Page 17 - IB MAY 2017

The Region
40 years on, Forum challenges remain

consult with Forum countries before the
2018 FEMM.
Speaking to the proposal, Minister
Brown said: “There is no doubt for many
Pacific island countries, the ability to be
able to access development finance is a
challenge, the complexity of applying for
financing through various multilateral
donors or banks or even bilateral partners
can be onerous and so the ability of the
region having a facility that can house
these types of financing to make it easier
for Pacific countries is something worth
pursuing”.
Pacific Islands Forum’s Secretary
General Dame Meg Taylor urged Forum
countries to ensure that resilient develop-
ment finance options (including included
climate change and disaster risks) were
embedded into national plans and budgets
and aligned to regional agendas like the
SAMOA Pathway and the Framework for
Pacific Regionalism “to help address our
vulnerabilities, improve our resilience
and enable us to achieve our sustainable
development aspirations”.
and regional aspirations, then how are we the definition of “vulnerability” so prereq- “It is time to explore constructive and
as member states to take ownership of our uisites for concessional loans could take practical regional solutions that will
regional development goals.” into account the climate change-induced propel a dynamic shift away from this
In his welcoming remarks, Fiji’s Min- challenges Forum countries are already traditional development model. Now is the
ister of Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum grappling with. time to begin exploring new, innovative
shared Fiji’s experience in post-Cyclone Ministers also emphasised the impor- and sustainable means for financing our
Winston reconstruction, stressing the tance of vulnerability indicators being priorities and addressing our challenges.
extreme vulnerability of Pacific Island embedded in multilateral financing to Pa- A regional fund is one pathway that pro-
countries to catastrophic events, which cific Island countries, for a clearer picture motes coordination, sustainability, low
could wipe out years of economic develop- of countries’ vulnerability to catastrophic administrative costs, and predictable and
ment overnight. events and global economic shocks. flexible financing,” Taylor said.
The region can expect an increase in Forum Economic Ministers are asking Pacific regionalism is a Pacific-specific
external development finance in the near that apart from the numerical count uti- pathway that has worked for the region
future through sources like the Green Cli- lized to assess vulnerability, multilateral thus far and is as critical today as it was
mate Fund. These, however, will need to agencies should also consider population for the founding members of the Pacific
be matched with the absorptive capacity of size of Pacific countries by comparison to Islands Forum. Bold steps are sometimes
countries, managed smartly and in a way other parts of the world. required when challenging the status
that maintains national sovereignty and “They would have to take into consid- quo, to ensure Pacific peoples benefit as
regional coordination, bargaining power eration the economies of scale that don’t much as they can from socio-economic
and unity. exist for us but in larger countries as a development efforts.
Strengthened engagement with devel- measure of vulnerability, the lack of di- Economic Ministers agreed that the
opment partners including civil society versity in economy and other factor such FEMM will take the lead on economic
and the private sector will be fundamental as debt stress levels that some countries development and finance issues (includ-
moving forward recognizing, for example, are currently under as measures to assess ing climate change finance). The meeting
that of the $USD391 billion climate financ- when looking at vulnerability of Pacific will be convened every 12 months with
ing mobilised globally in 2015, private countries,” Brown said. Palau playing host in 2018.
finance accounted for 69 per cent. A proposed regional finance facility as
The Forum Secretariat is currently in an option for development financing was n Forum Secretariat
discussions with global financial institu- also discussed by Ministers; the Forum
tions to advocate for an amendment to Secretariat has been tasked to further

Islands Business, May 2017 17