The Department of Women's Affairs is the official body of the Vanuatu government.

DWA was established in 1980, by the former Prime Minister the late Honorable Walter Lini and former Minister Sethy Regenvanu. Initially, our focus was to monitor the government’s decisions on issues concerning women and similarly advocate for women to have improved access to justice, health services and literacy. The office was established under the name of the Department of Social Welfare and at that time was joint ventured with the Vanuatu Women’s Centre.

In 1995, the Republic of Vanuatu ratified The Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Today, DWA advocates for CEDAW implementation in political action, policy development and custom traditions through:

• promoting economic empowerment

• eliminating gender-based violence

• working toward greater diversity in national, provincial and local governance

• promoting and protecting the rights of people with disabilities

• promoting and protecting the rights of children.