14 countries to receive $1.67m each
FIJI and 13 other equal beneficiary countries will receive $US750,000 ($F1.673 million) each through the Implementing Sustainable Low and Non-Chemical Development in Small Island Developing States (ISLANDS) project.
This according to Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) waste management and pollution control program director Anthony Talouli.
He said this on day one of the Global Environment Facility Pacific Alliance for Sustainability (GEF-PAS) Pacific Project yesterday in Suva.
“The money will be used by the 14-member countries to address any issue they would like to see as a priority,” Mr Talouli said.
“Apart from the money, they will receive assistance through regional activities, training, and workshops, together with tools that will be prepared.
“We have to monitor the sustainability of these activities – if they are sustainable, what difference will it make and whether it will live beyond the life of the project.
“It’s only $US750,000 compared to what Fiji gets bilaterally from GEF – millions of dollars – but it puts it into other priorities because it knows that from the regional perspective you can get this money from the regional pocket from SPREP.”
Mr Talouli said apart from COVID-19 being a barrier – resources at a national and regional level were also seen as a challenge.
“The capacity to absorb this funding – there’s so much money now that it’s a big demand on national resources, many of these focal points are the same for other environment priority areas – focal points for climate change, focal point for biodiversity and focal point for pollution.
“At SPREP we have different focal points, but the countries have just one looking after everything – I feel sorry for the countries where perhaps that’s why SPREP exists as well as SPC and the forum because we work for the government so we are here to be the soldiers at the regional level and help everybody.”
The 14-member countries include Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.