Since 2008, the Pacific Leadership Program (PLP) has been strengthening regional relationships and building leadership capacity, achieved by close collaborations between the South Pacific Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers Alliance (SPCNMOA), the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development at University of Technology Sydney (WHO CCNMH UTS), senior nurses and midwives in Pacific countries, and other partners.
Historically funded through DFAT's Australian Awards Fellowship (AAF) program, the Program was developed for regional skills development. 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.
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.
A database for all PLPs and Case Studies of works done by Fellows over the years can be accessed on WHO CCNMH UTS' Pacific Leadership Program site.
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 involvedd 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. The program brief can be found here.
Latest Research with PLP fellows: Enablers and inhibitors of nursing and midwifery leadership in Pacific Island collectivist cultures (Rumsey et al., 2025)