Islands Business - RAMSI UPDATE

BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS

Article by Graeme Wilson, RAMSI’s Special Coordinator.

Partnership is a word that we are hearing constantly at the moment in Solomon Islands. We are hearing it when people speak of the need to work together to restore pride in this country, to maintain a safe environment in which to live and to reconcile different communities under the Solomon Islands flag.

My first six months as Special Coordinator have really brought home to me the importance of the ‘partnership’ approach in Solomon Islands. I know for the thousands of people across the region who have served with RAMSI over the past six years, it is a source of great satisfaction that the Solomon Islands-RAMSI partnership has been so fundamental to the remarkable turn-around this country has experienced.
RAMSI personnel have contributed to making Solomon Islands a place where people are free to live their lives normally in a secure and friendly environment. As part of building trust and friendships, RAMSI personnel are increasingly getting involved in sporting and other community activities. While there are cultural and social challenges in serving in someone else’s country, we are focused on ensuring RAMSI team members make the most of their opportunity to become a part of Solomon Islands’ life.
It is great to see RAMSI staff taking up this opportunity with such commitment and enthusiasm. Over the past six months, we have seen RAMSI members undertaking fundraising for flood victims in areas such as Selwyn College, Tamboko Village and Vura Village in western Guadalcanal. RAMSI’s small civil and military medical team has conducted clinics at villages around Honiara and across Guadalcanal, taking basic medical care to villages that have none.
RAMSI has also supported the makeshift School for the Deaf at Aruligo and has provided work parties and volunteers to the Tenaru women’s refuge where they have rebuilt stairs and water tank pipes, checked electrical supplies and undertaken other maintenance work.
Members of RAMSI are also firmly integrated into Solomon Islands sporting life. Many advisers are involved in sports such as rugby, soccer, triathlon and netball. We are also seeing the emergence of relatively ‘new’ sports to island life such as Rugby League and Australian Rules Football (AFL).
Having played cricket in many parts of the world, including Vanuatu and New Caledonia, I have been more than pleased with Prime Minister Sikua’s encouragement to help resurrect the game in the Solomon Islands.
The recently-held Prime Minister’s XI versus RAMSI XI cricket match, held to mark our 6th anniversary, also served to re-launch cricket in the Happy Isles and was great fun. Being a former AFL player in Australia, I am also delighted to be involved in helping volunteers from RAMSI’s military contingent coach the game in Solomon Islands and to see boys and girls from all age groups from Namoliki Community, Honiara High School and Woodford International School coming out on the weekends to learn about AFL.
The kids are enjoying the benefits of being part of such a fun, team-oriented sport.
This year, RAMSI has also introduced separate awards highlighting the contributions to this country by women and by the Solomon Islands media. In March, Mrs Beverly Komasi, the principal of Mercy School at Burns Creek, was presented the inaugural Special Coordinator’s Award for Women. Beverly is a kindergarten teacher who, for the past four years, has voluntarily run a school for disadvantaged children living near Ranadi rubbish dump on the outskirts of Honiara—and is a wonderful example of the frequently-unheralded work of many Solomon Islands women.
In May, I was also very happy to present the Special Coordinator’s Media Encouragement Award to Solomon Star newspaper photographer, Charles Kadamana, whose work has highlighted the integral part a strong, investigative media can play in the restoration of confidence in Solomon Islands.
It is quite fitting that this month, Prime Minister Sikua is taking the Solomon Islands Government and RAMSI Partnership Framework to the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns, Australia, for endorsement by Forum Leaders. This document is the strategic work plan for RAMSI’s activities in the Solomons for the years ahead. It makes clear that RAMSI’s role in this partnership is now primarily focused on ‘capacity development’—building the skills and confidence of Solomon Islanders so that they can reach a point where RAMSI’s support is no longer needed.
It is remarkable what Solomon Islands has achieved in partnership with RAMSI since the first contingent landed on July 24, 2003. Law and order has been restored, the justice system is operating effectively and openly and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force is being rebuilt into a vital national institution.
The work of building a sustainable economy, reducing debt and restoring investor confidence continues. RAMSI is also supporting the government’s efforts to establish a more accountable, effective and responsive system of government.
Solomon Islands is a complex nation, full of challenges—but most of all, full of people who endlessly surprise and delight. I regard myself as very privileged to be serving in this country alongside hundreds of wonderful men and women from across our region who are trying to give all Solomon Islanders the chance to lead a peaceful and more prosperous life.