Caption: Dr Jimmie Rodgers, SPC Director-General, Dr Annette Sachs Robertson, Director and Representative a.i. of UNFPA’s Pacific Sub-Regional Office, and Marie Bacigalupo, Nauru secretary of health.
Nadi, Fiji, 1 May 2013 – The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) signed an agreement forming a partnership to combine their efforts on behalf of their 14 common members in the Pacific on 30 April 2013.
The four-year memorandum of understanding will reinforce the relationship between the organisations, which both play a crucial role in people-centred development actions in the region.
This partnership will cover a wide range of cross-cutting issues, such as human development (health, education, gender and youth), population advocacy and statistics, and human rights.
The signing of this agreement is an important step in the ongoing effort to better coordinate development activities for the region. It allows the two organisations to combine their complementary strengths to work for a better future for Pacific Islanders.
Dr Jimmie Rodgers, SPC Director-General, emphasised that SPC recognises the importance of working in partnership with other agencies to address issues facing Pacific populations.
He added that the relationship will be further strengthened through agreed principles of collaboration.
Dr Annette Sachs Robertson, Director and Representative a.i. of UNFPA’s Pacific Sub-Regional Office, stated that through this agreement UNFPA is committed to ensuring closer collaboration and partnership between the two agencies and their partners, which would result in a more coordinated approach to regional and in-country programmes.
She stated that in a genuine spirit of partnership, the two agencies seek to enhance and complement each other’s efforts to support more effective development in the Pacific, while building on their individual strengths and areas of primary expertise.
PRESS RELEASE