Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06SUVA341
2006-08-28 23:28:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Suva
Cable title:  

PACIFIC THOUGHTS ON RESTRUCTURE OF REGIONAL

Tags:  AORC PREL EFIS EAID SENV SPC PIF XV 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3545
RR RUEHKN RUEHKR RUEHMJ RUEHPB
DE RUEHSV #0341/01 2402328
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 282328Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY SUVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3256
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0195
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1270
RUEHKN/AMEMBASSY KOLONIA 0140
RUEHKR/AMEMBASSY KOROR 0079
RUEHMJ/AMEMBASSY MAJURO 0592
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0051
RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY 0880
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 1062
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 0158
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHHJJAA/JICPAC HONOLULU HI
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SUVA 000341 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC PREL EFIS EAID SENV SPC PIF XV
SUBJECT: PACIFIC THOUGHTS ON RESTRUCTURE OF REGIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS - ACTION REQUEST


Summary
-------
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SUVA 000341

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC PREL EFIS EAID SENV SPC PIF XV
SUBJECT: PACIFIC THOUGHTS ON RESTRUCTURE OF REGIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS - ACTION REQUEST


Summary
--------------

1. (U) Pacific leaders tasked a group of experts to consider
ways regional agencies might be rationalized. The experts'
report advocates realigning 10 regional agencies into three
pillars. The Pacific Island Forum (PIF),the regional
policy-oriented body, would acquire policy/negotiation
aspects of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA). The Secretariat
of the Pacific Community (SPC) would become an umbrella,
amalgamating Pacific technical agencies, including the
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Agency

SIPDIS
(SPREP),the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission
(SOPAC),and technical aspects of the FFA. The third pillar,
regional educational institutions, would be unchanged.


2. (SBU) Given that the USG is a member of the SPC and SPREP
and contributes to those agencies' funding, the
technical-pillar proposal deserves particular attention from
the U.S. The aim of amalgamation is to consolidate oversight
of regional technical assistance, minimize redundancies, and
increase cost efficiency, though the proposal advocates
against any shift of current agency locations. An aspect
that remains unclear to us is what impact, if any, the
amalgamation would have on SPC contributions for governments
like the U.S. that are members of some but not all the
technical agencies. The proposal will be considered at a
Forum Officials Conference (FOC) just prior to this year's
PIF meeting, now expected to be held in Nadi, Fiji, in late
October. Action request: please provide USG comments or
questions well in advance of the FOC. End summary.

Expert review of Pacific regional-organization structures
-------------- --------------

3. (U) The Pacific Plan Action Committee met in Nadi, Fiji,
on August 24-25 to consider a broad agenda. Included were
reports from a group of regional experts tasked to consider
proposals for "Reforming the Pacific Regional Institutional
Framework" and for revising the Post-Forum Dialogue (see

septel). The U.S. and French embassies in Suva sought and
received the opportunity to observe those latter two
sessions.

Juggling "political" and "technical" agencies
--------------

4. (U) The experts group recommended a major restructuring of
the ten regional agencies represented on the Council of
Regional Organizations in the Pacific (CROP): the PIF; the
SPC; SPREP; FFA; SOPAC; Fiji School of Medicine (FSM);
Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP); South Pacific
Board of Educational Assessment (SPBEA); South Pacific
Tourism Organization (SPTO); and the University of the South
Pacific (USP). An independent expert, Tony Hughes, had
provided the PIF a report in 2005 that proposed to
consolidate five major organizations: PIF, SPC, SPREP, SOPAC,
and FFA. Many leaders and observers quickly concluded such
an approach was unrealistic, particularly in its attempt to
blend the "political" PIF with apolitical "technical"
organizations. The Hughes model would have created
significant political difficulties for the U.S. and some U.S.
territories, which are members of the SPC but are not members
of the PIF.

Proposal: three pillars - policy; technical; educational
-------------- --------------

5. (U) The recommendation is for three "pillars." The
Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) would remain as the region's
political/economic policy-making organization, though its
"core business" would be more clearly defined than at
present. Core competencies would include economic and
political policy development, human rights, governance,
trade, and peacekeeping/security. The one addition to the
PIF would be the policy/negotiation functions of the Forum
Fisheries Agency (FFA). The rest of the FFA, plus other
"technical" agencies (SPREP, SOPAC, SPBEA, and eventually
SPTO) would fold into the second pillar, under the governance
of the existing SPC. (SPTO consideration is put off in good
part because the experts couldn't figure how to handle the
PRC's membership of that regional tourism institution.) The
academic and training institutions (FSM, PIDP, and USP) would
remain unamalgamated entities under the third, education,

SUVA 00000341 002 OF 003


pillar. The group advocates that the new structures be in
place by January 1, 2009.

SPC umbrella for technical agencies: efficiency goal
-------------- --------------

6. (U) The report argues that merging the technical agencies
would significantly strengthen regional collaboration. The
experts said many critics have faulted the current CROP
arrangement for providing insufficient inter-agency
coordination, resulting in mission creep and inefficient,
confusing overlaps. Bringing all under an SPC umbrella
should make the rationalizing of functions easier.
Consultants have estimated a cost savings from amalgamation
of US$6 million/year, but the experts group figures US$3
million is more realistic. The group emphasized that the
motivation is not cost savings but more efficient provision
of important services to the region. When asked the impact
on senior staffing in technical agencies, the response was
that "there will be no clarity until the amalgamated entity
is up and running." The transition emphasis will be on
"maintaining the integrity of service delivery."

Consolidating locations too hot to touch...
--------------

7. (SBU) The report proposes to maintain the current
locations of the various agencies, apparently even including
all elements of the to-be-split FFA. Consolidation is to be
via management oversight, not co-location, which clearly
would be too big a political challenge. At the Nadi meeting,
the Samoa and RMI delegates complained that maintaining the
SPC headquarters in Noumea, New Caledonia, is much more
expensive than headquartering in Suva, and Samoa raised
concern about "unnecessary" French translation costs. The
French observer (DCM in Suva) suggested French subsidies for
the Noumea operation ease the financial burden; and given
France's membership in the SPC, translations will be required
wherever the technical HQ is located.

...but increasing geographic distribution a popular theme
-------------- --------------

8. (U) We note that the experts group made a separate
recommendation that regional organizations establish offices
or at least place staff members in each member country and
territory in order to strengthen "the nexus between regional
and national initiatives." We presume this would mean a
Pacific regional-organization presence in Guam and American
Samoa (both of which participate in SPC meetings),as well as
in the French territories.

Comment
--------------

9. (SBU) The U.S., as a member of the SPC and SPREP, makes
annual budgetary contributions to both. The U.S. also
supports PIDP, located with the East-West Center in Honolulu.
We are not members of the other CROP agencies. While the
three-pillars approach appears to remove the Hughes Report's
political issue, it would create management challenges for
the umbrella SPC, which would be tasked to amalgamate and
rationalize very rapidly a variety of geographically
separated, diverse technical agencies. Left unclear in the
experts' recommendations is what impact, if any,
consolidation of additional agencies under the SPC umbrella
would have on SPC member contributions. When offered an
opportunity to comment at the Nadi meeting, we noted a
long-standing USG interest in keeping the SPC budget lean and
its programs cost-effective.

Action request
--------------

10. (U) The experts' report, newly published, received only a
modest amount of comment in Nadi; but the chairman made clear
the proposals will receive further deliberation at a Forum
Officials Conference (FOC) just prior to the PIF annual
meeting October 23-26. (Note: the PIF meeting and its
Post-Forum Dialogue will now be held in Nadi, rather than
Tonga, due to the deteriorating health of Tonga's King.) We
have provided a copy of the experts' report to EAP/ANP for
further distribution in Washington. Please provide USG
comment on the report ASAP, well before the October FOC
meeting. Thanks.

SUVA 00000341 003 OF 003


DINGER