Building on decades of Pacific activism – One Year of PIFA4CJ

Nadi, Fiji

15/03/23

In March 2022, representatives of the Shifting the Power Coalition, DIVA for Equality – Fiji, the Pacific Conference of Churches and Kiribati Climate Action Network (KIRICAN) – Pacific Island feminists came together to forge a new alliance. One that builds on waves of women driving a feminist agenda as we bear the brunt of the climate crisis on our bodies, our communities, our ocean and islands.

The Pacific Island Feminist Alliance for Climate Justice (PIFA for CJ) was launched as a demonstration of a Pacific Island feminist and women-led climate justice activists working together to build collective understanding of a feminist and gender justice approach to the climate change agenda. It is how Pacific Island feminists are collectively weaving together strands of activism, bringing together our diverse constituencies and carrying each other forward:

“The (..) thing about PIFA4CJ is that it has a very strong and gender justice and feminist model. It is like a basket that carries us (..) Talking about weaving we have really woven together a basket because we have to carry each other. It is going to be the urgent short term and long term (work)” says Executive Director of DIVA for Equality, Noelene Nabulivou.

She along with movement-led committee members Frances Namoumou of the Pacific Conference of Churches and Tekateka Metai the representative of the Kiribati Climate Action Network, and steering committee members of the Shifting the Power Coalition have agreed on a Pacific Island feminist infrastructure that is bringing attention to local priorities, informing climate justice action and working together to amplify collective messages of the movement.

Last year this included events during the 66th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) in collaboration with Global Fund for Women with a parallel event and a high-level side event sponsored by the Fijian Government, lobbying and advocacy at the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR), amplifying collective messages during the Pacific Island Climate Justice Summit and the 16 Seis campaign during COP27.

PIFA4CJ is also about investing in learning.

This week a Learning Event in Nadi on grantmaking is focused on strengthening another priority area of PIFA4CJ – to ensure Pacific women can access financial resources and support when they need it.

This is a vital step in feminist movement building, that not only affirms women as beneficiaries of climate projects but as frontline innovators, complex political actors, and leaders in the movement for climate and disaster resilience by ensuring resources and support reaches women when they need it, to deliberate, participate, design and deliver what works for diverse women and in their communities:

“We are making decisions with resources in our hands, for our region”, says Carolyn Kitione the Learning Coordinator of Shifting the Power Coalition supporting PIFA4CJ. She admits it has meant as a young woman in the feminist movement, starting by deconstructing or decolonizing her own notions of funding or financing power: “to embrace that as Pacific Island feminists we have the power to determine resourcing – this has enabled us to redefine grantmaking processes and timelines, determining the resources required to support a movement led approach including programme administration, learning and grantmaking as well as the way in which resources can be allocated through the MLC members to support national level feminist climate justice movement building.”

In 2022, PIFA4CJ approved 8 grants totaling AUD152000 to diverse women-led groups in Fiji, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu.

“Having these resources or grant available allows us to support the community but at the same time our support is not from a donor driven (approach) … we are accompanying communities, we work with them on their proposal, we understand where they are coming from, but they make the decision, understanding what they want for their community and the grants will actually meet their priorities,” says Frances Namoumou.

This week in Nadi, PIFA4CJ is enabling a new wave of learning as women’s rights and feminist movement, broader civil society including faith-based and traditional structures in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu gather together on their mat, learning and reflecting on their experiences with grantmaking to determine how between April 2023 and December 2024, more than AUD1million reaches women of all diversities, young women, women with disabilities and gender non-conforming communities leading climate action to organise around key local, national and regional advocacy moments, to innovate, prepare and to respond to what is now a daily climate crisis.  

To find out more about PIFA4CJ visit: https://www.facebook.com/PIFA4CJ or email pacfem4climatejustice@gmail.com