Staff Urged to Be Optimistic
Senior Management of the Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management were urged to remain optimistic and resilient in a changing reality as the COVID-19 pandemic and disaster impact continue to pose a major challenge against development in the country.
While addressing members of the senior management board of the ministry in Suva, Minister for Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management Inia Seruiratu said the country had been through a very challenging time for the first half of this year.
“We’ve had so many challenging situations that confronted us. First we had the COVID-19 and that in itself is a new dimension when it comes to resilience in development,” Mr Seruiratu said.
“It’s not only about climate change, it’s not only about disasters, it’s not only about wars and conflicts but the new challenge that has come in our direction now is pandemics. There are a lot of predictions that there is a lot more to come, but for us it is how do we adapt to the changing environment and how can we prepare ourselves better.” He also said that apart from the challenges posed by the present COVID-19 pandemic, the country was also gripped with recent devastation left behind by TC Harold and this was the new norm.
“This is the new norm so let’s prepare the organisation, let’s prepare the people as well.”