Priority theme: Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective
Honourable Chair,
Distinguished delegates,
Talofa and warm greetings from the beautiful Samoa!
It is an honour to present Samoaโs statement to the Commission on the Status of Women and wish to associate with the Statement delivered on behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Samoa reaffirms its commitment to accelerate the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and eliminating barriers such as ending violence against women and girls through multi-stakeholder partnerships, gender-sensitive institutions and gender-responsive financing.
Honourable Chair, in our pursuit of women empowerment and gender equality, Samoa wishes to highlight its Pathway for the Development of Samoa strategy, which puts emphasis on human development and the critical social issues.
In 2021, Samoa implemented its District Development Program under the first ever District Development Policy Framework. The District Development Program (or the DDP) is a significant government initiative to align national and community-led development to its regional and international obligations.
As of to date, the DDP has distributed financial and technical assistance to fifty one electoral constituencies to assist with their own community-led developments. It has enabled compulsory representation of women and youth in district councils across all the constituencies; with priority community level projects ranging from agriculture and fisheries, education, health, social well-being, environment and climate change to name a few.
Honourable Chair, we advocate for a holistic and innovative approach that promotes our values, customs and traditions and to accelerate progress towards women empowerment and gender equality โ we reiterate Samoaโs commitment to uphold its responsibility to enhancing womenโs economic empowerment and creating opportunities and enabling environments for women and girls to grow and realize their potential at all levels of society contributing to community and nation building and to assume leadership roles and freely participate in decision-making processes.
In celebration of the International Womenโs Day 2024 last week in Samoa, we resonated one of our renowned proverbs, “E au le inaโilau a tamaโitai,” emphasizing the invaluable contributions by women if they are given the opportunities to excel and exemplify as leaders, at all levels.
Soifua ma ia manuia!
