CRGA/Conference meet in Palau in November

SPC’s governing body will meet in Koror, Palau, this year to discuss several important issues including the appointment of SPC’s next Director-General. Lourdes Pangelinan, the current Director-General, will finish her third two-year term next year in January 2006. The 35th meeting of the Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA), scheduled from 14-17 November 2005, will be followed by the 4th Conference of the Pacific Community on 18 November.
    A key issue to be discussed is the outcome of the corporate review.  SPC commissioned an independent, external review of the organisation to help guide its future directions. The review team included Senator Caleb Otto from Palau, Bernadette Papilio from the Wallis and Futuna Territorial Assembly, Margaret Regnault, Adviser in AusAID, Jean Sese, Director-General of the Prime Minister's office in Vanuatu, and Epa Tuioti from KVA Consultants in Samoa. The team will present their recommendations at the meeting.
     The theme for this year's Conference chosen by the Palau government and the Secretariat is Youth empowerment for a secure, prosperous and sustainable future. The Conference will also discuss the Pacific Plan and related regional issues including Tony Hughes’ report, Strengthening regional management – a review of the architecture for regional co-operation in the Pacific.

Closer partnerships, fresh initiatives for Pacific women

For the newly appointed head of SPC’s Pacific Women’s Bureau, an early priority will be closer partnerships on gender initiatives amongst regional agencies.
     Linda Petersen, from the Fiji Islands, is no stranger to development and gender equality issues in this part of the world. She brings more than a decade of UN work to her new role, and leaves the job of Millennium Development Goals Coordinator and Assistant Resident Representative for the UNDP’s Fiji multi-country office in Suva to take up her Noumea-based position.
    She says that as well as working closely with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, she aims to build on and diversify the Bureau’s links with regional and global initiatives involving Pacific women, from UN agencies to regional organisations and other programmes at SPC.
    She plans to act on recommendations on the Pacific Platform for Action made by SPC’s 9th Pacific Women’s Conference in 2004. The conference’s review of the PPA updated critical areas of concern first endorsed by the Pacific Ministers for Women in 1994. The 2004 meeting also identified emerging gender issues relating to media, ICT, globalization and HIV/AIDS.
     “I’m coming into this to take a lot of the really excellent work that has come out of the review of the PPA to the next level,” she says. Petersen will lead the Bureau’s new strategic plan, which will run from 2006-2009. Among the key policy issues she plans to take forward are implementing CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women) in the Pacific, and institutional strengthening programmes. She is also keen to strengthen efforts at the national and regional level to integrate gender into all aspects of plans to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, particularly as they relate to gender and HIV/AIDS, poverty and the environment.
     She is joined in New Caledonia by her two sons, aged 10 and 14 years.
Contact: Linda Petersen, SPC Women’s Development Adviser Tel: 260 119

Regional Media Centre has a new coordinator

Larry Thomas is the new coordinator of SPC’s Regional Media Centre (RMC) in Suva, Fiji.
     Notable throughout the region as a popular Pacific playwright/writer and documentary filmmaker, Larry brings a wealth of knowledge and managerial skills to the position. He holds a degree in Media and Communications from the University of Canberra.
    Larry’s most recent position before joining the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) was head of the Literature and Language Department at the University of the South Pacific (USP) and director of the Pacific Writing Forum.
    Over the years he has worked with RMC on a number of projects, the latest as script editor for a documentary on the South Pacific Festival of Arts. With RMC, he did postproduction work on his recent documentary Bitter Sweet Hope, about the history of the sugar industry in Fiji and the expiry of land leases and how this is affecting both cane farmers and landowners.
     Larry has worked for various other organisations, including the Fiji Broadcasting Commission in the early 1980s as a radio producer and presenter, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 1986 as a communications officer, and USP’s Information Office in 1987. He then rejoined USP’s Extension Services (now DFL), first as Course Development Assistant and later as Course Developer.
     Larry says RMC has a very important role in the region and he hopes to develop new methods to assist its transition to being more in tune and current with modern media practices and technology. He says there is a heavy reliance of Pacific television broadcasters on imported broadcast programs.
     He admits there are financial and resource constraints; however, ‘There are a lot of skilled and talented people and professionals out there who could be utilised by these broadcasters to produce programs that are both relevant and entertaining to Pacific societies.’
    Larry says he would like to see more local content on Pacific television stations and this is an avenue where professional production organisations like the RMC can assist.
    Speaking on RMC’s flagship production, The Pacific Way, he said he could assist in making the programme ‘even more dynamic’: ‘In consultation with the RMC team, we will be relooking at how we would want to market The Pacific Way in the region.’ 
Further information: please contact Etivina Lovo, Project Assistant of the Regional Media Centre; phone +679 337 0733 Ext. 212.