Young Pacific Leaders Women's Sports Programme

Women in Sport Aotearoa Ngā Wāhine Hākinakina o Aotearoa and Pasifika Sisters in Sport are excited to announce that our Young Pacific Leaders Women’s Sports Programme is back for 2025. Based on the Global Sport Mentoring programme, this leadership programme aims to empower emerging female leaders from the Pacific Island nations through mentorship and cultural exchange. The programme is made possible through investment and partnership with the US State Department.

Criteria

This programme is developed to support emerging Young Pacific Women leaders in sport, physical activity, dance, and traditional physical activities from the Cook lslands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall lslands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon lslands, Tahiti/French Polynesia, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna.

You will be involved in either sport, physical activity, dance, or traditional physical activities in one of the Pacific nations listed above as a volunteer or paid employer.

Participants must be between 20 - 40 years of age.

Participants should demonstrate a passion for supporting women and girls, a desire to contribute to systemic change and positive outcomes, and have at least 5 years of experience working or volunteering in this space.

A support letter will be provided to successful applicants to accompany any visa applications.

Overview

The 2025 programme will run from Monday 10 March - Saturday 29 March 2025 (with travel from Saturday 8 March through to Sunday 30 March). It is a three-week programme based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, New Zealand. The first week's Residential programme focuses on leadership development. During the following two weeks, each participant will be mentored and engage in a ‘cultural exchange’ with a host organisation by immersing themselves in their workplace culture and programmes. Throughout the three weeks, the participant will create a project to implement in their home country, with a contestable seed fund available from WISPA. Before returning home, all participants will spend a final three days together, sharing their learnings and action plans.

Programme Overview - (Excludes Travel Dates)

Inclusions

The programme will cover participant costs relating to travel, accommodation, airport transfers and meals over the three weeks (includes catering during the three week Residential programme).

Please note: Participant's salaries are not covered as part of the programme.

Contestable Seed Grant Fund

Successful candidates will have the opportunity to apply for a contestable grant to ‘seed’ fund projects to advance outcomes for women or girls in sport/physical activity - a total of $20,000 across the 14 participants once the Residential programme is completed.

Applications will need to be submitted via the relevant online form, explaining the target audience of the project, information about the implementation of the project, who will be assisting with implementation and how it will be evaluated for effectiveness. In addition, a project budget and a supporting letter from someone within the sport/organisation will need to be submitted.

Grant applications will then be assessed and awarded based on potential impact and quality of the submissions.

Please note: Some projects may be declined if there is not enough evidence of impact, or part funded only. For those who are successful, a grant contract will then be created, and the agreed amount deposited towards the successful candidate.

Alumni of the Young Pacific Leaders Women’s Sports Programme will also have access to apply for the Young Pacific Leaders Small Grants Programme.

For more information on this grant, please visit: culturalvistas.org/our-programs/seed-grants/young-pacific-leaders-small-grants-program#smallgrants.

Information talanoa (online)

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting two online information talanoa sessions on 30 October and 11 November (7.30pm NZ time) to provide participants with more insight into the Pacific Women’s Leadership Programme. Please register your name and email address here to receive the meeting link. 

These sessions will allow you to learn more about the programme and ask any questions you may have. Whether you're interested in the application process, the project components, or the overall goals of the programme, we encourage you to join us.

Please register your interest to attend by clicking here.

Once you register, we will send you a confirmation email with the link to join the meetings and additional details. 

Applications are now closed for the 2025 programme. 

A special thank you to the US Department of State for funding this programme.