An agreement signing done between the Government of Japan and the United Nations Development Programme of USD$5.2M will enhance the Strengthening Legislatures in Pacific Island Countries Project that will run from this year for three years.
The signing will allow current parliamentary development work to be scaled up and replicated to support six Pacific Parliaments.
The programme will allow UNDP to provide new support to the Parliaments of Fiji, Samoa, Republic of Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, and significantly scale up ongoing support to the Parliaments of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
While speaking at the signing, Parliament Speaker Doctor Jiko Luveni says this has allowed the members of parliament to build their capacity in examining, dissecting and appropriately addressing national development issues from the broad regional and global context, facilitated through south-south exchanges and technical expertise.
Luveni says she is excited about the prospects this would have for the Fiji Parliament as well as its Secretariat staff.
The focus of the programme will include capacity building for Legislators and Parliament staff, support to build the capacity and effectiveness of Parliament Committees and activities to mainstream the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the work of the Parliaments.
