Anna Naupa has more than 10 years’ experience in Vanuatu and across the Pacific region as a governance and land specialist, and as a communications for development and gender equality advocate. She currently advises Pacific Islands Forum member states on their partnership negotiations to advance regional positions on climate change, maritime affairs, trade and the post-2015 development agenda. She is also leading analysis of the governance of the Pacific region’s intergovernmental organisations to establish how the region’s independent states might develop more coherent regional policies.
In previous roles, she has helped bring gender to the forefront of land issues in Vanuatu. She introduced gender into the 2006 Vanuatu National Land Summit dialogue, and has been involved with a number of publications on land tenure and gender and has helped implement a range of public sector and civil society programs. From 2009-2013, she was one of only three women appointed to the high-level Vanuatu Land Governance Committee. In 2012, she represented the Pacific region on a UN Women/OCHR Expert Group on women’s rights to land and productive resources. In 2013, Anna served as the Gender Specialist to the Vanuatu Government’s High-Level Taskforce on Land Law Reform which introduced the formalised social inclusion of women in land management practices. She holds a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Master of Geography from the University of Hawai’i.
