Pacific leaders meeting on the sidelines of the UNGA for a PRF Partners Roundtable Talanoa. 23 September 2025 Photo: Supplied / Finau Soqo
Pacific leaders have met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to launch a memorandum for investors to support the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF).
The PRF is the first Pacific-led, owned, and managed regional climate financing facility for communities.
The Treaty has just been signed at the 54th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders summit in Honiara.
Ireland has since announced its PRF contribution of €3 million ahead of the PRF talanoa in New York, and Portugal pledged €1m.
The UNGA president Annalena Baerbock further affirmed Germany's contribution of €5m, pledged at COP29, bringing total pledges made to US$166m.
When it comes to Pacific contributions, Nauru has deposited its instrument of ratification making it the second country to do so after Tonga as the PRF host, with entry into force ear-marked for early 2026.
PRF general manager Finau Soqo told RNZ Pacific that the next is step is to ratify the treaty and complete the programming co-design consultation ahead of its proposed launch in Palau next year.
Beijing declaration
The United Nations has just marked the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration.
Propped up at the fourth world conference on women in 1995, the Beijing declaration calls for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls globally.
The President of the Marshall Islands told the UN High-Level Meeting on the 30th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women that gender equality advancements across the Pacific are not happening fast enough.
Hilda Heine told leaders more needs to be done.
The President of the Marshall Islands Hilda Heine told the UN High-Level Meeting on the 30th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women that gender equality advancements across the Pacific are not happening fast enough. Photo: Office of the President, Republic of Marshall Islands Facebook
"We are not moving fast enough with island-tailored strategies in a nation where one out of two women experience violence, and in a Pacific Island region with the lowest rate of women in elected government In the world, core efforts need to be strengthened," she said.
She said women and girls' health is a "great priority" and launching mass cervical cancer screening and prevention is a must.
"The nuclear legacy has left behind cancers, reproductive health struggles and the unseen weight of caregiving."
Kiribati's Minister for Women called gender equality a core Pacific value.
Ruth Cross Kwansing said Kiribati supports the Beijing Declaration, and collaboration is needed to achieve global gender equality.
"As one blue Pacific continent we stand united in strength and diversity, championing gender equality and social inclusion as core values of our shared identity.
"We know that Pacific women are not just shaping change. We are delivering it."
She is one of five women parliamentarians in Kiribati, and said women are essential to the region's growth.
"I stand here as one of two women ministers out of five women MPs to acknowledge that 10 per cent is progress.
"All gains are a testament to the determination of Pacific women and a changing narrative that recognizes women not just as contributors, but as key to the Pacific's evolution and progress."
