Laisa Taga
Just how did the Pacific States end up with only one representative instead of two on the executive board of one of the major United Nations agencies? What role did New Zealand play in this and was there double dealing behind the scenes?

These are some of the questions still floating in the air as Fiji's education minister Ro Teimumu Kepa prepares to pack her travel bags. She is due to fly to Paris this month to attend her first meeting as a member of the influential UNESCO executive board.

The meeting, scheduled for January 19 at the UNESCO headquarters, is an “information meeting” between the executive board chaired by China's Zhang Xinsheng and Director-General Koichiro Matsuura.

Two other meetings of the board are scheduled this year-one in March and the other in September.

Fiji is now the lone Pacific country on the executive board after Palau failed to obtain the second Pacific seat. This was previously alternated between Australia and New Zealand.

It was to be New Zealand's turn after Australia's four-year term expired last October. New Zealand and Australia have the clout-and presence-to ensure they win a place.

But New Zealand decided to step down and offered the opportunity to tiny Palau, saying it was “an excellent time for two Pacific Islands to be on the executive board”.

But was this the grand gesture it was presented as? Not so, according to well informed sources who were in Paris.

There were other Pacific states which would have had a chance. But Palau was always going to be an unlikely and extremely weak candidate, a sure loser. It is little known to the world outside of the Pacific Islands, and where it is, it is regarded as so influenced by the United States that a vote for Palau was a vote for the United States.

Palau also has had little involvement in UNESCO and all its associated politics and doesn't have the diplomats to work these corridors of power.


BARGAINED

Palau wasn't just a lightweight contender. There was no way it was going to win.
One source said: “New Zealand bargained away its executive board seat with some other countries for a position on the International Court of Justice at The Hague”.

Surprise, surprise. Early November, Judge Sir Kenneth Keith of New Zealand got the nod to serve on the 15-member court, the UN's principal organ for settling disputes between countries. He became the first New Zealander to serve on it.

So New Zealand's move leaves Fiji as the lone Pacific voice on the 58-member executive board to represent the 17 Pacific countries.

It's Fiji's second high profile appointment on UNESCO decision-making bodies since it became a UNESCO member. The first was when, represented by former senior UNESCO staffer Jim Bentley, it won a place on the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC).

But is Fiji prepared for the much more important UNESCO executive board job? Kepa is adamant that Fiji is ready for the task ahead and is prepared to play its role in the international arena.

And it is banking on the assistance of the Fiji diplomatic mission in Brussels, other Pacific islands countries and the UNESCO Pacific States office in Apia.

It wants it to “guide us in our new role and liaise with our Pacific member states on issues that are critical to our part of the world, which we will need to raise during the executive board meetings, as well as our contribution to discussions on global issues.”

Kepa is now looking at providing additional staff for the Fiji UNESCO National Commission set up within her ministry as Fiji prepares for the challenges ahead. At the moment the commission is staffed by only one officer who is also the commission's secretary.

Like most UNESCO national commissions in the Pacific Islands, this office has not been as effective as it could. National commissions are supposed to be representative of all the sectors UNESCO covers-education, science, culture and communication.

They can be highly effective in tapping into UNESCO resources and funding as the aggressive national commissions of Australia and New Zealand have shown. But in the islands states national commissions are mainly little more than ineffective appendages of the education ministries.


UNKNOWN

Even in Samoa, where UNESCO has its Pacific States Office, the UNESCO national commission is virtually unknown.

Kepa is very aware of the enormity of the task and the need to have the right people and the financial backing to make her term a success.

UNESCO sources say Kepa will need to have a very good team who knows how UNESCO works, its politics, the power plays, and so forth, if she is to be effective at that level.

“UNESCO business is a complicated and complex one and she could be lost within it if she is not given proper advice, resources and guidance,” a Pacific observer of UNESCO says.

“Just look at the religious push within UNESCO. That's not all-the African push-it is so great that when they agitated for more money, they got their way. Now two-thirds of the programme money goes to Africa and the remaining one-third is left for the other member states to fight over,” the observer added.

It will be interesting to see if Kepa taps into all the expertise Fiji does have available. Bentley, for example, spent years working in the UNESCO system in Paris, the Pacific and Asia before retiring back to Fiji. He knows its workings inside out, and still has useful contacts. Some of the sharp Fiji diplomats, like foreign minister Kaliopate Tavola and his chief executive Isikeli Mataitoga, who have served in Brussels, also have special expertise that would be useful.
Kepa will need it all if she is to represent the Pacific states properly.


CAUTION

A word of caution has also been issued by Dr Vince Pongi, director of the Samoa-based UNESCO office.

“Fiji needs to have a good understanding of the politics of UNESCO. One of the biggest challenges would be trying to convince UNESCO of the needs of SIDS (small islands developing states), otherwise it will be swept aside by the bigger global (and often not very relevant issues to small islands states) issues.

“It needs to work in tandem with other SIDs regions such as the Caribbean countries, the Indian Ocean, etc, to continue to raise issues that are crucial to SIDS. Sustainable development is crucial for the development of Pacific islands states.”

Pongi says Fiji will need to make UNESCO fully aware of the developments in the Pacific as a region such as the Pacific Plan and how to make UNESCO more relevant to the region, particularly to its 16 members and one associate member.

“If it fails to register those, it is likely to be taken over by the issues and mandates of the bigger and more powerful members of the organisation. While Fiji may be required to consider the needs of UNESCO as a global agency, it should wherever and whenever possible try and focus on the developmental issues that we in the Pacific grapple with every day in our lives.”

Pongi added that “the Pacific is still very much a region that is misunderstood as far as UNESCO is concerned and this is reflected not only in the attitude of other regions to the Pacific, but also in the resources allocated to it”.

Fiji, he says, should try and highlight these problems during the executive board meetings especially the difficulties our members face as SIDS. Perhaps, she could also push for more seats for the Pacific on the executive board. We deserve more seats than what we've got now.

Good luck to Kepa and let's hope she can make a big impact at UNESCO that will help change the perceptions UNESCO members have of the Pacific.