May 22, 2017: Recognising the mutual benefit to be achieved through a cooperative program promoting scholarly activities, national, regional and international understanding, the University of Fiji (UniFiji) and the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) entered into an academic cooperation agreement by signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Saweni Campus.
“We are a Pacific Islands multilateral agency set-up as an action oriented platform bringing together leaders from the public and private sectors and civil society to address regional development challenges and whose mission is enabling green-blue Pacific economies through inclusive strategies, multi-stakeholder governance and genuine partnerships”, said PIDF Deputy Secretary General, Peni Lomaloma.
“This MoU enables us to work as partners on matters of mutual interest to PIDF and UniFiji such as projects, lectures, symposia, conferences and workshops especially related to climate change, renewable energy, environmental and sustainable development amongst others”, he further added
“It empowers PIDF and UniFiji to consider common responses to local, regional and global calls for proposals and papers on various issues affecting us in the Pacific”.
Apart from cooperation through innovative information sharing, periodic consultations and technical meetings on matters of common interest in Pacific islands countries and territories, PIDF and UniFiji may undertake joint proposals for pragmatic technical and policy projects.
An initial action of this MOU was a COP23 awareness seminar session on Ocean & Climate organised by the Department of Science, School of Science & Technology (SoST), UniFiji in collaboration with PIDF held at the UniFiji Saweni Campus on May 19. PIDF was represented by Team Leader Policy Research & Evaluation, Viliame Kasanawaqa and Team Leader Member Capacity, Arpana Pratap who both delivered presentations at the seminar.
The session attended by UniFiji students, staff, media and members of the public are continued efforts to support Fiji’s Presidency of COP 23 and CO-Presidency of UN Ocean Conference and raising public awareness on the link between sustainable ocean management and climate change.
PIDF also has MoUs with the other established academic institutions such as the University of the South Pacific and Fiji National University.