Catherina (Cathy) Bolinga

Cathy is from Papua New Guinea (PNG). She is a development practitioner with over twenty years of development experience in the areas of project management and administration. Cathy works directly on grant management, planning, implementation and evaluating a range of social, environmental and economic development initiatives across the Pacific including PNG and Aotearoa,New Zealand. She has worked with various government programmes including USAID, Australia & New Zealand aid programmes and NGOs including Caritas and Pacific Cooperation Foundation. Prior to joining CI, Cathy worked as a senior community and development grants advisor for Auckland local government.

Cathy is CI’s regional project manager for Pacific Inclusive Conservation Initiative and New Zealand Government Manaaki project for Fiji and Cooks Islands. Cathy previously worked in CI’s operations division as the senior grants and contracts coordinator for CI Aotearoa and the Pacific Islands programmes, supporting projects in the Cook Islands, PNG, Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Cathy is also interested in Indigenous perspectives to development and philanthropic giving in Melanesia. She is researching this interest through a doctoral programme at University of Auckland.