1. Mereseini Rakuita Vuniwaqa was born on 18 June 1974 and is a Fijian politician, who served as the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation from 2016 until her resignation from the Fiji First Party in 2021.
16 Facts About Mereseini Vuniwaqa
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Mereseini Vuniwaqa is the first Fijian woman appointed as chair of the Telecommunications Authority of Fiji in 2008, Acting Permanent Secretary for Justice and Anti-corruption in 2012 and Acting Supervisor of elections and served as a State Solicitor for the Office of the Attorney General.
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In 2021, Mereseini Vuniwaqa was one of the top candidates shortlisted to succeed Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as the executive director of the UN Women, alongside Kang Kyung-wha of South Korea, Sima Sami Bahous of Jordan, Anita Bhatia of India and Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka, the post eventually went to Bahous.
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Mereseini Vuniwaqa chaired, the Asia-Pacific 8th intergovernmental and regional forum on Sustainable Development, organized by UNESCAP in March 2021 under the theme "Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia and the Pacific" which included virtual participation of over 1,000 senior government officials and stakeholders.
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Mereseini Vuniwaqa attended Savusavu District School and Sigatoka Methodist High School.
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Mereseini Vuniwaqa graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Laws and holds a postgraduate diploma in Legal Practice from the Australian National University.
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Mereseini Vuniwaqa was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Barrister the Australian Capital Territory in 1997 and Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of Fiji and Commissioner for Oaths of the High Court of Fiji in 1998.
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Mereseini Vuniwaqa has served between 2008 and 2013 as the Chairperson of Telecommunications Authority of Fiji, National Anti-Money Laundering Council and National Working Group on Copyright.
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In 2014, Mereseini Vuniwaqa entered Fijian politics as a candidate for the Fiji First and was elected first to the Parliament in the 2014 election.
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Mereseini Vuniwaqa was re-elected to the Parliament in the 2018 election.
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In September 2014, Mereseini Vuniwaqa was appointed to Cabinet by the Prime Minister as the Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources, becoming the first Fijian woman appointed to the position.
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In 2015, Mereseini Vuniwaqa facilitated and received Cabinet approval for the upgrade of the Fiji Geodetic Datum to a more current internationally recognized system.
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In March 2018, Mereseini Vuniwaqa launched the development and roll-out of the Service Delivery Protocol to improve referral and coordination of response services for survivors of gender-based violence to ensure GBV survivors' access to more timely and better coordinated quality response services, particularly those living in rural and remote areas.
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In January 2020, Mereseini Vuniwaqa announced that Fiji embark on an historic mission to develop a National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against all Women and Girls, making it the first Pacific Island Country, and one of the only two countries globally along with Australia, to have a whole of government and whole of community, inclusive, evidence-based approach to prevent violence against women and girls.
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In 2021, Mereseini Vuniwaqa sought and received Cabinet approvals for the development of the Fiji Country Gender Assessment - the first in the Pacific as well as a Gender Transformative Institutional Capacity Development initiative.
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On 6 August 2021, Mereseini Vuniwaqa resigned from her party Fiji First citing "personal reasons and new opportunities".