Michele Rumsey and Deborah R
Background: Good news stories about effective aid approaches are often buried under piles of reports about challenges, problems, weaknesses and leaders demanding new ways of working. In practice though, hearing that something has worked well and why, can inspire, motivate and policy reforms and improving practices in service delivery.
Conclusions: In the health sector, a well-conceived and coherent program of leadership capacity strengthening for Pacific nurses and midwives has been taking place over recent years. The program was recently identified as a strong approach by Associate Professor Joel Negin. This article reflects on why the approach taken by a team within the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to increase skills and confidence for this group, has been working well.
Recommendations: The article highlights that many factors need to be taken into account and many approaches need to be integrated at multiple levels. It also suggests that in this context, an innovative approach may simply be achieved through applying lessons learned from global and local practice in a steadfast and respectful way.