Talks underway to find ways to improve public service delivery in the Pacific
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 | Conference participants with the Minister-Counsellor for AusAID, Mr John Davidson and the Vice-Chancellor and President of USP, Professor Rajesh Chandra (both in garland).
Insert: Mr Davidson delivers his remarks at the opening of the conference. |
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Representatives of 14 Pacific Island Countries have gathered for a three-day conference to discuss public sector needs of their countries and to understand and engage with the Pacific Islands Centre for Public Administration (PICPA) to better serve the region.
PICPA is joint initiative between the University of the South Pacific (USP) and the Australian Government. It is designed to respond to the needs and plans identified by Pacific Island Countries (PICs) for strengthened public administration to enable improved service delivery to their people and foster economic growth.
The conference, which began today at the Holiday Inn in Suva, has delegations from Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
The key objectives of conference are to:
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Share information on PICPA, its services, including training and learning opportunities offered by USP and other providers which could be funded by PICPA; and
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Engage with PICs in assessing and actively contributing to the design of PICPA’s forward work plan by identifying regional and sub regional priorities and partnerships in delivering work plan priorities.
In launching the inaugural PICPA conference, the Minister-Counsellor for AusAID, Mr John Davidson spoke about the importance of good public administration and how it is central to democratic processes, and critical in building trust on government systems.
“Good public administration raises not only public confidence, but also investor confidence, fostering economic activity and creating employment opportunities,” he stated.
The conference, Mr Davidson explained, was an opportunity to move beyond supply-driven approaches to ones that meet the needs identified by PICs.
“This ensures that PICPA provides assistance that is not only relevant and responsive to national and regional needs, but that these areas for support have been identified in consultation with you,” representatives were told.
While commending PICPA and USP for their efforts in organising the conference, Mr Davidson said, Australia is pleased to be supporting such an important forum designed to see how Pacific governments can work together and strengthen their efforts to promote efficient and effective public services across the region.
“Our support to institutions such as PICPA helps ensure that Pacific Island governments have access to technical expertise and capacity development activities that assist in improving service delivery, monitoring and public financial management,” he added.
According to Mr Davidson, Australia is in a strong economic situation at the moment and is rapidly increasing its aid program to the Pacific.
However, he pointed out that, “money and experience need to combine with the commitment of leaders such as yourselves for us to get what it is we all want from our work – better lives for the citizens of our region and our countries.”
The Minister-Counsellor wished the participants success in working together to drive change and to identify practical strategies for improving the functions of the public service in their countries.
The delegates were welcomed by the Vice-Chancellor and President of USP, Professor Rajesh Chandra, to the conference on forward planning for PICPA programmes in the next three years.
Professor Chandra said that PICPA’s conference is timely and underlines the vital contribution that public administrations make, particularly in the Pacific.
In the Pacific, public administration accounts for almost 35 percent of the regional country expenditure - that is, over one in every three dollars is spent on managing public services, said the Vice-Chancellor, referring to the 2011 World Bank report.
He thanked the Government of Australia for funding PICPA, as well as other USP stakeholders for their support.
Professor Chandra urged representatives to utilize this opportunity and be very open and frank.
“Our task at this conference is to identify and prioritise specific capacity development needs that will facilitate more effective government which will raise service delivery to our citizens.”
He further elaborated that the quality of discussions over the three days of the conference will be critical, as it will shape PICPA’s activities going forward.
“To ensure that we design and implement relevant development programs and initiatives for Pacific Island countries, it is imperative that we hear directly from the countries on what their needs and priorities are,” representatives heard.
Professor Chandra said that the outcomes of these discussions and further engagement will lead to the development of tailor-made partnership agreements with countries reflecting agreed priorities.
A background on the conference and the role of PICPA was shared by the Director of PICPA, Mr Siosiua Utoikamanu, who said that the conference is the beginning of a “conversation” between PICPA and its stakeholders.
“We have organised the conference this week to develop a multi-year work plan which will allow PICPA to balance quick responses to requests received at short notice together with predictable programming for stakeholder countries to ensure that assistance fits into a broad national strategy which considers sequencing of change, sustainability and priority,” he concluded.
The conference ends on 23 November.
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