Mr John Davidson, Australian Minister Counsellor, Pacific for AusAID and Dr Jimmie Rodgers, Director-General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), signed a new grant agreement that continues Australia’s partnership with SPC for sustainable development of the Pacific.
AUD 13.5 million of this funding is Australia’s core and programme funding for the year, which supports the organisation in providing technical assistance, policy advice, training and research to 22 Pacific Island countries and territories. Australia provides this funding in recognition of the important role SPC plays in implementing regional priorities.
An additional AUD 2.5 million is included in the agreement to support regional services provided by SPC in the areas of transport and energy.
The remaining AUD 2 million is allocated to help SPC implement the recommendations of last year’s independent external review. This review advocated changes in SPCs’ structure and upgrades to internal systems to keep up with the organisation’s rapid growth over the last few years.
Australia is a founding member of SPC and has been a strong supporter of the organisation since its inception in 1947.
Dr Jimmie Rodgers welcomed the funding support provided by Australia to the Secretariat in order to provide core capacity to enable the provision of essential services to our Pacific Island countries and territories. He further stressed the importance of this longstanding partnership and commended Australia for its consistent engagement and support in enabling the Secretariat help Pacific people achieve their development goals.
He highlighted that Australia is the largest contributor to SPC’s overall budget and for 2013 their contribution will also enable SPC to progress implementation of some of the key recommendations of the independent external review that were approved by SPC’s governing body last year.
Mr John Davidson, Australian Minister Counsellor, Pacific for AusAID said Australia is a founding member of SPC and has been a strong supporter of the organisation since its inception in 1947. ‘We look forward to working with SPC in building its capacity to meet the priority needs of its members into the 21st century’.
SOURCE: spc
