|
The Secretariat of the Pacific Community or SPC is a regional intergovernmental organisation whose membership includes both nations and territories. It aims to "develop the technical, professional, scientific, research, planning and management capability of Pacific Island people and directly provide information and advice, to enable them to make informed decisions about their future development and well-being." [1] (http://www.spc.int/role.htm)
It was founded in 1947 as the South Pacific Commission, by six developed countries with an interest in the region:
The Netherlands later resigned its membership. The SPC work-area includes the following Pacific island countries and territories, which since 1983 have been full members:
American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Wallis and Futuna.
Apart from Tonga, these were all territories of the original founder members of SPC, but most are now independent.
SPC is the oldest and largest organisation in the 10-member Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP), a consultative process that is headed at the political level by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. SPC itself was constituted expressly as a "non-political" organisation, and provides technical advisory services to its members in Fisheries [2] (http://www.spc.int/mrd), Forestry, Women, Youth, National Statistics, Demography, Culture, Agriculture, Public Health and Community Education.
SPC was the first CROP organisation to be headed by a woman. Lourdes Pangelinan of Guam is the organisation's current Director-General.
External links
|
