The Secretariat of the Pacific Community, the European Union and the Government of the Solomon Islands hosted a national youth debate on deep sea minerals on Thursday (4 June 2015) at the National Auditorium in Honiara.

SPC initiated this debate in an effort to increase public awareness of issues related to deep seabed minerals in the Pacific, including for the Solomon Islands.

The debate featured 14 youths from nine high schools in Honiara.

Prior to the debate, the students took part in training after school hours on different aspects of deep sea minerals and mining to improve their understanding of the potential positive and negative aspects of this emerging industry and what it may mean for the Solomon Islands.

“The debate aimed to encourage young people and students to research and gain more knowledge on matters relating to deep sea minerals and to encourage a participatory approach whereby all stakeholders can frankly exchange views on various issues relating to deep sea minerals,” the SPC Deep Sea Minerals Project Team Leader, Akuila Tawake said.

Honiara, Solomon Islands – In Honiara last week, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) led training to develop 21 new Emergency Response Team trainers for the Solomon Islands.

The participants engaged in eight days of training on the various activities Emergency Response Teams are expected to perform and also learnt how to provide this training to other personnel in their respective Provinces or organisations.

The training reflects collaboration at the local, regional and national levels with SPC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), working together to prepare the training materials, which were reviewed by the Solomon Islands Red Cross Society (SIRCS) and National Disaster Management Office (NDMO)  before being delivered to participants representing Red Cross and Solomon Islands Government at the provincial level, as well as NGOs such as Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision.

Following the training, participants will receive support from Red Cross and the NDMO to provide multi-agency Emergency Response Team training in their home provinces.

In opening the training, the Secretary-General of Solomon Islands Red Cross, Joanne Zoleveke, and the Director of the NDMO, Loti Yates, challenged participants to take the opportunity afforded by this training to strengthen relationships between partners and to prepare to co-deliver Emergency Response Team (ERT) training at a provincial level.

Representatives from Broadcasters in Vanuatu test their plan in response to a
simulated earthquake event in Port Vila

Port Vila, Vanuatu - Vanuatu broadcasters and media came together with the National Disaster Management Office, and the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazard Department to plan and prepare their Climate and Disaster Resilience Plans this week.

Funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through ABC International and PACMAS, the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme, this training seeks to assist Pacific broadcasters in eight countries in preparing  plans that will help them be more resilient to the effects of climate change and disasters.

Having the very recent experience of category five Tropical Cyclone Pam the broadcasters and government ministries were able to share their experiences and lessons learnt to help develop plans.  This will help them continue broadcasting warnings and information to the public during times of disaster when people need this service the most.

10 April 2015 - What is the true cost of a disaster in human and economic terms? Once we know, what can we do to support the recovery of affected people? These are the questions to be considered next week by a group of 25 participants as they complete Palau’s first national training course in Post Disaster Needs Assessment, as part of Palau’s preparations for the forthcoming typhoon season.

The training is supported by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the European Union (EU) through a joint project called ACP-EU Building Safety and Resilience in the Pacific. Starting on Monday, the week-long training will increase Palau’s ability to calculate the cost of damage