For four days, representatives of the districts of Lepa, Lotofaga, Aleipata Itupa-I-Luga, Aleipata Itupa-I-Lalo are the target of a Training for Trainers (ToT) from the 15th – 18th July, 2019. This training is held at Saletoga Sands Resort, Matatufu Falealili and is attended by 35 female community leaders.

The ToT will be based on the Village Leadership Development Initiative’s (VLDI) which aims at enhancing the leadership pathways for women as well as men in the communities. This also includes identifying the challenges hindering women’s leadership and working together to create initiatives to break through these barriers to recognize women’s contribution to leadership at the community level as well as strengthening gender equality in Samoa.

On the first day, the participants each wrote down their Dreams for Samoa ranging from increased women’s leadership and participation in village council, effective and reliable leaders, excellent role models of gender equality, increased participation of young leaders at the national level in decision making, increased participation of women in politics, increased number of women to become leaders as CEOs, ACEOs, middle management, village development committees and others.

This training is organised and facilitated by the Women in Leadership in Samoa (WILS) Project, a three year project implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women with funding from the Australian Government in partnership with the Government of Samoa.

Taulapapa Alanna Mapu-Oli, Programme Manager for the WILS Project acknowledged the partnership with the Ministry of Women, Community & Social Development (MWCSD) in supporting the coordination of this training through the network of the Sui o Nuu and Sui Tamaitai o Nuu. The MWCSD is leading the District Development Planning with the overall goal of communities leading community development and the WILS project intends to support leadership initiatives identified by the districts in their DDPs. Women’s participation and leadership at the local level, need to be recognized and supported to promote gender equality.

This is the second of a series of trainings that will be happening in the coming months in which there will be more opportunities for other community women whom are involved in the design and implementation of their District Development Plans that is currently being implemented through the MWCSD.

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Media enquiries should be directed to:

1. Ms. Jordanna Mareko, Communication Project Coordinator, UN Joint WILS Project, UNDP Samoa Office, Ph.: Tel: +685-23670 ext. 62 or Email: jordanna.mareko@undp.org