The Pacific Leadership Program (PLP) has historically been funded through DFAT's Australian Awards Fellowship (AAF) program and is developed by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development at University of Technology Sydney (WHO CCNM UTS) in close collaboration with the South Pacific Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers Alliance (SPCNMOA).
Fellows work with a Mentor and member of SPCNMOA who is a leader in a position of influence in their country. This model is designed to promote relevant and sustainable nursing and midwifery activities in the Fellows’ home countries. Since 2009, the PLP has supported over 160 Pacific health leaders with 52 mentors, resulting in 85% career progression among Fellows.
The Program's aim is to strengthen regional relationships and build leadership capacity, achieved by close collaborations between SPCNMOA, WHO CCNM UTS, senior nurses and midwives in Pacific countries, and other partners to develop and provide a regional skills development program. The SPCNMOA identified the following five priority areas around which the program was developed; leadership, policy development and implementation, human resources for health (HRH), regulation and data literacy for decision-making.
Some activity highlights include:
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Project planning, development and implementation
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Data searching and retrieval
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Personal appraisal of leadership development
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Working with international agencies and international policy development
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Leadership in different cultural contexts and negotiating conflict
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Regulation, accreditation and quality education
The 2025 PLP - 26 fellows from 13 Pacific Island Countries and nation states: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
Previous PLPs and Case Studies
Latest Research with PLP fellows: Enablers and inhibitors of nursing and midwifery leadership in Pacific Island collectivist cultures (Rumsey et al., 2025)