Solidarity and a consistent alignment to human rights and principles for good development practices is a driver of healthy civil society organisations and platforms.
These, says Pacific Islands Association of NGOs executive director, Emele Duituturaga are lessons learnt from three decades of PIANGO’s organising work with its 24 affiliates in the region.
“As a regional platform organisation for national NGO platforms, PIANGO has had a variety of experiences when it comes to organisational development. Our membership range from fully funded and resourced organisations to those without an office and coordinated by either part time officers or full volunteers.”
“This year, through its partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), European Union (EU), Bread for the World, International Forum for NGO Platforms (IFP/Forus) and to an extent, CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE), PIANGO will target strengthening the capacities of our members in Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru and Tuvalu.”
“Our role is not to prescribe the solutions but to provide support and accompaniment, along with technical organisational development assistance to help supplement their capacities to influence change in their countries.”
Duituturaga said the support will also include technical assistance for the effective participation of their members in regional and international policy platforms.
“In mid January, we were in Kiribati supporting the Kiribati Association of NGOs to participate in their country’s consultations on the SDG Voluntary National Review report due in July at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York.”
“Last week, we are working on the ground in Port Vila with the Vanuatu Association of NGOs (VANGO) to prepare them for the CSO – Leaders meeting in Nauru and to make submissions under the Framework for Pacific Regionalism so that leaders can consider their issues.”
She said she was confident that VANGO’s new board will mobilise Vanuatu CSOs effectively in the next few months for this purpose.
“VANGO has a midterm plan which looks at rolling out programmatic activities that connects to national priorities as well as institutional strengthening. These from volunteers who have committed to revitalising and running VANGO on top of full time jobs and minimal resources.”
VANGO’s current board members include Lai Sakita, Anne Pakoa, Shirley Abraham, Amos Kalo, Harold Obed and Nasuven Enares.
Duituturaga said PIANGO will continue to work closely with the board as well as offer support to prepare VANGO for Vanuatu’s participation in the 2019 VNR at the UN HLPF.
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