Pacific peace and stability featured for UNDP Strategic meeting

Participants at a peace-building workshop in the Solomon Islands. Photo: UNIFEM

Story by Shobna Decloitre in Suva

Senior Pacific government officials, civil society members and development partners from four Island countries will attend a weeklong meeting to explore means of strengthening regional peace and stability and promoting dialogue.

The workshop, undertaken as part of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Strengthening Capacities for Peace and Development project will be attended by more than 45 participants from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tonga.

CPAD aims to bring together government and civil society actors to share experiences, discuss the difficult issues and begin to strengthen leadership and capacities for peace in the Pacific.

Participants will look at identifying the linkages between peace, stability and development as well as ways to address the root causes of conflict in the Pacific. This workshop will also explore how public policy can address causes of conflict.

A similar workshop was held in Nadi last year, as part of which a community of Pacific peace builders was created. The experiences of the community will also be shared at this workshop.

The Permanent Secretary Lands, and a member of the Pacific Peace Community, Filimoni Kau; UNDP Pacific Centre manager Garry Wiseman; and  UNDP's Crisis Prevention and Recovery team leader Tracy Vienings will deliver remarks at the opening of the workshop.

The workshop will take place at the Tanoa International Hotel in Nadi from Monday until July 22.

Source:  UNDP, Suva