Islands Business - Business: HEEDING TOKELAU'S CALL FOR HELP

Effective coordination of development assistance

Richard Mann
Representatives from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) who took part in a recent joint mission to the small island territory of Tokelau were impressed by what they found.

After a gruelling 36-hour boat trip-the only way visitors can reach these remote atolls-they began a three-day schedule of meetings to discuss the future development of Tokelau.

Pow-wow... SPC's Suva-based deputy Director-General, Falani Aukuso, Georgina Bonin of the UNDP office in Apia and SPC's Director-General, Dr Jimmie Rodgers on the boat ride to Tokelau.

The high-powered team made up of representatives of five United Nations agencies and offices (UNDP, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNESCO and WHO) and five regional organisations (SOPAC, SPC, SPEA, SPREP and USP), were in Tokelau from 18 to 26 November. Co-led by Georgina Bonin of the UNDP office in Apia and SPC's Director-General, Dr Jimmie Rodgers, the team undertook extensive consultations with traditional and elected leaders of the atolls, village and national officials, and representatives of NGOs including youth and women's groups to find out how their organisations could best assist Tokelau's development aspirations.

Tokelau is a non-self-governing territory, administered by New Zealand. It has three atolls, Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo, with a total land area of just over 12 square kilometres. Samoa is Tokelau's nearest neighbour and its port to the rest of the world. Tokelau can only be reached by ship and relies on a fortnightly shipping schedule. It has a resident population of approximately 1500 people. Tokelau is a full member of SPC, SPREP and USP.

The concept of the mission was initially developed between Tokelau and SPC's Suva-based deputy Director-General, Falani Aukuso, who participated in the visit and is himself a Tokelauan. Acknowledging the importance of collaboration and heeding the call by Tokelau for effective coordination of development assistance, Tokelau and SPC invited other partners to join in the mission.

"It is quite likely the first mission of this kind in the Pacific, bringing together representatives of such a large number of agencies in a single team. Benefits for a small country like Tokelau include a minimal burden on a small administration and, hopefully, a well-coordinated multi-agency response to Tokelau's needs and aspirations," says Rodgers.

The mission team was impressed by the comprehensive documentation that Tokelau's national office and its villages had prepared for the visit. National and village strategies outlined very clearly Tokelau's objectives.
They also articulated Tokelau's vision for itself as "a place where we want to stay and one we are proud of". Priority areas for the territory are village development, health, education, shipping, communications and ICT, and economic development.

SPC's team was able to identify some immediate initiatives for implementation in the first half of 2007. In fact, hands-on assistance was provided during the trip with SPC ICT Manager Sam Taufao installing new PCs at each of Tokelau's three schools and fixing a number of critical IT problems during the mission.

He says, "The fact that two of Tokelau's atolls have working and quite fast Internet access demonstrates the contribution that IT can make to overcoming some of the difficulties associated with remoteness.

"Together with national and village officials, we have already put together an initial IT training programme for six Tokelauans to be attached to SPC to further improve their IT skills."

Asterio Takesy, Director of SPREP, and Michel Blanc, SPC Nearshore Fisheries Development and Training Adviser, agreed to respond jointly to Tokelau's concern about its marine environment by developing another reef resource and stock assessment as a follow-up to an earlier SPREP survey.

Waste management was another concern expressed to the team by officials and villagers alike. SPREP, SOPAC and UNDP will be coordinating their assistance to Tokelau in this regard.

Concerning Tokelau's priority area of village development, SPC's team and UNIFEM concluded that a series of training workshops or summer schools modelled on the curriculum of SPC's Community Education Training Centre could be a very effective way for appropriate skills training on the three atolls. USP's University Centre in Tokelau was also seen as being able to make a significant contribution to village development.

In the area of health, the team's experts noticed a very high prevalence of smoking in Tokelau, one of the most dangerous health risk factors.

"Non-communicable diseases may well become a priority for assistance under the joint strategy," report Jeanie McKenzie and Justus Benzler from SPC's Public Health Programme.

"This would also contribute to reducing the number of very costly referrals to Apia and New Zealand, which currently accounts for about 40 percent of Tokelau's health budget."

All members of the joint mission had similar discussions and achieved similar practical outcomes in their own areas of expertise, with their Tokelauan partners.

In line with the agreed objective of a harmonised approach, the partners agreed with the government to prepare a joint implementation strategy for consideration by Tokelau. The strategy will cover a period of 3-5 years and is expected to be finalised in May 2007.

• Richard Mann is Deputy Director-General of SPC, based in Noumea, New Caledonia. He was a member of the mission to Tokelau.