She is a diminutive woman who grew up during the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland and has spent much of her life working for peace. He is a towering former naval officer and organisational consultant, awash with stories of drug smugglers and corporate intrigue.

Together, Rebecca Spence and Philip Harrell are an unlikely yet dynamic duo. Their teachings about leadership are reverberating throughout the Indo-Pacific courtesy of the Pacific Week of Agriculture, John Allwright Fellowship and now the Gender Equity in Agriculture Research for Development (GEAReD) program.

Here, Rebecca and Philip describe their polished double-act - itself a model for working relationships that embody gender equality and respect.

Rebecca: I only met Phil three years ago, to deliver leadership training for John Allwright Fellows, and now we're working together with the Meryl Williams Fellows taking part in GEAReD. He's a big man with a big personality and could be quite intimidating, but he's not because of the way he presents himself and the subject matter. He knows a lot about leadership and management and project management, but is not at all boastful. He likes having fun with people and is someone the participants can relate to.

We have complementary facilitation styles. We are both very open and adaptable. We have complete and utter trust in one another. When we're delivering training together, we have a thing whereby if I need to say something, I step forward, and that's the signal. And if he wants to say something, he steps forward. We don't need to say anything. It's really fluid.

The idea of having an all-female team to teach emerging female leaders has been argued many times. The women that we work with - drawn from agricultural institutes, universities and government departments - are dealing with all kinds of inequity in terms of participation and access to resources and/or promotion. Some live in societies in which they are not permitted to contribute to discussions until they reach a certain age, where the norms of what women can and can't do are still very rigid. Our philosophy is always to be sensitive to their cultures, recognising that western methods and ideas, especially around gender, are not always well received if delivered too assertively.

Some of the fellows' stories are heart-breaking, but they haven't always considered the role of gender before. I think it's very powerful for them to hear from Philip about unconscious bias and how the workplace and its structures have continued to privilege men over women. It empowers them. They learn that cultures are not static, that they can change.

When Philip and I are facilitating, we are also teaching facilitation; how the women can return to their communities and run the exercises with men. And that's exactly what they are doing. They're running their own workshops, designing projects within their communities and seizing opportunities. The fellowship gives them confidence, authority and permission, and we're already seeing them developing in unexpected ways. The partnership between Philip and I illustrates how working relationships between men and women can be different.

The Meryl Williams Fellows are on the cusp of tremendous changes in terms of food security and climate stressors and now the COVID-19 pandemic. But they are already working in ways that bring men and women together to co-create powerful and effective solutions.

Philip: Our leadership courses focus on trust. Rebecca and I share a depth of experience and a similar sense of humour, and our fellows get on board with that; it relaxes them and helps them to develop their own strategies. Rebecca laughs at my jokes, even the bad ones!

I'm a bit more outgoing and business focused, and have a military background, while Rebecca has a Peace Studies background. My corporate way of thinking bounces very well off her more socially aware work. At the same time, there are multiple places where our work experience has intersected. Rebecca is a fantastic inspiration.

We respect and understand each other's backgrounds and tend to give each issue a different take. I joke with Rebecca that I will get myself into a corner and she will come and save me. Of course, it works both ways.

We watch each other's body language constantly and our little dance [of stepping forward to take the lead on a discussion] is well practised. Our facilitation is not about competition; it's about achieving results.

Every workplace has men and women, so male and female perspectives are vital to the GEAReD program. I have delivered leadership training for a long time and worked with disadvantaged women, women in corporate roles, and men. I understand the issues. It's important to recognise that you cannot create equity with only women; men also need to be the champions. Sometimes my male perspective really adds value; at other times it is appropriate that I am not in the room, that it's a female-only session. By and large, the male perspective helps achieve a balance.

The other important thing is that not all mentors of the Meryl Williams Fellows are female. Many are men, because the only people in very senior positions, who can support the emerging female leaders in their countries, are men. Getting the men onside with what we are trying to achieve is vital. Many of the countries that the fellows come from are still highly patriarchal. And in these countries, sometimes it can be more effective for a man to address this imbalance with other men in the first instance.

What the fellows see with Rebecca and I is total equality. We give them stories based on our personal experiences, to help where they might have difficulties, and in me they see a male champion for equity. We teach them that more equitable and socially inclusive working relationships result in better decision-making, because it gives a more diverse way of dealing with issues. Mind you, I am always learning from the fellows, too, about other ways that problems might be addressed, how we can make society more equitable. And Rebecca and I learn from each other every single time we facilitate discussions together. We're a great team.

During the early days of her fisheries research career, in the mid-1970s, Dr Meryl Williams often felt like the proverbial fish out of water.

"At the very start, I was usually the only female scientist in the room," Meryl says. "There were still 'girly' calendars in the lab and tearoom, and I remember male scientists protesting to the union when our only female technician was assigned to join a week-long field trip.

"I was a pioneer in my field, but I played it down. I wanted to be known for the quality of my work and leadership, not just because I was a woman. However, I very soon began to question how the system worked when it came to gender."

Over the next 40 years Meryl would lead research and development agencies at the national, regional and global level. After serving as director of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and as executive director of Australia's Bureau of Rural Sciences, she began working globally as director general of the WorldFish Centre, one of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres.

Along the way, Meryl became an advocate for the many inspiring and industrious women she met, most of them invisible to the industries that depended upon them. First came her role as chair of the Advisory Board of the CGIAR Gender and Diversity Program, then Meryl and a small, dedicated group began organising global symposia dedicated to discussing women and gender in fisheries and aquaculture under the auspices of the Asian Fisheries Society (AFS). This eventually led to the creation of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of AFS.

That she developed into a champion for women, determined to advance research and practice in gender equality, is largely thanks to one man.

"It was my colleague, the late Dr Mudnakudu Channabasappa Nandeesha (an innovative Indian aquaculture researcher, development worker and educator, and a founding member of the not-for-profit Aquaculture without Frontiers), who persuaded me by his enthusiasm to devote progressively more of my time to redressing gender inequality in the fisheries, aquaculture and food value chains," Meryl says. "He prompted me to use my position to promote the issues, invited me to speak at conferences, and suggested that we invite AFS to host the symposia, which became a regular feature. Since then, a large part of my work has sought to highlight the contributions of women to fisheries and aquaculture, and to try to persuade agencies to give voice to those women who can't speak up."

In the case of aquaculture, those contributions are immeasurable. The globe's extensive aquaculture operations rely on the efforts of millions of women in farming and processing, but they are largely absent from management. Especially in SouthEast Asia, Africa and Latin America, female workers and small-scale business owners are often poorly paid and exploited. They continue to be "caught in the crosshairs" of economics, with limited access to resources (like training, capital and credit), technology and markets.

"The farming opportunities and benefits for women have not kept pace with the booming growth of aquaculture," Meryl says. "Many are falling behind as enterprises intensify and scale up production. Where women are welcome is as cheap labour in processing factories."

However, Meryl believes that the continued sustainability of aquaculture, and its potential to improve food security and nutrition in some of the world's poorest nations, depends on encouraging more women to contribute to research and production.

"Fisheries and aquaculture are very dynamic sectors, and gender equity is at the core of change," she says. "I see it as my responsibility now to help other women succeed by drawing the attention of policy and decision-makers to their important contributions."

It's a far cry from Meryl's own experience. "People like me who become scientists and research scientists, in the main, come from fairly privileged backgrounds," she says. "In addition, I came to my international leadership positions in fisheries and aquaculture at a senior level, and position trumps gender. Education and experience also helped. But what is most important to me is not my own progress but the progress of the people I work with and for."

Meryl says she has learnt that if gender equality is to be achieved in any sphere of agriculture then it must engage men - and multiple institutions - because it's not merely a production issue but a value chain and social justice issue. And this human dimension is central to sustainability.

"Everyone stands to benefit from the transformation that occurs in a progressive environment that breaks down the political and economic barriers to achieving gender equality," she says. "Studies continually show that when women receive adequate income and support they are more likely to use it for the good of their family and community - and this is a lesson not only for developing nations."

As for the Meryl Williams Fellowship, its namesake is excited by the enthusiasm and creativity of the next generation coming forward. "For this group of women, a lot of the issues are out on the table; we no longer need to make a case for why gender equality matters," she says. "We have goals and targets, and more voices supporting change.

"The fellowships give women the opportunity to develop leadership skills that will enable them not only to improve their economies, but also their communities and institutions. For they will go on to become leaders - in institutions that create cultures and deliver on their missions - and the mentoring they receive throughout the GEAReD program will enhance the influence they can have.

"Gender equality is not just about projects, which undoubtedly help in practical ways; it's also about policies and social change that ensure that such projects are taken up and make a difference to peoples' lives."

Click here to learn more about the Meryl Williams Fellowship.