More Pacific spaces coming online as WAVE media Network heads to UN

Members of the Pacific WAVE Network of women in media, information and communications are in New York this week to launch an online information initiative sharing news, presentations and experiences of Pacific delegates with their home communities. The women are covering the 54th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which is being attended this year by Pacific nations including ministers of women from New Zealand, Samoa, and Tuvalu.
Dubbed the Pacific Gender Action Portal (GAP) project, the WAVE media postcards back to Pacific media and women’s networks. The project is aimed at making the most of online spaces to provide an ongoing one-stop archive of Pacific participation to conferences involving commitments to gender equality.
“Behind the GAP project is the very basic idea that sharing our Pacific experiences of gender through the lens of a CSW event empowers everyone involved,” says team leader Lisa Lahari. “It takes Pacific information sharing online to an interactive level in the long term, and has a governance and transparency spinoff. Through the coverage and archiving function of the GAP, Pacific delegates have a permanent online ‘foot print’ of their journey and participation in global events such as this; and anyone online can add their feedback and commentary to the record.”
WAVE coordinator Ulamila Wragg has welcomed support from UNESCO and UNIFEM Pacific as well the Commonwealth Women’s Network for the media initiative.
“Launching an information and news archive like the GAP at a CSW on Beijing +15 is especially symbolic,” she says.
“The story of Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action is the story of women in the media. Pacific women such as Lisa and Sharon Baghwan Rolls were part of the Pacific drafting of the Section J text more than 15 years ago. To have them both in New York at the CSW looking at how far we have come is a Pacific success which Femlink Pacific is evidence of, and which GAP is part of.”
“We are especially happy to be linking with our WAVE Pacific women from the US mainland,” says Wragg.
Samoan activist and blogger Savaliolefilemu (Val) LiHang Jacobo and Tongan film maker and activist Amelia Niumeitolu, as well as Rutgers University MA-student Tara Chetty of Fiji will be helping to generate the copy for the GAP link which will be launched on March 1 New York time and run for two weeks until the CSW 54 officially