Ruth Maetala

“We are the Pacific, we are sisters, we rise to raise our daughters to love their countries, and strive to thrive.”

Mrs Ruth Maetala is the Founder and Director of Dignity Pasifik, a locally based women-led research firm in the Solomon Islands. As an indigenous social entrepreneur with more than 20 years of development experience, Ruth knows from first-hand experience the frustration of not having sufficient data available to support the implementation of development projects in communities around the country. As a result, Mrs Maetala started her own research consulting business aimed to help close the gender data gaps in the Solomon Islands. 

Closing these gender data gaps is essential for achieving gender-related sustainable development goals (SDG) commitments in Solomon Islands as noted by the United Nation development plan.

Ruth has found through her work that the lack of data restricts, masks, and affects programming in a negative way. Even worse, it perpetuates gender inequality.