A new-look

Secretariat

By January 1997, a new structure is expected to be in place for the Suva-based South Pacific Forum Secretariat. Proposed changes will be many and include cutting down on the size of the organisation with fewer divisions and renaming of others to reflect their new roles.

The changes are part of an overall structure recommended in a review under taken last year by international consul tants. Key recommendations were endorsed by the South Pacific Forum at its 1995 Summit in Madang, Papua New Guinea, giving the Secretariat a clear man

date to proceed with its plans.

Pivotal in the key recommendations is a mandate to “strengthen” the Secretariat’s policy advisory role. What it means is that the Secretariat will concentrate on enhanc ing regional co-ordination and review through such mechanisms as the South

Pacific Organisations Co-ordinating

Committee (SPOCC) as well as assisting island member states to develop their own capacity for economic and sectoral policy

development, implementation and evalua

tion.

A progressive report detailing the pro posed changes embodied in the new struc ture was submitted to member countries in

April this year.

The new-look Forum Secretariat will have only four divisions, as opposed to nine at present.

Under the changes, the surviving divi sions - Economic Development, Legal & Political, Trade & Investment, Administration & Finance - are to be renamed to reflect their new and expanded roles.

The Economic Development Division will become a larger “Development and Economic Policy Division”; the Legal and Political Division will become a larger “Political and International Affairs Division”; the Trade and Investment

The Forum

Alfred

Sasako

Division will expand to address import management and trade policy issues and the Administration and Finance Divisions will be combined into a new Corporate Services Division. Regional programmes such as Civil Aviation, Maritime, Energy and Telecommunications will no longer be administered by the South Pacific Forum Secretariat.

Instead, the South Pacific Forum Secretariat has proposed the transfer of the ongoing regional programmes in the mar itime and communications sectors to the South Pacific Commission (SPC) and ongoing energy programmes be in part set-up independently (the EU-funded Pacific Regional Energy Programme) and in part transferred to SOPAC.

The broad thrust of the restructure is expected, among other things, to strength en the Secretariat’s roles in: ■ serving the South Pacific Forum as its secretariat; ■ providing high quality advice and research on regional matters affecting sus tainable development, trade and invest ment; ■ stimulating co-operation in regional development through co-ordination of the Regional Strategy and provision of a sec retariat for the South Pacific Organisations Co-ordinating Committee (SPOCC); ■ representing the views and interests of the South Pacific Forum international ly; and ■ rationalising management and cor porate services functions.

In view of these developments, the Secretariat’s capacity in development pol icy, regional co-ordination, trade and investment policy and facilitation, servic ing of the annual South Pacific Forum and related activities is expected to be substan tially enhanced.

Proposed core activities for each of the new divisions have also been defined. For instance, the core business for the new Development and Economic Policy Division from next year will be to contin ue to provide advice to member countries on economic and development policy mat ters.

“These issues will be of a regional or sub-regional character or be of particular value to member countries with limited in house policy advising resources,” a

spokesperson said.

With up to 10 professional positions, the division will also focus on national capacity-building in these areas as well as play a leading role in strengthening mem ber countries’ relationship with donors

“through capacity building in priority set

ting and by regional programming through

the Regional Strategy”.

Currently, the Trade and Investment Division is broadly responsible for provid ing advice to member countries on trade, investment and industry development jointly with the South Pacific Trade Commission (SPTC) offices in Sydney, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand.

These services will be expanded to Tokyo with the establishment of the South

Pacific Economic Exchange Support

Centre (SPEESC) next October, funded by the government of Japan. Benefits of sim ilar offices in Beijing, Taiwan and Europe are being assessed.

To strengthen the Secretariat’s capacity

in providing high-level policy advice in

trade and business development policy, the division is expected to have 10 profession

al positions.

The private sector in member countries will benefit from better co-ordination and integration of SPTC and SPEESC activi ties with those of the division’s.

The core role of the new Political & International Affairs Division will be in assisting the South Pacific Forum responding to and influencing internation

al developments.

A staff of up to six professional posi tions will include the Information and Publications because of the external focus of most of this work.

It is hoped that the additional staff will allow the South Pacific Forum Secretariat to extend its role in helping member coun tries follow and respond to any interna tional events and, where possible, to influ ence those events to the advantage of member countries.

One other important change that will come about as a result of the restructuring is that from 1997 there will only be one

Deputy Secretary-General.

As well, Administration and Finance Divisions will be merged to form a single Corporate Services Division. ■