BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

A capacity needs assessment carried out by DSE (Development Service Exchange) has resulted in “Good Governance” workshops in two provinces this year.

According to the civil society organisation (CSO) which looks after all CSOs in Solomon Islands, the assessment was conducted to identify the training and organisational development needs of its members.

DSE found that some member organisations were lacking the understanding of good governance practices and their importance thus, hindering their ability to perform day to day activities and obtain funding from donors.

This was found particularly in provinces where few opportunities to access training was mentioned as a contributing factor.

Henceforth, DSE rolled out two good governance workshops in Malaita and Western provinces in March 2018 and May 2018 respectively, to help its members understand the importance of good governance within CSO’s and enhance their knowledge of how to govern community based organisations effectively.

Specifically, from the workshops, DSE stated that CSO board members will learn to explain the concept of good governance, principles of good governance, importance of good governance, how the principles of good governance can be applied to the work of their own organisations, reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement in their own governance practices and in their organisations and identify good governance practice models that can be adopted for their organisation’s situation.

The workshops also included two days of context appropriate training with the aim to build the individual capacity of board members, influence the governance systems of their CSOs and strengthen the overall culture or governance among CSOs in the provinces.

DSE mentioned that these two workshops will directly benefit CSO leaders, their organisations, beneficiaries of their CSOs and the communities they operate in.

Together, a total of 14 females and 20 males representing 10 organisations attended the workshops.

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

ONE achievement DSE (Development Service Exchange) and its members can sit back and be proud of is their unwavering support for last year’s controversial Anti-Corruption Bill (ACB).

DSE, mandated under its Strategic Plan (2017-2022) is the voice of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Solomon Islands.

With this position and responsibility, from August 2017 to Dec 2017, DSE took the lead in mobilising members of CSOs as well as concerned citizens to put together a work plan and a terms of reference for a working committee (taskforce) comprising of its members to push for the bill’s return to parliament.

Different strategies were used to ensure that the Bill, also termed by then Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare as “People’s Bill” be prioritised by parliament.

The committee was formed, the media were involved, petitions were signed and peaceful protest march took pace to the Prime Minister’s office.

Since then, the Anti-Corruption bill has been revisited and submissions to the bills and legislations have been made.

The bill is being discussed nationally through social media, has generated much interest from development partners and donors and returned to Parliament in Nov 2017.

As expressed in DSE’s July 1, 2017 to June 30 Annual report by General Secretary, Jennifer Wate, the campaign to bring the Anti-Corruption Bill to parliament in Nov 2017 is a significant achievement DSE members and stakeholders worked together to achieve.

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

A Civil Society Organisation (CSO) information sharing session carried out by Development Service Exchange (DSE) has brought about reconciliation among tribal leaders.

According to DSE’s annual report, under its Strategic Priority 4 which is Collaboration; Facilitating Partnerships and Networking, the session was held early this year at KiraKira, Makira province for Makira Conservation Association members.

The session had three aims which were; to share information about sustainable harvest of Makira’s forest and marine life and established protected areas, to establish an environmental conservation network and thirdly, to raise awareness for the Integrated Forestry Management project which will be implemented by the Ministry of Environment (MECDM) Ministry of Agriculture (MAL) and Ministry of Forestry.

DSE expressed that this platform empowered Makira Conservation Association members and gave them the opportunity to interact with the government and other NGOs on issues of importance regarding their organisation and members of the community.

Additionally, the outcome of this workshop as DSE states was the review of the organisation’s constitution, reconciliation between leaders of different tribal groups that formed the association and member’s readiness for the consultation to review the forest resources utilisation Act.

As a national umbrella body for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country, DSE is a mouthpiece for these CSOs embodied with the mission to strengthen effective CSO coordination through advocacy, information sharing, capacity building and collaboration to ensure a credible, accountable and transparent civil society sector working toward equal and sustainable development in Solomon Islands.

BY GEORGINA KEKEA

THE General Secretary of the Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Advocacy Association (SIPHRAA) has called on Mr. Patrick Wong to pay former workers of ICSL RIPEL their legal entitlements of $99,000.

Mr Buddy Wickhams who was also an Agent for the former ICSL RIPEL workers in their high court cases says he is concerned in the way Patrick Wong and Oliver Salopuka dealt with the dividend of ICSL RIPEL.

In a letter to Island Sun, Wickhams say the public needs to be informed about the initial ICSL RIPEL Scheme of arrangement that was made sometime in 2001.

He said the scheme was passed and recognized by the High Court sometimes in October 2002 by respectable lawyers representing five different shareholding groups of RIPEL including workers and staff.

In this scheme, Solomon Islands Government, Central Islands Province and workers of RIPEL should get 20 percent dividend, while Lavukal Trust Board (LTB) should get 24.9 percent and ICSL 15.1 percent.

He said since Patrick Wong had paid the Lavukal Trust Board (LTB) their share he should also pay the non-striking workers their 20 percent share and other legal entitlements due to them as employees of ICSL RIPEL.

“So, why Patrick Wong paid the Lavukal Trust Board and its people their 24.9 percent share without paying the non-striking workers their 20 percent share of due dividends is a matter of concern that raises more questions than answers,” Wickhams said.

He said what Patrick Wong and his former general manager John Whiteside made with the leadership of the defunct SINUW to settle SINUW’s bill from the workers share can only be considered as daylight robbery of the faithful workers of ICSL RIPEL who stood with the company through hard and tough times during the striking period up until the court battle ended in the company’s favor.

He said how Patrick Wong dealt with the issue of RIPEL is a real political cover up.

“If Patrick Wong is truly concerned about RIPEL he should consider and work closely with all the former RIPEL workers first before any other group including the Lavukal Trust Board (LTB),” said Wickhams.

At the same time, Wickhams deplore the manner in which Wong and Salopuka dished out the monies to the people of Russel islands.

“In fact I consider the displaying of hard cash by Wong and Salopuka as cheap and shallow political bait for this coming general election because Oliver Salopuka is amongst the intending candidates for Russell and Savo constituency. How, is this not campaigning outside of time as stipulated in the electoral act? Wickhams questions.

He went onto say that in the last general election of 2014 Oliver Salopuka uses ICSL RIPEL through their General Manager Mr John Whiteside.

“According to Mr. John Whiteside, Oliver Salopuka uses up around $2.5million that belongs to Lavukal people, but yet to retire how the money was used,” Wickhams say.

Furthermore, Wickhams alleged that Salopuka was a pain in the neck to the terminated ICSL RIPEL General Manager, John Whiteside. He said how he convinced Patrick Wong to provide him support would be interesting to find out. He said this new friendship was made after Patrick Wong terminated John Whiteside.

With Wickhams tirade on Salopuka, Island Sun brought to Salopuka’s attention all that was said about him by Wickhams. However, he declined to make a comment, saying everyone is entitled to their opinion.

But to respond to Wickhams, former RIPEL employee spokesperson, Fisher Lulu says the former workers have moved on.

He said they have tried to solve the issue for more than a decade already and have decided that it is time they work together with Mr. Patrick Wong.

“We want to come back and work with Mr. Patrick Wong for any development for us in the future,” Lulu said.

Lulu verified that they have worked with Wickhams, through SIPHRAA in the court issues and have raised a lot of funds but gained nothing from it.

He said from this, the workers decided to organise themselves and do things their own way.

“We think that to resolve this issue is more important and we are supporting what Patrick Wong is doing for us,” Lulu said.

He said through legal process, the workers do not have a share in RIPEL. Only the Lavukal people has shares, Lulu said.

He said if this is the way forward for the workers of RIPEL then they are quite happy to work with Wong to revitalise RIPEL.

He said Russel is their home now as most of the workers in RIPEL are second to third generation Russel islanders whose parents and grandparents have left their home of origin from another province many years ago.

“So we look at Russel as our home too. This is why we are so pleased when the Company and the Lavukal people agreed for us to stay until everything is sorted out so that we can continue with our work,” Lulu said.

SIPHRAA meanwhile is adamant that Patrick Wong pays the workers what is due to them, under the 7th defendants of HCCC No.114 of 2009, and also pay the non-striking workers their legal entitlements as employees of ICSL RIPEL and the dividend of their 20 percent share.