Ask anyone what the trending topics are for the Pacific year ahead, and the answers will not surprise.
The Climate Crisis. COVID. Food, family, economic security. Sustainable Development for all. The state of our Oceans, our systems, our rights, our economies, our societies, our democracies. Gender. The list is an endless and ever-changing reflection of the changing, disrupted times we live in.
For the Forum team, our focus in 2023 will be on 2050. A single word at the heart of a Pacific strategy for our shared future. A word that sets out to capture all the above responses, the drivers of change in our Pacific world—and set out into a strategic blueprint for future generations.
Touted as our North Star, our compass point for the future we want, the 2050 Strategy went through an impressive consultation timeline and process. Across our sea of islands, the talanoa and principles linked interest groups at national and community level to subregional and regional spaces. Diverse consultations take time, resourcing, and input. This resulted in a truly Pacific mandate endorsed in Suva, then launched globally from the UNGA in September 2022.
The strength and constituency from the journey of the Pacific 2050 Strategy is already powering our current planning work on the implementation phase in the months and years ahead.
Endorsed alongside the 2050 Strategy, the Suva Agreement also features as a highlight of 2022 which will continue implementation in 2023. Like the Strategy, it represents a commitment to regional solidarity now and into the future. Where the 2050 Strategy upholds the collective commitment of Forum Leaders to work together on the range of regional priorities before us, the Suva Agreement emphasizes the value and importance of restoring and upholding the region’s solidarity as a Forum family, whatever the cost.
Both commitments will continue to guide our work through and beyond 2023. Regionalism and the Pacific Way. Principles of talanoa, consensus, inclusion, mutual respect. These will continue to bring presence and purpose to our service to member governments, our dialogue partnerships, our stakeholder engagement.
In 2023, plans to visit each Forum member nation are already underway. Across civil society, private sector and media briefings, and with the formal government channels alongside us, it’s an important moment for connecting the regional will of our Leaders to the people they serve. Importantly, in my work through these national visits aimed at supporting Leaders to strengthen and renew ties across the region, the inclusion of our youth, women, private sector and other non-state leaders is essential. These are moments of powerful connection to the lived concerns and priorities of our Pacific nations and they bring life and context to the policy documents and meetings of the Secretariat. I began the HLC series in Solomon Islands this last week and it reaffirmed to me, the value of in-person visits in deepening our understanding of a country’s context and policy position.
The primacy of Oceans work to our Blue Pacific identity is clear. In this regard, my advocacy on the Japanese Government’s announcement to release treated Fukushima waste-water into our Blue Pacific Ocean in the first quarter of 2023 continues in its urgency, and I have undertaken to facilitate a high-level political visit to Japan in the coming weeks to drive home our call for comprehensive sharing of information and robust dialogue that will go a long way to adequately address Forum concerns before plans for discarding the wastewater are finalised. My advocacy aligns firmly with Leaders’ positions on this matter. And indeed, at the 51st Forum Leaders Meeting in Suva, Fiji in July 2022, “Leaders reiterated their strong concerns for the significance of the potential threat of nuclear contamination to the health and security of the Blue Pacific, its people and prospects, and reaffirmed the importance of ensuring international consultation, international law, and independent and verifiable scientific assessments as per the PALM9 Declaration.”
Recognising that a common understanding has not been reached with Japan at a technical level, the only option that remains for us now is political advocacy to reaffirm our position and to ensure that we are able to secure our region for our future generations.
The work of being Secretary General owes much to strong relationships with friends of the Pacific from all parts of the globe. But I want to pay special tribute to each and every Forum Leader, and they role they play in our collective identity and strength.
As we have seen from the recent visit of the Forum Chair, the Honourable Sitiveni L. Rabuka’s recent mission to the Republic of Kiribati, our true Pacific Way of diplomacy and talanoa is alive and well. We continue to be a people connected by the ocean, our cultures, and our traditions. Within this context, we must continue to celebrate the rich diversity that we share. This will ensure we are better able to connect the communiques of our Leaders to the communities of our Blue Pacific continent.
The vision of a return for Kiribati to the Forum family is one of my most fervent hopes in 2023- and on that note may I borrow from the I-Kiribati people my closing wish for our Blue Pacific continent in 2023 – te mauri, te raoi ao te tabomoa—for health, for peace, for prosperity.
Henry Puna is Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.
