Case Studies

The Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) is supporting a more gender-inclusive private sector in the Pacific through its Gender Inclusive Private Sector (GIPS) Framework, which provides governments with a comprehensive road map to assess and improve their progress toward creating a gender-inclusive private sector.

Despite growing awareness that promoting women’s economic empowerment makes good business sense, persistent legal, regulatory, and policy barriers prevent women’s full and equal participation in the private sector in the Pacific. Part of the reason for this is that women’s economic empowerment remains a complex concept, and many governments and institutions do not have obvious entry points for reforms to improve it.

In response, PSDI developed the GIPS Framework, providing Pacific governments with a practical checklist to measure progress and identify areas for improvement in the gender inclusivity of their private sectors. The GIPS Framework is structured around the legal and structural barriers that constrain women’s participation and economic advancement in the Pacific private sector. The framework comprises seven dimensions, each with a number of reform entry points for governments to establish a gender-inclusive private sector enabling environment.

The process to develop the framework encompassed an extensive literature review and consultations with stakeholders to assess existing frameworks, determine how they may or may not apply in the Pacific, and ascertain whether data are available to support the measurement of a gender-inclusive enabling environment.

The GIPS Framework was launched in partnership with the Government of Fiji’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, as a side event to the 68th Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in New York. The event attracted more than 60 representatives and featured a panel discussion on how governments can create a more gender-inclusive private sector enabling environment. At the event, Vaela Falefehi Ngai, director of the Women’s Development Division within Solomon Islands’ Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs, called the framework a “huge milestone for the Pacific.”

PSDI has already used the framework to complete assessments of three countries: Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Tonga. PSDI validated the assessment findings through presentations and workshops in each country, engaging a range of government, civil society, and private sector stakeholders. In Solomon Islands, the assessment findings will be submitted to the cabinet for approval in late 2024. If endorsed by the cabinet, PSDI will discuss implementation of the recommendations with the relevant ministries and departments.

Fiji has committed to integrating the GIPS Framework within the government’s approach to gender-responsive planning. The assessment findings and workshop discussions are now guiding the development of Fiji’s first women’s economic empowerment national action plan. PSDI is supporting the national action plan, which aims to foster a more gender-inclusive environment where women can thrive as employees, employers, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

Our commitment is to integrate the framework within a whole-government approach to gender-responsive planning and budgeting.

"This framework will inform the development of Fiji’s upcoming first women’s economic empowerment national action plan," said Minister Lynda Tabuya, Fiji’s Ministry of Women, Children and Social Protection.

PSDI has published the GIPS Framework and country assessments as an interactive website at https://gips.pacificpsdi.org/. Country assessments for Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu will be published in FY2025.

Participants, including Kellie Coombes, acting secretary and chief executive of New Zealand’s Ministry for Women, and Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone, secretary for New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples, at the launch of PSDI’s GIPS Framework. Photo: Anushka Artika, Fiji’s Ministry of Women, Children and Social Protection.