Testimonials
Ms. Elizabeth Iro, Chief Nursing Officer
Chief of Nursing, World Health Organisation – Current
Former Secretary of Health, Chief Nursing Officer and Acting Director of Hospital Health Services, Cook Islands
I find Ireen very articulate. She provides a clear vision and understanding of the island nations’ health planning requirements, drives organisational change and improvement, and inspires a sense of shared purpose and direction for long-term gains. She understands the whole of the government agenda, the political, social and economic factors that affect the organization. She is well aware of the regional development needs and considers emerging trends and multiple perspectives when assessing impact, long-term opportunities and viable solutions.
Ireen’s advanced technical expertise is also shown in her ability to cost programmes of development and source further technical support efficiently. She confidently drives and steers the change agenda, and this is what we need to see from our health planners and policy makers like Ireen in the Pacific.
Ireen is able to drive a culture of collaboration and participation. She recognises the importance of meaningful consultation, stakeholder engagement and fostering teamwork. She has managed many complex, inter-related country and regional development projects and programmes, sometimes for up to ten Pacific Islands in total. All these countries have diverse needs and it takes demonstrated strategic expertise and understanding to be able to do this work in the Pacific.
Hon. Tuitama Dr Leao Talalelei Tuitama (Western Samoa)
Minister for Women, Community and Social Development – 2019 to 2021
Minister for Health – 2011 to 2019
In order for anyone to contribute to national or regional development plans, a thorough knowledge of the health sector and the demanding international regulations and goals is important. This knowledge then helps us to revise and review our policies in health at national and regional level commitments and Ireen’s input has been highly valuable as she understands health services from a whole of development perspective. She has an eye for detailed working and policy development knowledge of cross cutting themes, dovetailing approaches, instilling long term value-add, creating mutual benefits, enhancing regional capability and capacity of workforce within education and other sectors, and implementing programmes with clear thought of achieving long term positive outcomes.
The Samoa Institutional Linkage Programme (ILP) gained its strength when Ireen took over the design, implementation and stakeholder management of this bilateral programme. The capacity building elements of the Programme were further enhanced because of the strong clinical service strengthening component to strengthen the workforce capability and capacity. Ireen’s ability to understand the overall need of our complex and unique health sector and the population was crucial. This is evident in the sustainable long-term planning that she did in the areas of primary health care and adaptation of the Pen Fa’a model of care, intensive care unit, laboratory, mental health, antimicrobial resistance guideline, urology, child and maternal health, cardiac surgery, national nursing and midwifery speciality, evaluation of Samoa’s tertiary care referral scheme, eye care, radiology, palliative care, disaster risk reduction, and telehealth.
lreen took the lead in many of our national level plans within the ILP and this included the National Eye Care Plan, Development of the Intensive Care Unit and Mental Health Care Unit, National Antimicrobial Resistance Plan, National Resuscitation Plan, Urology Services, Child Health Workforce Plan and Telehealth. Her input was very valuable in our national health sector corporate plans and workforce plans.
Often at times lreen led many country level development programmes that were funded by donor agencies. She is well appreciated at the regional level of work too. We are often marvelled by her ability to balance the needs of donor agencies, institutions, agencies, and wider actors in development. Any policy is productive if it produces the intended outcomes and to manage this fragile act between many parties requires persistence, commitment and an in-depth country, regional and donor expertise that Ireen has.
Hon. Rosy Akbar (Fiji)
Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation – Current
Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts – 2018 to August 2021
Minister for Health and Medical Services – 2016
Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation – 2014
Ireen has worked with us in her capacity as a regional consultant, planner and programme activity lead while working for various organisations and within regional level roles. I found Ireen to be very knowledgeable and articulate in regional level activities where she identified many collaborative approaches to workforce development and opportunities to partner with other countries to improve health care and services. These were for the current investment priority areas in Fiji and sector investments within the Pacific. It also included research opportunities from a health and social sector perspective, providing advice and working with our national and regional policy and health implementation work, and providing directions on how the future of the regional workforce in areas of reproductive, maternal and child health could be improved.
Ireen has been part of many regional level discussions that call for continued improvement and service provisions. She has an up-to-date knowledge in health trends and development practices and my team often benefited from this level of advice.
Fiji is a provider for many regional development works. We have taken advanced leadership roles in climate change and one of our major focuses has been on the impact of climate change on our vulnerable populations. Our regional collaborative efforts therefore expand the health sector and we have committed ourselves to achieving the wider goals of the Sustainable Development era and beyond. Ireen has been influential in the regional dialogues, evaluations, regional workforce plans, high-level outcomes framework, and others that promote positive health outcomes for the people of the Pacific. These dialogues also include the disaster risk reduction work and our efforts in strengthening the workforce that are resilient and prepared to face the impacts of climate change. Ireen has been a big part of this work in Fiji and the Pacific and contributed towards sustainable solutions for growing the future workforce, equitable distribution of workforce, humanitarian support, and the need for regionalism when standardising practices for the health workforce.
Ireen has taken reasonable care in how she advocates for health service development in Fiji and the Pacific and has an excellent ability to influence others. She holds immense knowledge about our health system, its strength and its ability to do more.
As a development specialist Ireen has confidently participated and provided valuable advice for current and future business development, policy reviews, guidelines development, implementation and monitoring for successful outcomes at strategic, policy planning and delivery levels. We benefited from her immense expertise in the New Zealand health and other sector support systems as it has essentially strengthened our health system in Fiji and the region.