Busan, Republic of Korea- A side event at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness being held in Busan, Republic of Korea has been told about the lessons learnt from the first two years of implementation of the Cairns Compact on Strengthening Development Coordination (Forum Compact) since it was endorsed by Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in 2009. Speaking on the regional level experiences at the Side Event on “Localising the Global Agenda on Development Cooperation: Regional dimensions in strengthening Mutual Accountability”, the Solomon Islands Foreign Affairs and External Trade Minister, Hon Peter Shanel Agovaka said the decision by Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in 2009 to endorse the Forum Compact was in part a response to the global economic crisis. “Forum Leaders were looking at developing effective policy measures and practical response to tackle its impact, accelerate achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, as well as build sustained economic resilience in the Pacific,” said Hon. Agovaka. “Implementing the Forum Compact is a key tool for implementing the priorities endorsed by Leaders for the Pacific Plan. Many of these Pacific Plan priorities can be achieved with greater development coordination supported by the Compact.” While building on existing national, regional and global approaches, the Compact also introduces new processes for supplementing country efforts towards greater development coordination, including the use of peer reviews. Early implementation of the Forum Compact in 2010 focused on gathering Pacific countries and development partner information to better inform future actions on strengthening development cooperation. “A number of lessons learnt in the first year of implementation included the need to closer link the Compact practice to existing regional strategies, in particular the Pacific Pan, and the necessity of streaming country reporting requirements,” said Hon. Agovaka. He added: “Feedback from countries who participated in the peer review process in the first year was generally positive and supplemented national thinking on development cooperation, while recognizing that there was scope for greater efficiency in how they were managed.” The focus of implementation of the Forum Compact in 2011 has shifted from generating reporting to using existing sources of evidence wherever possible to support the identification of priority actions to strengthen development cooperation in the Pacific island countries and in the region. “The experience of the Compact is that it is generating evidence of what works in the Pacific region and how best both governments and development partners can build on these achievements and unearthing good development cooperation practices in the region,” said Mr Agovaka, Solomon Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade. Five Forum Island Countries have volunteered and completed their peer reviews under the Compact. This includes Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Niue and Vanuatu. ENDS. For media enquiries, contact Mr Johnson Honimae, the Forum Secretariats’ Media Officer on email: johnsonh@forumsec.org.fj
