Summary of publication
Pacific Women Lead (PWL) is a $170 million portfolio of regional investments aimed at advancing gender equality across the Pacific over a period of five years (2021-2026). The purpose of this Mid Term Review (The Review) was to: assess PWL activities across the portfolio, identifying achievements and challenges; make recommendations to guide program implementation to June 2026 and the next phase of PWL; and extract learnings about key drivers of transformational change for gender equality across the Pacific to inform the next phase.
The Review concluded that at this point in implementation PWL is a fit-for-purpose, highly relevant, and effective approach to accelerating and consolidating regional gender equality efforts, distinguished by its Pacific-led, collaborative and adaptive design that reflects the complexity of advancing gender equality in the region. By uniting diverse stakeholders, including governments, civil society organisations, regional bodies and donors, PWL enacts principles of collective impact, intentionally builds relationships, and fosters strategic learning, which is central to addressing systemic and complex social change. This learning-by-doing approach enables open discussion and iterative adaptation, allowing evidence, experiences, knowledge gaps and challenges to be shared and addressed.
To reflect PWL’s shared management and partnership approach, the PWL Governance Board, DFAT, SPC, and the Pacific Women Lead Enabling Services (PWLES) have responded to the Review findings via a joint management response. Of the nine recommendations, seven have been agreed, and two have been partially agreed.