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January - March 2014
Emergency Management Alliance (PIEMA). PIEMA was established
to support improved interoperability and cohesiveness between key
response agencies in Pacific Island countries and territories. He
will typically assist the target agencies (NDMO, Fire & Emergency
Services, Police, etc) in the Pacific to develop and implement twinning
arrangements with members of the Australasian Fire & Emergency
Services Authorities Council (AFAC) with a view to strengthening
emergency/disaster preparedness and response capacities. He will
also support the development and strengthening of interoperability
and strategic guidance towards improved response preparedness.
Mr Blake commenced his service with the project in the month of
January 2014 and is based at the SOPAC Division of SPC in Suva,
Fiji.
Officer DRM Suva – Ms Suzanne Paisley
Holds a Masters degree in Disaster
Management
and
Sustainable
Development. She has worked in DRM
in the Pacific for 6 years serving with the
UNESCO/IOC in Samoa, UNOCHA in Suva
and more recently with the World Bank as
a GFDRR DRR and CCA Specialist. She
is very familiar with the DRM and CCA
issues in the Pacific and has supported
mainstreaming of DRR in the Solomon
Islands context.
Ms Paisley will be responsible for providing oversight of the DRM/
CCA priorities of a selected group of target countries. She will also
responsible for developing and implementing capacity building and
institutional strengthening strategies in the selected countries.
Ms Paisley will commence her service with the project mid-April and
will be based in the SOPAC Division of SPC in Suva, Fiji.
Project Assistant – Mrs Asenaca Tawanikaimaro
Mrs Tawanikaimaro is currently pursuing
a degree in Information Systems and
Economics at the University of the
South Pacific. Mrs Tawanikaimaro is not
new to SOPAC having carried similar
responsibilities for the Disaster Reduction
Programme years before. She will be
responsible for providing administration and
finance support to the project.
Mrs Tawanikaimaro commenced work in the project on 1st April
2014 and in the SOPAC Division of SPC in Suva, Fiji.
Dr
Arthur
Webb
departs this month
after more than 10
years at SOPAC, first
as a Coastal Processes
Adviser and then as
Manager of the Oceans
and Islands Programme
since 2007. Arthur
started his career in
tropical agriculture and
agroforestry in Kiribati,
later specializing in
coastal management
and
earning
a
PhD
in
sediment
biogeochemistry from
Southern Cross University in Australia. Arthur is a lead author on
the IPCC 5th Assessment Report- Chapter 29 (Small Islands) and
is one of the region’s foremost experts in coastal processes. He will
be sincerely missed at SPC, but we look forward to crossing paths
with him in Tarawa again soon.
Where are you from?
That’s complicated! I was born in Germany to British parents and
my early childhood was back in the UK and Ireland. I moved to
Australia for primary and secondary school and then most of my
working life has been here in the Pacific. I feel like I’m from the
Pacific these days.
Were you always interested in the sciences as a kid?
Absolutely. I was a dreadful child at school and didn’t persevere with
school for very long, but I loved field trips and that sort of thing. I was
really fascinated by those early nature shows- the scientists would
be out in the bush with their land rovers. Now here I am, a scientist
with a land rover.
How did you go from school drop out to a PhD?
I was fortunate in that the opportunities were there. When I was
finally ready to study, I took it very seriously; when I went to
agricultural night school I was second out of the whole college and
when I completed my degree I won a Commonwealth grant to go
straight into a PhD. When I was ready, I could do it.
What path brought you to the Pacific?
My path was haphazard and purely fortuitous. I was in the UK,
visiting family as a young man and I met a woman who had just
come back from Africa as a VSO volunteer. I was enchanted by her
stories, so I went and found the VSO office and signed up. I said I
would work in any branch of agricultural sciences but it had to be in
Africa. They phoned me up a few months later and said ‘We have a
job in agroforestry in Kiribati. Is that ok?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, Kiribati in
Africa? Sign me up!’
How did you meet your wife?
I met Luisa towards the end of my first 4 years as a volunteer in
Kiribati, so I had learned Gilbertese and I was an outer island boy
at that stage- I didn’t live in the big city Tarawa. I like to think that I
charmed her by being a very proficient toddy cutter. I’ll boast and
say that I could fill a 2L bottle in the morning and in the evening
every day- that’s good even by Gilbertese standards.
What have you enjoyed about working at SOPAC?
The people. I’ll get choked up thinking about these sorts of things.
I’m only 50, but I have never worked with such a devoted team.
Ever. I don’t suppose I ever will again. It’s been a real pleasure, and
surprising, the immense resource of goodwill in this place just to
get the job done. I’ve never seen that anywhere else and it’s a really
magical thing here.
BON VOYAGE DR ARTHUR WEBB