With Australian support, seven women leaders have returned to Honiara empowered with new skills and valuable connections after completing a five-day training held in Port Moresby, focused on increasing women’s representation on State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) boards.
The Australian High Commission in Honiara hosted a networking breakfast event to celebrate this milestone and provide an opportunity for the women leaders to discuss their key take aways from the training and career ambitions with stakeholders.
Australian Deputy High Commissioner, Andrew Schloeffel, said it was inspiring to hear the positive experiences from the participants of the pilot Directors Program cohort and encouraged Boards to increase the representation of women.
“Having women on Boards is not only the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing to do. Increasing the diversity of boards leads to more inclusive leadership and in turn better outcomes.” Mr. Schloeffel said.
“This is particularly important for State-Owned Enterprises as they are at the centre of the delivery of essential services in Solomon Islands – energy, transport, telecommunications, water supply and sanitation – and as such key to human and economic development.”
Rose Martin, speaking on behalf of the participants thanked Australia for supporting this training. “We are grateful to Australia for this opportunity”, Ms Martin said. “The course deepened our understanding of good governance and the responsibilities of board directors. We are ready. Be prepared to receive our application to sit on your Board. We are prepared to serve”.
Australia is supporting the Solomon Islands’ Government’s commitment to increase the participation of women on State-Owned-Enterprises Boards to 20 per cent.
