship and led to a role as a Hardware and Software Support Analyst with Coca‑Cola European Partners in Suva. While handling support requests, Devi began identifying recurrent technical issues and analysing trends; a manager shifted her to a Business Intelligence project after noticing her analytical initiative. That pivot clarified for her the strategic power of data in organisational decision‑making and set the course for her move into database development and analytics.
In her current role with Pacific Women Lead, Devi develops and maintains database systems, supports data governance processes and contributes to reporting frameworks designed to guide evidence‑based policy and funding decisions. She emphasises the need for reliable, appropriately disaggregated and ethically managed information — pointing to the direct influence data structure and reliability have on how well programmes respond to the needs of women and girls across the Pacific.
This update matters now as regional discussions intensify around women’s representation and equitable service delivery. Devi’s combination of technical expertise, lived experience of disability, and deliberate family choices offers a concrete example of how inclusive data practices and culturally grounded community life can be advanced together — helping ensure that programmes intended to empower women and girls are informed by both robust evidence and the perspectives of those they aim to serve.
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