Adi Tafuna’i

Adimaimalaga “Adi” Tafuna’i is the co-founder and executive director of Women in Business Development, Inc., an organization dedicated to economically empowering rural families agriculturally in Samoa in ways that honor indigenous tradition, using both traditional and modern technology and promoting fair trade.

Ms. Tafuna’i negotiated a contract with The Body Shop to buy coconut oil from Samoa, helped found the Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community and was the Chair of the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organisations from 2005 to 2008. She was instrumental in reviving Samoa’s fine mat weaving and transforming it into an income-generating activity. Regionally, Ms. Tafuna’i was one of the initiators of the Pacific Organic Ethical Trade community, and has assisted other Pacific organizations to become organically certified and negotiated their inclusion into world markets.

She is the recipient of The International Award from the Diller-von Furstenberg Foundation (2015) and a Global Leadership Award for Economic Empowerment from Vital Voices (2012). She was named Member of the Order of Samoa by the Samoan Government in 2014 and currently sits on the Global Agenda Council on New Growth Models for the World Economic Forum. She is also an Emerging Pacific Women Leaders Project mentor and Vital Voices ANNpower mentor.