The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) has weathered a bit of criticism in the past year so PiPP is delighted to see it’s engaging the Pacific as part of its 40th Anniversary to show that it is relevant to the region.
PiPP touched on some of these issues in a discussion paper last year on Regionalism (Island Dreaming).
The theme for these public lectures will be based on “Pacific Regionalism: Past, Present and Future” with Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Sato Kilman delivering the main speech.
A panel of four will also be in place to provide commentary on the speech with open questions and discussions from the audience.
PiPP has been invited to participate in the forum and Program Manager, John Licht will be amongst the panelists.
The forum is open to all members of the public at the USP Emalus Campus on March 3rd and will start at 4.30pm.
Meanwhile, after being hammered by two cyclones in recent weeks, floods in Australia and earthquakes in New Zealand, a climate change conference scheduled here in Vanuatu seems to be very timely.
The European Commission is organising the first GCCA three-day Pacific Technical Workshop on “Mainstreaming Climate Change into National Development Planning and Budgeting” and a one-day Policy Dialogue on two topics “Aid Effectiveness and Climate Change” and “Disaster Risk Reduction in the Pacific” to be held from 28th February to 3rd March 2011.
Participants are drawn from government ministries in the region responsible for finance and climate change policies.
A High Level Regional Ministerial Regional Conference on climate change in the Pacific co-organised by the European Commission will follow on March 4th.
Let’s hope that they can use climate change as a trigger for better development for pursuing better development and moves towards a renewable energy economy.
