Vaine Nooana-Arioka is a Cook Islands economist. She has been Chief Executive of the Bank of the Cook Islands (BCI) since 2008. [1] Under her leadership, BCI launched its internet banking service in 2015. [2] As of 2018 she was one of five women on the board of the Association of Developing Financing Institutions in the Pacific. [3] In 2012 she enabled a new collaboration with the government to encourage sustainable pearl farming in the region. [4] she has also spoken out on the importance of financial institutions in supporting initiatives that enable climate crisis resilience. [5] She has held a variety of advisory and non-executive roles in the region, including for the Cook Islands Business Trade and Investment Board, Cook Islands Women's Counselling Centre, Cook Islands Girl Guides and for the Red Cross in the Cook Islands. [1] In her role at BCI, she has supported the Steering Committee for Gender Equality. [6] She has an MA in Masters in International Economics and Finance from the University of Queensland. [1]
The Cook Islands is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 islands whose total land area is 240 square kilometres (93 sq mi). The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers 1,960,027 square kilometres (756,771 sq mi) of ocean.
The economy of the Cook Islands is based mainly on tourism, with minor exports made up of tropical and citrus fruit. Manufacturing activities are limited to fruit-processing, clothing and handicrafts.
Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems, among other services. Microfinance services are designed to reach excluded customers, usually poorer population segments, possibly socially marginalized, or geographically more isolated, and to help them become self-sufficient. ID Ghana is an example of a microfinance institution.
DBS Bank Limited, often known as DBS, is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the Marina Bay district of Singapore. The bank was previously known as The Development Bank of Singapore Limited, which "DBS" was derived from, before the present abbreviated name was adopted on 21 July 2003 to reflect its role as a global bank. It is one of the "Big Three" banks in Singapore, along with OCBC Bank and the United Overseas Bank (UOB).
Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institution's website. The online banking system will typically connect to or be part of the core banking system operated by a bank to provide customers access to banking services in addition to or in place of traditional branch banking. Online banking significantly reduces the banks' operating cost by reducing reliance on a branch network, and offers greater convenience to some customers by lessening the need to visit a branch bank as well as the convenience of being able to perform banking transactions even when branches are closed. Internet banking provides personal and corporate banking services offering features such as viewing account balances, obtaining statements, checking recent transactions, transferring money between accounts, and making payments.
Edite de Fátima Santos Marreiros Estrela, GCIH is a Portuguese politician of the Socialist Party who has been serving as a member of the Parliament of Portugal since the 2015 elections. She is a currently the parliament's vice president
Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney, New South Wales.
Ngamau Mere Munokoa, also known as "Aunty Mau", is a Cook Islands politician and former Cabinet Minister. She was the third woman ever elected to the Cook Islands Parliament, the second appointed to Cabinet, and the first to hold the post of Cook Islands Deputy Prime Minister. She is a member of the Cook Islands Democratic Party.
Henry Tuakeu Puna is a Cook Islands politician, and the current secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum. He was Prime Minister of the Cook Islands from November 2010 to October 2020. Since 2006 he has been leader of the Cook Islands Party.
Akava'ine is a Cook Islands Māori word which has come, since the 2000s, to refer to transgender people of Māori descent from the Cook Islands.
Margunn Bjørnholt is a Norwegian sociologist and economist. She is a research professor at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) and a professor of sociology at the University of Bergen.
Niki Rattle was Speaker of the Cook Islands Parliament from 22 May 2012 to 15 February 2021.
United Overseas Bank Limited, often known as UOB, is a Singaporean multinational banking corporation headquartered in Singapore, with branches mostly found in most Southeast Asian countries. Founded in 1935 as United Chinese Bank (UCB) by Sarawak businessman Chew Teck Weng, the bank was set up together with a group of Chinese-born businessmen. The bank is the third largest bank in Southeast Asia by total assets.
Climate change and gender is a way to interpret the disparate impacts of climate change on men and women, based on the social construction of gender roles and relations. Climate change increases gender inequality, reduces women's ability to be financially independent, and has an overall negative impact on the social and political rights of women, especially in economies that are heavily based on agriculture. In many cases, gender inequality means that women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. This is due to gender roles, particularly in the developing world, which means that women are often dependent on the natural environment for subsistence and income. By further limiting women's already constrained access to physical, social, political, and fiscal resources, climate change often burdens women more than men and can magnify existing gender inequality.
The Alliance for Financial Inclusion, or AFI, is a policy leadership alliance owned and led by member central banks and financial regulatory institutions with the common objective of advancing financial inclusion at the country, regional and international levels. Its members include roughly 100 institutions, being central banks, financial regulatory institutions, and financial inclusion policymakers from nearly 90 developing and emerging economies.
Mereseini Rakuita Vuniwaqa 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. In November 2021, she was appointed as the Global Chair of the Family Planning 2030.
Vaine Iriano Wichman is a Cook Islands politician and development economist. She is a member of the Cook Islands Party.
Climate change vulnerability is defined as the "propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected" by climate change. It can apply to humans but also to natural systems (ecosystems). Human and ecosystem vulnerability are interdependent. Climate change vulnerability encompasses "a variety of concepts and elements, including sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt". Vulnerability is a component of climate risk. Vulnerability differs within communities and across societies, regions and countries, and can change over time. Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change in 2021.
Chuuk Women's Council is a women's rights organization in Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Founded in 1984, it represents over sixty women's groups spread across the state, and actively campaigns for greater gender equality, as well as running programs that focus on health, education and environmental issues
Ida Liu is a Chinese American banking executive and currently the Global Head of Citi Private Bank, a position which she has held since April 2021. She previously headed Citi Private Bank in North America.