Freeskools & Feminist training and development

DIVA has over the years carried out work to nurture the minds, souls and bodies of ourselves and others as feminist and W/HRD activists and advocates. We discuss accountability, strategy, inspiration, feminist co-learning, and exchange, to check in on one’s own personal politics, and operate on the principle of holding space for each other, deepen individual and shared understanding of interlinkaged issues of gender, social, economic, ecological and climate injustices, praxis, structural and societal norms of north and south politics, feminist organising, allies and accomplice understanding.

All of the work of DIVA for Equality is based on rich, feminist knowledge-generation and sharing. DIVA for Equality has longstanding, deep networks across Fiji and the Pacific, working widely in urban poor, rural and maritime areas of Fiji, across all four divisions and 13 of the 15 Provinces of Fiji, and with women-led networks and groups across 14 of the 22 Pacific small island states and territories over 10 years. The organisation has active networks and direct contact with grassroots women representatives in almost every area of Fiji, except Rotuma and Rabi to date. Our analysis and action comes from this constituency base. 

Nationally, our networks are growing rapidly as more grassroots activists and women-led groups join the eight DIVA BTQ+ Hubs that were established in 2012, Women Defend Commons Network since 2014, Qaqa Fiji Young Grassroots Women’s Network in 2019, and our other networks and affiliate groups including feminist, youth-led, faith-based, i Taukei and Fiji Indian women-led local groups, market vendor associations, informal settlement and village groups, women with disability led groups, HIV positive and SRHR focused groups, LGBTQI activists and groups, environmental, climate change activists and more. 

We are also integrating women’s leadership and gender responsive input into national climate change policies with multiple processes from 2015 including input into development of the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan and integration into Fiji Low Emissions Development Strategy, Fiji National Adaptation Plan, Fiji National Climate Change Policy, Fiji NDC Implementation Roadmap, connecting to the UNFCCC Lima Extended Work Programme on Gender, and more. We are also active in spaces related to sustainable development/SDGs including UNESCAP APFSD, and others. DIVA for Equality Executive Director Noelene Nabulivou was also in 2022 a Co-Chair of the CSW66 Expert Group on Gender, Climate Change and Disaster Risk and Response leading to the UN Secretary General’s report that guided the CSW66 Agreed Outcomes negotiations. 

We are facilitating four wellknown regional feminist, human rights and development justice framed CSO networks that have advanced a number of areas for Pacific women – the Pacific Feminist Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Coalition, Pacific Partnerships on Gender, Climate Change and Sustainable Development (PPGCCSD) into the SIDS S.A.M.O.A PATHWAY/Conference, Pacific Feminist CSW Informal Network and Pacific Feminist Community of Practice. 

We are strongly affiliated and actively engage in global feminist and progressive social movements through the Pacific Feminist Forum, Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, PANG, DAWN, RESURJ, WEDO, WECF, WECAN, IWHC, the Women’s Major Group on Sustainable development at the UN, Women and Gender Constituency to the UNFCCC, Feminist Alliance for Rights, Global Gender and Trade Coalition with Regions Refocus, AWID, Equidad Generos,  and many others. We are engaged in ways to bring greater collective power to local-global feminist activist-led autonomous social movements. 

As of 2020 through to 2025, DIVA for Equality is now a global Co-lead of the Gender Equality Forum (GEF) Action Coalition on Feminist Action for Climate Justice which entails engagement with Government, UN agencies and other institutions as well as with civil society groups. 

We are working on 8 key areas for the coming 5 years, 4 global and 4 regional:

i) We want to ensure human rights and gender justice, loss and damage and the 1.5 trajectory are uppermost in our demands.

ii) We want to support and help fund Pacific SIDS autonomous organising on climate justice.

iii) We will collaborate more with South-south organising groups, and

iv) ensure increased direct channels of finance for gender-just climate solutions focusing on grassroots, local and indigenous women and girls in the Majority South and South in the North.

v) We want to bring together climate and biodiversity protection work to stop the extinction of over 200 species per day.

vi) We are investing in knowledge hubs and digital platforms focusing on grassroots and indigenous women and girls;

vii) Leveraging, strengthening and scaling up the ability of women and girls to achieve resource independence and influence climate and environment policy planning at all levels; and

viii) increasing financial and technical support for data production on gender-environment nexus and for their use for informing gender-responsive policies, strategies and advocacy actions, focusing on all regions.  

There are many further sets of feminist knowledge-sharing and transfer work on which we work, and our services, advocacy, action and movement-building arise from this ‘thinking about thinking’ and pedagogies of equity, liberation and justice. Onward.

Fiji Feminist Fiji Feminist Knowledge and Skillsharing Camp

Pacific Feminist Forum

The Space

The 13th Triennial Conference for Pacific Women