This evidence brief from WaterAid Australia and the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney sets out what Pacific feminist, disability and climate advocates see as the most urgent priorities at the intersection of gender justice, climate change and water security. Drawing on interviews with advocates from Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Papua New Guinea and a survey of 38 practitioners across 24 Pacific countries and territories, it was guided by an advisory group of Pacific women leaders and is designed to support the commitments to gender-responsive climate justice in the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women Outcome Statement (2024).

The brief identifies women's exclusion from decision-making as the root cause of gendered climate and water impacts, and disability equity as the most under-recognised issue. It examines the gap between what advocates consider most urgent and what is politically realistic, finds that vulnerability framings are widely used but seen as least effective, and maps where advocates want to build influence with local and national governments, donors, customary leaders and the private sector. A five-point call to action, refined with Pacific advocates at Women Deliver 2026 in Melbourne, calls for water security to be embedded in gender and climate action, equal decision-making power for women, women with disabilities and gender-diverse people, long-term funding for grassroots movements, strengths-based narratives, and action on structural drivers of inequality. Advocates' own accounts, including from Kiribati, Vanuatu and Samoa, illustrate each finding.