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Snapshots #63 October 2010 - Disaster Reduction Programme

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We have recently completed the final SOPAC Governing Council meeting which was held from 16th – 21st October at the Tanoa International Hotel in Nadi.

The major outcome of the meeting in terms of SOPAC’s integration as the Applied Geoscience & Technology Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) is that the Member Countries have decided that the SOPAC be suspended rather than dissolved.

This will allow for the reconstitution of SOPAC as an organisation in the future should Member Countries so decide. But, for the moment, we are all geared up to be a part of the SPC family and look forward to the challenges and opportunities that this will bring.

The SOPAC Council endorsed the proposed 2011 Work Plan & Budget and the SOPAC Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015 and since then the SPC Council (Committee of Regional Governments and Administrations) at its meeting held in Noumea, New Caledonia from 25th – 29th October has also done likewise.

So it seems we’re set to go for 2011. In this issue we cover the work that has just started in the Cook Islands in terms of the development of a Joint Climate Change & Disaster Risk Management National Action Plan. We also discuss the review of the Marshall Islands DRM National Action Plan and the development of their Climate Change Policy which we collaborated with the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme on.

We also discuss the launch of Palau’s 2010 National Disaster Risk Management Framework, Pacific Disaster Net User training in Solomon Islands, the renovation of the water office in Hohola in Papua New Guinea. We also provide an update on the World Bank/ Asian Development Bank/ SOPAC Risk Exposure Database with its last field surveys in Samoa and Tonga.

I hope you enjoy reading this edition.

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Mosese Sikivou
Manager, Disaster Reduction Programme

Last Updated on Friday, 12 November 2010 11:45  

Newsflash

In the years leading up to 2010, the Pacific Island leaders decided to integrate the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (formerly known as CCOP/SOPAC) into the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. To implement this historical alignment of the two organisations, the leaders called to arms an internationally renowned geoscientist, who immediately left his well deserved retirement on Viti Levu's Coral Coast and reported to duty at Mead Road, Suva.

The then-incumbent, Dr. Russell Howorth, had been an integral part of SOPAC from its early years in the 70's, and still continues to be one of the main stalwarts of the organisation. Over the years, he has been instrumental in bringing about the prestige and recognition that SOPAC has in the region today.

A native of Yorkshire, Great Britain, Dr. Howorth did his PhD. in Geology from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, after a brief stint as a mining geologist in Zambia. He first visited the fledgling CCOP/SOPAC while on secondment at the University of South Pacific (USP) in early 1979. CCOP/SOPAC was then a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional project with less than 10 staff members.

During his early years in the South Pacific, he was best known for his achievement in establishing the Certificate in Earth Science and Marine Geology. The Certificate brought three organizations -- CCOP/SOPAC, USP, and Victoria University of Wellington -- together in the early eighties to offer what was a unique opportunity for an academic course with a practical focus for geologists and technicians in the region.