Photo By Seaman Elijah Webb | APIA, Samoa (Oct. 23, 2025) – Participants in the Women, Peace and Security...... read more read more
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APIA, Samoa - Pacific Partnership 2025 hosted a Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) key leadership symposium, Oct. 23-24, bringing together Samoan national leaders and representatives from partner nations including Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and the United States.
This two-day conference focused on incorporating the contributions and specific needs of women into planning for disaster management, improving access to health care, preventing violence against vulnerable populations, and strengthening civil society.
“Pacific Partnership is about preparing in calm to respond together in crisis,” said Capt. Mark Stefanik, mission commander of Pacific Partnership 25. “That spirit of readiness extends beyond disaster response – it includes strengthening the systems that protect and empower every member of society.”
Loau Donina Tili Vaa, Chief Executive Officer of Samoa’s Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, delivered opening remarks on behalf of the Samoan government. She spoke about the country’s progress and ongoing challenges in advancing gender equality.
Vaa noted that while Samoans have seen significant improvements in girls’ performance in secondary education, women’s participation in the workforce remains disproportionately low. Domestic and sexual violence are also persistent concerns.
Addressing the Pacific Partnership nations present at the symposium, Ms. Vaa said, “Your collaboration reaffirms that peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of cooperation. In Samoa, when cyclones strike or disasters unfold, it is the women’s committees and village representatives who mobilize first — assessing needs, coordinating food, and caring for children and elders long before the formal response arrives.”
“WPS ties together all of the Pacific Partnership lines of effort – medical, engineering, disaster management, and host nation outreach and engagement – to ensure that our efforts are having a whole-of-population impact,” said Capt. Laura Gilstrap, Women’s Affairs Advisor for Pacific Partnership 25 and the lead organizer of the event. Pacific Partnership is all about working by, with, and through local partners, and that can only be effective if we’re working with the entire population.”
The WPS framework, established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted Oct. 31, 2000, established the WPS framework, which reaffirms the essential role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, humanitarian response, and post-conflict reconstruction. On Oct. 6, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017, requiring the U.S. Government to integrate women’s participation into its foreign policy, national security, and development efforts in conflict zones. In 2019, the U.S. Government released the U.S. WPS Strategy, making the United States the first country to adopt both a comprehensive law and whole-of-government strategy on WPS.
Pacific Partnership is the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific. The mission fosters multilateral cooperation and strengthens collective capacity to respond to crises while promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region grounded in shared respect and partnership.
For more information about Pacific Partnership visit www.clwp.navy.mil/Pacific-Partnership.
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| Date Taken: | 10.23.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.05.2025 22:55 |
| Story ID: | 550730 |
| Location: | WS |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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