Pacific Islands Forum members have pushed for concrete, resourced action on gender equality at the United Nations this week, with Solomon Islands Minister for Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs Cathy Nori delivering a formal statement on behalf of the region at the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) in New York.
Nori told the global meeting that gender equality and social inclusion are now central to Pacific policy priorities after Forum Leaders formally endorsed their mainstreaming at the 54th Pacific Islands Forum meeting in 2025. “The CSW70 theme is integral to realizing gender equality and social inclusion, a commitment our Forum Leaders continue to reaffirm as central to the region’s collective progress in pursuing a resilient, inclusive and peaceful Pacific,” she said, linking the CSW agenda to the region’s 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, the Revitalised Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration and the Pacific Platform for Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Human Rights.
What is new in Nori’s address is the emphasis on translating those policy endorsements into budgetary and service delivery changes. She announced that Solomon Islands is piloting Gender Responsive Budgeting to analyse and reorient allocations so they better meet the needs of the most vulnerable. That move signals a shift from policy commitments to concrete fiscal action across the region, which could reshape how programs for women, children and marginalised groups are funded.
Nori also outlined operational measures being rolled out across Pacific governments to respond to gender-based violence. She said governments are strengthening survivor-centred services and justice systems, drawing on lessons from Solomon Islands and Kiribati, and establishing specialised police and judicial units to handle gender-based violence cases. Legal aid is being expanded and community-based paralegal initiatives scaled up to bridge access-to-justice gaps caused by geographic isolation and limited formal legal services.
Prevention, Nori said, is being framed as a life-course responsibility: Pacific countries committed to a “whole-of-life” approach that includes investment in early childhood development and programmes to actively engage men and boys as partners in change, as well as recognising the role of families and communities. “Gender Based Violence prevalence rate remains high in our region. We are determined to change this status quo,” she told delegates.
Nori closed by underscoring the intersection of gender and climate risks, warning that climate change “imperils the lives, livelihoods and wellbeing of our people and communities.” That acknowledgement brings to the fore the compounded vulnerabilities Pacific women face—an issue that regional actors, including Fiji, have previously linked to economic as well as social costs. Earlier domestic analysis in Fiji, for example, has framed reductions in gender-based violence and entrenched inequities as not only moral imperatives but drivers of economic growth.
The CSW70 statement appears intended to consolidate regional consensus into actionable priorities that can be resourced and measured. With the Forum’s 2025 endorsement and Solomon Islands’ budget pilot, the Pacific is signaling a transition from declarations to implementation—but success will depend on sustained financing, cross-sector coordination and the adaptation of legal and service systems to dispersed and culturally diverse island contexts.
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