FIJI HOSTS HIGH-LEVEL ROUNDTABLE
THIS MEETING IS AN AVENUE WHERE LEADERS AND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS DRIVE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
Ajoint-high level government development partner roundtable meeting, led by the Ministry of Finance, in partnership with the United Nations office of the resident coordinator, was held at the Grand Pacific Hotel yesterday.
This development partner coordination aimed to streamline approach for Government to request, track and receive assistance, reducing duplication of efforts by partners and ensuring alignment of development partner cooperation strategies to national priorities. The high-level roundtable served as an important platform for effective development cooperation supporting Government and development partners to contextualise international principals to national level partnerships.
This initial meeting, as part of a series of regular roundtable meetings, had a focused discussion on the development of Fiji’s new National Development Plan.
The objective of the meeting is to create a platform for mutual exchange between the Fiji Government and development partners to ensure alignment of partner programmes and funding to government policy priorities, and better coordination of development partner programmes at the whole of government level.
It also provided a platform to engage with a focus on improved transparency and accountability of development results and with renewed emphasis on inclusiveness for a boarder spectrum of partners.
The meeting, co-chaired by the
UN Nations resident coordinator to Fiji, Dirk Wagener, highlighted that Fiji, like many countries was not fully on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
He pointed out challenges such as the global climate emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing development issues that have hindered the progress of SDGs Eight and Nine.
“We are here today to discuss how the pursuit of these lacking SDGs can become the focus of Fiji’s national development effort,” Mr Wagener said.
Sharing the co-chair responsibilities, Minister for Finance Biman Prasad shared similar sentiments emphasising that the new NDP covers short-, medium- and long-term objective, seeking to address economic, social and environmental priorities comprehensively.
“The new NDP will identify be a holistic framework that will address a range of economic, social and environmental objective required to promote sustainable development and improve the well-being of all citizens,” Mr Prasad said.