Janice and Lesley

While on Award, Janice undertook a Bachelor's degree in Business, specialising in International Trade, at Victoria University. Upon completion of her degree, Janice returned to Solomon Islands to work for the World Bank.

Janice has learnt the importance of integrity and transparency when in leadership roles and she would like to take these lessons forward as she supports other women in Solomon Islands. She intends to support rural women in accessing finance, potentially through setting up savings clubs and local enterprises, as well as working on financial awareness initiatives so that women can appreciate the importance of savings.

In the long term, Janice would like to lead in taking on roles that are not traditionally filled by Solomon Islands women. These might include being a trade analyst or supporting the country's trade negotiations at an international level.

Lesley has over 30 years of experience working with Pacific and Australian indigenous and low-income communities through social work and evaluation roles.

Lesley has extensive government and community sector networks in Solomon Islands. In one of her recent roles, she provided long-term action research and evaluation support to an innovative women's economic empowerment program in remote Solomon Islands.

Through these experiences and a Master's of Social Work from the University of Melbourne and a postgraduate diploma in conflict resolution from Macquarie University, Lesley has developed the skills to instigate, design, develop, manage, and monitor and evaluate programs.

Lesley trained as a social worker and has worked in inner city high-rise communities and later in a central Australian indigenous community.