Letter from Suva
Why Pacific Islanders Are Missing From the International Action
In an impressive building in Manila crucial decisions about the health of Pacific Islanders are made constantly. But how many Pacific Islanders are amongst those making these decisions?
Figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) Western Pacific regional office in the Philippines capital show only Fiji (3) and the Solomon Islands (1) have nationals employed there. The rest of the Pacific Islands nations were not represented. This is despite the fact that they each have a quota of up to eight people that can be employed at the Manila office. According to figures we have obtained, Japan (40) and Australia (20) dominate the professional staff at the Western Pacific office. It is a common story.
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How many Pacific Islanders do you know are working in places like the ACP Secretariat in Brussels, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) headquarters in Rome, United Nations in New York, UNESCO in Paris, or the Asian Development Bank? A quick check was quite revealing. There's few in these and many other international inter-governmental organisations. In fact so few it's easy to spot the leaders amongst them.
At the ACP Secretariat in Brussels: Samoa's Pao Luteru is the Assistant Secretary-General Political Affairs and Human Development, a position held for the first time by a Pacific Islander. This follows strong lobbying from Pacific Islands countries and a reshuffle in the ACP Secretariat. Yvonne Underhill-Sem, of the Cook Islands, is an ACP expert in rural development, food security and environment. At the United Nations in New York, there's quite a number of Pacific Islanders working as support staff. But there are few in the senior or professional ranks. The best known is Fiji's Satyanand, who is now the secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority.
In the UNESCO system, the best-known Pacific Islander was Fiji's Jim Bentley, who recently retired after serving as UNESCO Regional Communication Adviser for Asia. In fact, at UNESCO's Pacific States office in Apia, there's just one Pacific Islander, Papua New Guinea's Mali Voi, holding a senior professional post.
Why is it that there are few Pacific Islanders working in such important international organisations? Why aren't our governments aggressively going out to ensure we're fairly represented in these organisations, knowing how important these institutions are to our development?
Isikeli Mataitoga, Fiji's Ambassador in Brussels and co-ordinator of the Pacific ambassadors there, makes this observation: countries doing well internationally are those that have strategically placed their own people in these organisations. There are many benefits for the Pacific Islands nations if we follow the same trend. Apart from ensuring that our interests are being looked after, the exposure, experience, and the know-how our people will gain will bring benefits when they return home.
An example of this is in Suva, where Mr Bentley is now helping Fiji quickly develop its UNESCO National Commission. This in a region where till now the well funded, well staffed Australian and New Zealand national commissions sometimes seem determined to set the agenda. So if that is the case, why are our island nations not making a bigger effort to ensure we're well represented in the international bodies?
ONE: Pacific Islands governments are to be blamed. They are not doing much to actively encourage Pacific Islanders to apply for positions in these organisations despite the fact that some governments, Fiji included, have as part of their foreign policy to get nationals into international organisations. The problem has been raised at a number of high powered meetings including the Pacific Islands Forum, but not consistently. "We don't seem to put our act together in a structured way to get positions. We've been sidetracked by other issues, a lot of them being internal," a former Fiji foreign official said.TWO: The seeming lack of interest of some of our own people. Recently there were as many as 95 positions in the ACP Secretariat up for grabs. But only seven Pacific Islanders had shown interest, according to Mataitoga.
THREE: As one Fiji diplomat says: "We may have degrees, but we need to look for that extra advantage to make us competitive. Our degrees are too general. We must realise that we're competing with countries that have candidates who possess post-graduate qualifications with international focus."
Potential candidates should also aim to have a working knowledge of another language of the international bodies. French, for example, if they already have English. Like WHO explained when talking about the lack of Pacific Islands nationals in its Western Pacific office: "Most of the professional-level vacancies require post-graduate qualifications, as well as significant relevant experience in the field at both national and international level, as well as knowledge of one or more official/working languages of the United Nations system."
Knowing the importance of being part of these institutions, what should we be doing?
It's time our governments of the Pacific Islands ensure they identify potential candidates and help them prepare for such international positions. Then they should go out and aggressively utilise the quotas the international organisations have to try to help under-represented countries be better represented. But we need to do it ourselves. People like the Australians and New Zealanders aren't going to do it for us. They know the benefits. They're too are busy getting their own people into these organisations.
