The Melanesian Spearhead Group has embarked on a web-based video conferencing system during the Covid-19 pandemic.
MSG Secretariat facilitates its first online bilateral consultations between Fiji and Vanuatu. Photo: MSG Secretariat
The secretariat said through the use of these virtual meeting rooms, members can collaborate online in real time via the internet.
On 29 April, the Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat held its first online bilateral meeting between trade, biosecurity and health officials from Fiji and Vanuatu.
The secretariat's acting director, George Hoa'au, said the new initiative was a crucial online platform that members could use in times of crisis.
He said despite the Covid-19 travel restrictions, the secretariat could still continue to implement its work programme, which was approved at the Governing Body Meetings in Suva in February this year.
Mr Hoa'au said the bilateral meeting was a positive way to respond to adversity and a manifestation of innovations the secretariat was exploring to ensure the delivery of services to its members.
He said the use of the zoom facility was recently tested by the Secretariat's information & technology (IT) division.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Oceania Regional Director, Mason Smith, left and Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat’s Director General, Ambassador Amena Yauvoli. Photo: MSG Secretariat
Further commitment to nature
Earlier, the MSG secretariat signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The Secretariat's Director-General, Ambassador Amena Yauvoli, said the partnership sealed further conservation commitments for both organisations.
Through the MOU signed on 9 April at the IUCN Oceania Regional Office, he said both parties agreed to develop a mutual partnership to address nature conservation and promote sustainable development in the region.
Mr Yauvoli said both parties recognised the significance of the joint collaboration and what it meant for the Pacific.
"MSG leaders envision that green growth shall be the pillar of MSG members' development into the future as championed in the Leaders Declaration on Environment, Climate Change and Green Growth Goals.
"Therefore, the MSG region has a lot of opportunities to offer in terms of strengthening our efforts in the areas of climate change, environment protection, conservation and other sustainable development initiatives," Mr Yauvoli said.
IUCN Regional Director of Oceania, Mason Smith, said given the threat posed by Covid-19 and the devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Harold, he looked forward to working closely with the MSG Secretariat to "find common approaches to common challenges facing the MSG countries."
"It is only by working together in partnership that we can truly bring to the fore the benefits that valuing and conserving nature can bring to our local communities.
"The MOU will make way for joint implementation of activities in areas such as biodiversity, forest landscape restoration, sustainable forest management, climate change, disaster risk management, food security and planetary health," Mr Smith said.
Established in 2007, the MSG Secretariat is an administrative arm of the MSG - an intergovernmental organisation - whose full membership consists of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front of New Caledonia.