Ms Palanitina Tupuimatagi Toelupe

Palanitina was the Director General of Health (DGoH) and Chief Executive Officer of the Samoa Ministry of Health (CEO-MOH) between February 2005 and February 2014. She led the government’s legislative and structural health reform which saw the Samoa MOH as the authority and regulator of health in Samoa in 2006. She attended all the WHO Western Pacific Regional (WPRO) meetings and World Health Assemblies (WHA) from 2005 to 2013. She was also a member of a few WHO Expert Committees. She actively advocated for the WHA to include a side event for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). She participated in the High-level preparatory SIDS meeting on NCDs in Barbados before the actual SIDS meeting in Samoa in 2014. A return to the public health sector as Head of the National Health Service (NHS) happened in May 2016 and ended in 2019.

A New Zealand trained General and Obstetric Registered Nurse and graduate of the Victoria College, in Melbourne and the University of New England (UNE) Brisbane Australia for her Diploma credentials; the Samoa National University (NUS) for her first degree and the University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia for her Master’s degree. She attended the John F. Kennedy School of Governance, Harvard University USA Certificate program, on Leaders in Development: Managing Political and Economic Changes plus short term certificate training to sustain learning in relevant fields.

She now works as a National Consultant in the private sector, a Technical Advisor (TA) for the Samoa Society of Private Nurses and Midwives (SPNM) plus the Samoa National Council of Women (SNCW). Both are nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) which champion the empowerment of women through gender equality and social inclusion (GESI). Palanitina is actively engaged at village and district level work on health promotion for healthy living and mental health through the protection of women and girls from Gender Based Violence (GBV) to end violence against women and girls (EVAWG). She has done consultancies for the different UN agencies in collaboration with the health sector, water and sanitation sector, social and community sector, law and justice sector in Samoa.