Letter from Suva
How Truly Regional Are Regional Organizations
Organisations like the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, South Pacific Tourism Organisation, South Pacific Applied Geoscienc
Organisations like the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, South Pacific Tourism Organisation, South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission, South Pacific Regional Environment Programme and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat play a vital role in the development of the region. But how many of them are truly regional — in the sense that they are really managed and manned by Pacific Islanders?
A meeting a colleague was at recently was revealing. The head of the regional institution was there, a respected Pacific Islander. But just about everyone else from this Pacific Islands organisation who was there was what our Samoan friends call a palagi.
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They came from places around the world.
This prompted a check around some of the main regional organisations. It revealed that despite these institutions having Pacific Islanders as chief executives, many of the ranks of professional positions are still dominated by expatriates. Only when you get to the lower-ranking service job roles do you find Pacific Islanders dominating.
Take SOPAC, for instance, which is based in Suva. Although it is headed by a respected Pacific Islander— Fiji's Alf Simpson as director— his deputy and other key members of his professional staff are basically expatriates.
The story is the same for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's growing Fiji operation at Nabua in Suva. Despite the SPC in Suva being headed by Solomon Islander Dr Jimmie Rodgers, an outstanding Pacific islander, out of the 19 top positions within the Nabua secretariat, 11 are held by non Pacific islanders. The news for Pacific Islanders is better at the Suva-based South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO). SPTO is managed and manned by Pacific Islanders — it has a Tongan as chief executive and his directors are all Pacific Islanders.
So why is it that some leading regional organisations continue to hire so many non-Pacific Islanders? Don’t we in the region have qualified and experienced people who have the technical expertise to take up these jobs, plus a true knowledge of the region and its needs?
I recall a conversation with a senior Fiji foreign official recently. He said the criticism about the lack of Pacific Islanders in senior positions within regional organisations has been raised many times before in regional foras way back in the 80s. And he particularly remembers the issue raised in Noumea in 1986/87 by representatives of islands governments. Guess what the response was then? They were told that there was a lack of qualified people in the region to take up those positions, so regional organisations had to hire non-Pacific islanders.
Well, it is now 2001 — some years later— and what do we have? Has there been an improvement? Are there more Pacific Islanders in top positions for professional staff? If our quick check is anything to go by then, not a lot has changed at places like the SPC. Professional staff positions still seem to be dominated by non-Pacific Islanders.
One former Fiji foreign secretary said the question of lack of qualified people in the region, is a non issue. He said the region now has more experienced and qualified Pacific Islanders with technical expertise. They are available to fill a whole range of positions including those in the technical field, he said.
So why aren’t regional organisations hiring them? Why aren’t all regional organisations honouring that unwritten understanding amongst island governments that Pacific Islanders, if they meet the criteria for top posts, be selected? Why do they keep employing non-Pacific Islanders from New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain and even France when we have homegrown qualified people?
Is there enough transparency in the advertising and hiring for professional positions in some of these organisations? Are there too many token efforts, with Pacific Islanders as chief executives and ranks of those palagis below? What are the reasons certain positions always seem to be filled by non-Pacific Islanders? And whose interests do those filling these positions really look after?
