PACIFIC ALLIANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY (PAS)

A Pacific "Alliance" of sustainability? What's your understanding of an "alliance"?

Each Pacific Island Country (PIC) has its own sovereign rights to chose its own (environmental/sustainability) legislations, country priorities for environmental/development restoration/protection, etc.

So where does this "alliance" come into this equation?

Can GEF-PAS harmonize all PICs into this one "alliance" or does it have to come from within these PICs? Obviously, and preferably, the latter approach is the better.

However, may be Samoa for example could achieve more sustainability if there was a little more pressure placed on Samoa by other PICs. Collectively, this "alliance" may already be operating throughout the Pacific, but will GEF-PAS tighten and hasten this "alliance"?

For example, the Ministry of Natural resources and Environment (MNRE) is in an excellent position to assist Samoa attain sustainability within the foreseeable future, taking advice from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), our own Strategy for the Development of Samoa (SDS) and other Government Ministries pushing Samoa towards sustainability, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) with its Pacific Plan, as well as SOPAC and many other regional intergovernmental organizations.

OK, so there is a 'national alliance' as well as a 'regional alliance' already in place.

With GEF’s increasing assistance, Samoa can now call-on a wider selection of GEF Implementing Agencies (IAs) to help us design and implement our 10 key priority projects expected to be funded by GEF over the next 5-10 years. IAs like UNDP, FAO, UNEP, ADB, World Bank and others are all now focusing on this new programme called the Pacific Alliance of Sustainability (PAS).

We’ll all learn more about GEF-PAS or G-PAS over the next few months as the GEF Country Support Programme helps steer all sustainability stakeholders and partners ‘in the same direction’, into a tighter 'alliance' with far greater inter-agency and inter-stakeholder cooperation.

Does the latest G-PAS Programme Framework identify this necessity (and identify the difficulties) of strengthening this 'alliance'? See the following posting.

And does the latest G-PAS Communications Annex also identify this necessity (and identify the difficulties) of strengthening this 'alliance'? See the following postings.

Remember the Samoan proverb, something about ‘all of us rowing our fautasi (war canoe) in the same direction’? Or the rugby coach instructing his players to all keep kicking towards the same set of goals!

Well, it’s no different here on the G-PAS Programme. We need all players on the field at once, all scoring tries, and no one sent off to the ‘sin-bin’ for spoiling the rules. Every PIC has to part of the same G-PAS 'alliance'.

Samoa has submitted its Country Priorities to G-PAS for consideration, approximately $USD10million in total worth of projects, some national projects, some Multi-Country Projects, and even some Regional Projects. After all, this is a Pacific Alliance of Sustainability, and all Pacific cultures and Pacific Island Countries are expected to work together for the common good, not only regionally, but globally.

Next month we’ll hear exactly which projects were successful in getting funded and the amounts of funding expected.

Then, some detailed Project Design Documents will need to be prepared along with our selected IAs.

This is a new era for the Pacific. G-PAS may provide just the right formula to enable all PICs to assist each other attain sustainable livelihoods for all Pacific Islanders. PICs need to alleviate poverty, strengthen their economies and improve sustainble livelihood skills for all Islanders.

However, at present, the Pacific is losing its sustainability skills overall, especially when you include some of the devastating consequences of those global impacts on our environment, societies and cultures that we are experiencing today here in the Pacific.

My personal view is that “The palagi (foreigner) will get you” with his global climate change impacts, his toxic chemicals now circulating the globe and entrenching themselves in our Pacific food-chains. And if that’s not enough, the palagi will buy all your natural resources if you are willing to export such goods and erode your own ‘livelihoods’.

So, Samoa may soon have to think outside the box, calling on its Pacific brothers and sisters to help collectively repair this Planet, as an alliance (hence the “A” in PAS). To fully understand what this really means, www.mnre.gov.ws has also hosted the latest G-PAS Program Framework and G-PAS Communications Annex, both well worth reading.

And finally, we take this opportunity to thank the GEF-PAS for approving $USD32,000 to outreach the G-PAS messages to all stakeholders and partners. If you want to learn more, get involved, join the ‘Alliance’ or assist in any way possible, please contact the GEF Operational Focal Point for Samoa, Tuuu Dr. Ieti Taulealo, the CEO, MNRE on 22481, or contact the GEF Services Office, CEO’s Office, Level 3 DBS Building on 22481, ext 13 or email Dr. Steve Brown, steve.brown@mnre.gov.ws.

And to all those who have already received GEF funding and/or assisted in filling-out all the proposal forms, we are sure that you now realize the urgency in which we need to act to form the best 'alliance' the Pacific has ever experienced.

Good luck with all your efforts during 2008.


Dr. Steve BrownGEF Services (Samoa)
steve.brown@mnre.gov.ws
Phone: +(685) 22481 Ext 13 (b/h) or 7771414 (mobile)
(a/h) +(685) 26227 Fax: +(685) 23176
Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment (MNRE)
CEO's Office, Level 3, Development Bank of Samoa Bldg
Private Mail Bag, Apia, SAMOA, South Pacific
MNRE Website: www.mnre.gov.ws
GEF-PAS Samoa Blog: http://gef-passamoa.blogspot.com