Yolande Geraldine Paul is the Minister of Primary Industries and Marine Resources for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

(PNG).

Early life

Paul grew up in what was then the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea. During the

Bougainville conflict The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainvill ...

, when the province tried to break away from PNG, she moved first to the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

to continue her education, then to mainland Papua New Guinea and then to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Upon returning to PNG, Paul worked with the Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee (FSVAC) until 2011 addressing gender-based violence, together with locally based civil society organizations (CSOs) around the country.

Return to Bougainville

In 2011 Paul returned to the, by then, Autonomous Region of Bougainville. She became well-known in Bougainville for her work on a World Bank-funded project to reinvigorate the cocoa industry. This saw more than three million cocoa trees replanted or rejuvenated. Her popularity as a result of the cocoa project enabled her to easily win the Central Region Women's seat in the September

2020 Bougainvillean general election The 2020 presidential and parliamentary election was held in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville between 12 August and 1 September 2020. 440 candidates were contesting the 40 seats in the Bougainville House of Representatives, including 25 co ...

Ishmael Toroama Ishmael Toroama (born 28 February 1969) is a Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Bougainvillean politician who was elected President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in 2020 Bougainville Presidential Election, 2020. He is a former commander ...

, who was elected president at the same time, then appointed her as Minister of Primary Industries. She was one of two women to be appointed to the 15-person cabinet, the other being

Theonila Roka Matbob Theonila Roka Matbob (born 1990) is a Bougainvillian politician and Cabinet Minister. She was the second woman in Bougainville to win an open electorate seat in the Bougainville House of Representatives. Roka Matbob is from Ioro in Central Boug ...

, who was made Minister of Education. Paul's husband, Morris Opeti, was also elected to the parliament. He had become famous as a result of his victory in 2015 in a television singing contest, called ''Vocal Fusion''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Yolande Geraldine Members of the Bougainville House of Representatives People from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Bougainvillean women in politics Papua New Guinean women in politics Government ministers of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville