BY LORETTA B MANELE
The Pacific Island Forum (PIF) has hinted at the need for member countries to align their efforts towards achieving collective goals.
If PIF members do not see alignment in their efforts at different levels, be it at the community, national, regional or global level, then it will always be difficult to work together more so, to achieve a common goal as a region.
PIF Deputy Secretary General, Esala Nayasi raised this when he spoke to regional and local media representatives at the three-day PIF Workshop which commenced on Friday, September 5, 2025 at the Forum Media Centre, Sports Stadium.
“If we do not see alignment in all our efforts at different levels, at community, at sub-national, to national, to sub-regional, to regional, to global, if these efforts are not aligned, it is always difficult to not only work together, but achieve a common goal as a region,” he said.
In relation, Nayasi said that in the last two years, they have gone through a review of the regional architecture in which leaders have set four pillars.
He explained that they are also looking at all the institutions in the region.
“So, we have regional organizations, we have international organizations, we have national initiatives, programs in the region, and also different stakeholders with different priorities. And you’ll understand how complicated it can be to align all these different efforts,” Nayasi said.
He added that it is obvious that in this case, you need to manage interest and expectations of each stakeholder.
Nayasi said there are four pillars that have guided their work in the review of the regional architecture.
He explained that the first one is the “political mandate of our leaders”.
“Political mandate of our leaders in relation to membership of regional organizations, membership of all different stakeholders that we have,” said Nayasi.
He mentioned that this also speaks to the importance of political governing bodies that govern each organisation.
“Likewise, multilateral organizations like the UN. Likewise, all the different organizations which were even part of the sub-national, national, sub-regional to regional level. And obviously, the global level,” said Nayasi.
He stated that the second pillar is to do with regional governance and pointed out that in terms of regional organisations, there are different governance mechanisms.
“There are different governing bodies that govern each organization,” said Nayasi.
The third pillar as stated is “institutional arrangements”.
Nayasi went on to say that the final pillar is “partnerships” and raised that PIF member countries cannot achieve goals, aspirations, national development plans and regional plans without effective and sustainable partnerships.
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