OUTCOMES OF THE 38TH SPC CRGA MEETING IN NOUMEA, NEW

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SUVA 000450

SIPDIS

COMMERCE FOR NOAA

STATE PASS INTERIOR FOR OIA

STATE FOR EAP/ANP, IO/EDA, DRL, AND OES/OA

BANGKOK FOR REO AND AID/RDMA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC EAID PHUM EFIS SOCI XV SPC
SUBJECT: OUTCOMES OF THE 38TH SPC CRGA MEETING IN NOUMEA, NEW
CALEDONIA, OCTOBER 13-17, 2008

REF: A) Suva 386

This message contains an action item for DRL, IO, and EAP. Please
see paragraphs 9 and 10.


1. Summary: Institutional growth and change were the dominant themes
of this year's annual SPC meeting in New Caledonia where members
endorsed the SPREP Meeting decision on regional institutional
restructuring and discussed other sweeping changes, including
creation of a new Public Health Division. The meeting approved a
2009 budget that represents a dramatic expansion of programmatic and
project funding and activity and considered a wide array of members'
concerns ranging from regional shipping arrangements to food
security to communications infrastructure. End Summary.


2. The 38th meeting of the Committee of Representatives of
Governments and Administrations (CRGA) of the Pacific Community
(SPC) took place in Noumea, New Caledonia, October 13-17, 2008.
Twenty-four of SPC's member countries and territories took part,
with only Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
(CNMI) not in attendance. Toetasi Fue Tuiteleleapaga, Chief Legal
Counsel in the Office of the Governor of American Samoa ably chaired
the meeting and was widely praised for the skill and good humor he
deployed throughout the proceedings. EAP/ANP's Aleisha Woodward
headed the U.S. delegation. Cooperation between the U.S. and
American Samoan delegations was excellent.


3. Institutional growth and change were the dominant themes of this
year's CRGA. The organization has doubled in size over the past
twelve years, and its growth is set to continue unabated. Infusions
of funding from the GEF, the Global Fund, and the EU have fed the
rapid expansion of SPC's programmatic activities in recent years,
while the impact of higher project management fees, as well as
exchange rate gains and higher than anticipated bank interest have
given the organization a mid-year core budget surplus more than 5%
above approved 2008 budget levels. These factors allowed the
secretariat to table a balanced budget for 2009 of 65,790,200 CFP
units (approximately 75,000,000 USD) that is over 33% above the
approved 2008 budget. The 2009 budget includes salary increases of
between 9.5% and 15.5%, which the meeting approved, as well as
significant new hiring in corporate services and selected program
areas. Although some members, including the U.S. and French
Polynesia expressed concerns over the implications of funding staff
expansion with windfall interest and exchange rate gains the
Director General's assurances that these recurring costs could be
met from existing resources carried the day and the budget was
approved.


4. The rosy financial situation neither prevented the secretariat
from proposing a 4% inflation adjustment, which members rejected,
nor from calling for a change in policy to adopt a "same real
budget" approach that would factor in annual increases for
assessments. A number of delegations, including France, Samoa,
Australia and the United States, spoke against this policy change,
which was also rejected. The secretariat noted that the scale of
assessments is due for review next year. (Comment: Significant
upward adjustments will likely be required from many members,
although not from the United States, to cover costs of programs
migrating to SPC from other regional organizations to which we do
not belong. See paragraphs 7 and 8 below. End Comment.)


5. The dramatic expansion of health activities led the Secretariat
to pull the Public Health Program out of the Social Resources
Division to form a new Public Health Division. (According to the
Director General's Report, the Global Fund is now the second largest
source of funds for SPC, behind Australia, although the bulk of
Global Fund money only passes through SPC and is redistributed to

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member countries as grants. SPC was, nevertheless, managing over
$18 million in Global Fund grants as of July 2008.)


6. Despite a generally expanding financial resource base, an
interruption in EU funding, caused by delays in reaching agreement
on the next round of Pacific regional development assistance (EDF
10),is threatening to disrupt some programs in agriculture and
fisheries in 2009. In the view of the secretariat this interruption
highlights SPC's vulnerability to the vicissitudes of project
funding, on which it continues to rely heavily. Australia and New
Zealand confirmed for the meeting that they are considering options
for bridge funding for the affected programs. (Note: The EU
provided approximately 18% of total SPC funding in 2008 but is
budgeted for only 8% for 2009 because of the gap between the
expiring EDF 9 and the anticipated start of EDF 10 funding. End
Note.)


7. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) 2007 and 2008 leaders' decisions
relating to the Regional Institutional Framework (RIF) Review is
also fueling SPC's growth plans. Members endorsed the process for
managing the RIF-inspired "rationalization" of the functions of the
South Pacific Applied Geosciences Commission (SOPAC) into SPC and
the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) that was
agreed to at the 19th SPREP Meeting in Pohnpei in September (reftel)
with only minor additions to the decision criteria for determining
what SOPAC programs go where. The additional criteria are:
transparency and timeliness with respect to the process, and
effective involvement of stakeholders; cost-effectiveness; and
analysis of the core function of each SOPAC program to asses whether
it is primarily an environmental or economic development program.
(Note: the SOPAC Governing Council endorsed its own minor variant of
the SPREP RIF decision at its annual meeting in Tuvalu on October

30. The CEOs of the three organizations have begun consultations to
implement the decision. End Note.)


8. In addition to the major expansion of the organization that is
likely to result from the dissolution of SOPAC, SPC is also set to
absorb the South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment (a small
Suva-based Pacific regional organization that PIF leaders also
decreed be disbanded in their RIF decisions). Other RIF-driven
restructuring is underway, and the meeting was advised that talks
are ongoing between SPC and the Forum Fisheries Agency to more
clearly differentiate their functions, and between the SPC and the
PIF Secretariat on transferring PIF programmatic functions in
energy, transportation, and infrastructure to SPC. This impending
transfer of functions from the PIF prompted Director General Jimmy
Rodgers to announce his intention to create yet another new division
devoted to these three issues and to transfer the SPC's Regional
Maritime Program (responsible for shipping and port issues) from the
Ocean Resources Division into this new division. These new
arrangements will be presented to the SPC Conference next year for
formal endorsement.


9. Last year's SPC Conference approved the transfer of the
eleven-member Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) from
UNDP's Pacific Center to SPC. This Suva-based program is a
technical advisory and training team specializing in human rights
and governance issues. RRRT has developed a draft strategic plan
for 2008-2012 that it presented to members for their comments. In
introducing the plan, RRRT program manager Sandra Bernklau explained
that human rights are often mistaken for political rights only,
when, in reality, "human rights is essentially about service
provision and meeting basic human needs such as health care,
education, employment and protection of resources," in order to
promote human development. In the course of her presentation and
subsequent discussion she noted the human rights aspects of a
diverse set of issues ranging from copyrights to climate change.

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Accordingly, RRRT's draft strategic plan has a strong emphasis on
social and economic rights. The CRGA meeting decision invited
members to provide inputs to the proposed strategic plan within six
months--by April 15, 2009.


10. Action Request for DRL, IO, and EAP: Please review the RRRT
draft strategic plan in order to provide U.S. input by the deadline.
The document is available from EAP/ANP (Aleisha Woodward).


11. Another aspect of SPC's expansion that received considerable
attention is "decentralization." In an effort to improve services
in the under-served North Pacific, SPC opened a sub-regional office
in Pohnpei, FSM, in 2006. After some start-up problems, the move is
now generally considered a success and other sub-regions want
offices too. Consequently plans are underway to open a Melanesia
office in PNG and the SPC secretariat is discussing placement of a
Polynesia office in either French Polynesia or the Cook Islands
after that.


12. In other business, the meeting reviewed activity reports and
work plans for SPC's three existing program divisions (Ocean
Resources, Land Resources, and Social Resources). American Samoa
reported on the Tenth Festival of Pacific Arts, which it hosted in
July 2008, and acknowledged support from the U.S. Department of the
Interior. The meeting approved terms of reference for a major study
on the future of fisheries pending further comments from members,
which were due by October 31. (Note: EAP/ANP coordinated submission
of U.S. comments with OES/OMC before the deadline. End note.) It
approved establishment of a Millennium Development Goals monitoring
support framework for PICs. (The U.S. joined consensus on the
measure only after reiterating our position that, while we support
the MDG's themselves, we have not endorsed the UN
secretariat-generated targets and indicators that are frequently
employed to measure progress against them.)


13. The meeting also considered special reports with recommendations
on food security, climate change adaptation, sustainable land
management, public health challenges, shipping and commodity mapping
in small island states and territories. It also discussed various
communications infrastructure initiatives including; the Pacific
Regional Internet Connectivity System (PACRICS); the South Pacific
Information Network, an East-West submarine cable project, which
numbers American Samoa among its six confirmed participants; and a
One Laptop per Child pilot project that prompted concerns from some
members about its dubious educational benefits, high costs and child
exploitation dangers. Members also discussed SPC's role in
implementing the PIF's Pacific Plan and were briefed on Australia
and New Zealand's joint review of their assistance to Pacific
Regional Organizations.


14. Final housekeeping issues:

--Observers and EU associate membership: In response to member
requests, the secretariat plans to undertake a study of invitation
procedures and criteria for NGO observers to SPC meetings and will
also follow-up on an inquiry from the EU about possible associate
member status.

--Arrears (CNMI): In the process of accepting the auditor's report
for 2007, members again discussed the issue of arrears. The meeting
supported the secretariat's decision to reject the auditor's
recommendation to "provide for" (i.e. write off) long outstanding
arrears and requested members that are in arrears to draw up a
schedule to settle their debts. According to documentation
circulated by the secretariat, CNMI is among the most indebted
members and is now over $230,000 (USD) in arrears.


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--Future meetings: CRGA 39 will take place in Tonga from 30
September through 2 October 2009 under the chairmanship if
Australia. This meeting will be followed by the 6th Conference of
the Pacific Community on the 5th and 6th of October.


15. This cable was cleared by delegation head Aleisha Woodward.

McGann