PNG Chairs the First Virtual 50th Meeting of the Committee of the Representatives of the Governments and Administrations

A Virtual Week

Last week, twenty six countries and territories across the wider Pacific and beyond, met virtually for the 50th Meeting of the Committee of the Representatives of the Governments and Administrations (CRGA) of the Pacific Community that ran for three days from 17-19 November 2020. PNG was privileged to chair this meeting which is not only the 50th but also the first CRGA to be hosted virtually in a hybrid format. The Pacific Community is a regional organization that provides technical, scientific, human development and social assistance across the region. It is one of the oldest regional organizations that has been in existence since 1947. There are 26 member countries and territories accredited to this organization.

The Meeting of the Committee of the Representatives of the Governments and Administrations (CRGA) is an annual meeting of Senior Officials from the Member countries, observers and development partners to discuss the activities of the organization in the past year. This year, due to the COVID 19 pandemic and the closure of borders, the Secretariat decided to have this three day meeting virtually and in a hybrid format. The Secretary for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), Ms Barbara Age chaired this meeting from Port Moresby.

Members joined from the SPC offices in Suva and Noumea and from their individual countries. Altogether there were about 151 participants in total in the meeting. I played a role as the technical advisor to my Secretary (this was the term bestowed upon me by the Secretariat staff) as the contact point between the Secretariat team in Noumea and Fiji. I also prepared the issues brief and intervention notes for the meeting for PNG’s Head of Delegation who was the Acting Director General of the Bilateral Division.

Preparations

One of the major challenges that the Secretariat had to take into account was the connectivity issues in the region that may hinder the meeting. As such, tests were held in the preceding weeks not only to check the connectivity but also since this was a new concept, it was important to ensure that Members were familiar with the Zoom application, how to connect and use its features.

The Secretariat and the Director General also held weekly meetings with Secretary Age as chair to run through the briefings on how the meeting will be conducted and the support that she would need. It was very important for the chair to be well briefed to enable the smooth flow of proceedings in the meeting since the Secretariat staff would not be physically with her on the meetings days.

With regards to technical support, we created a backchat using Microsoft Teams where the Secretariat staff could communicate with me during the meeting to provide updates that they were getting on the ground and as the hosts of the meeting. We also connected on whatsapp and on messenger to keep in touch when the meeting was on.

The Secretary's Conference room was set up as that was where she would be chairing from. A nice backdrop was set, a laptop made available and a pair of headsets to use when speaking. The PNG head of Delegation, Mr Brian Kaumu, the Acting Director General for the Bilateral Division joined from his office on the 7th floor of the same building.

The meeting

The 50th Meeting of the Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA) was held virtually from 17-19 November 2020. The first day went well, with Secretary Age going through the opening formalities and we went through the Agendas of the day. One of the main things that I had to deal with was to be the go between person for the chair and the Secretariat staff in Noumea and Fiji and even the Director General’s chief advisor who was in Niue.

During the interventions when Members were to provide their views, the Secretariat staff would send me messages through our back channel on Microsoft teams as to which country had raised their hands to speak and in which order.

PNG’s High Commissioner to Fiji and the Permanent Representative to the SPC, Her Excellency, Ms Lucy Bogari, was appointed as the alternate chair so should we be faced with any difficulties throughout the meeting she would take over and run the meeting.

The Challenges

One of the main challenges of this meeting was that the SPC is a bilingual organization where both English and French were the official languages hence, speakers had to ensure that they spoke slowly and clearly to enable the interpreters to translate. The Secretariat staff had encouraged all Heads of Delegations who would be speaking to ensure that they used headsets or an earpiece when speaking so that the sound is clear and it is easier to interpret.

Thankfully, we had a power outage only once in the three days which caused us to drop out of the meeting but we managed to reconnect after ten minutes. The alternate chair in Suva took over to ensure that the meeting progressed despite the chair being offline.

We only had one technical glitch in the last session of the day as we were going through any other business when the meeting link dropped but again that was resolved in less than ten minutes and all participants were able to reconnect.

Since we were all operating from different time zones across the Pacific, the meeting started each day for us in PNG at 8:30am which was 7:30am in Noumea and around 10am in Suva. This had to be factored into the meeting hence, the zoom link was opened at 7am and we had to do the necessary checks before the meeting proper started at 8:30am. This was a personal challenge for me as I had car problems and a baby who decided to get sick that very week.

Achievements

The 50th CRGA would not only be memorable because it was the 50th meeting but because it was the first meeting that was held in its virtual format and PNG got to chair that meeting. PNG will not have the opportunity to chair for another twenty –two years or so as it is on a rotational basis.

Secretary Age chaired the meeting very well from her office in Port Moresby and there were very few technical challenges which were easily overcome. We were able to have greater participation in the meeting as more people were able to join from their own capitals in their respective countries. This ensured that the discussion that took place was very rich and very informed. This meeting’s outcomes will guide the work of the Pacific Community throughout the year.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community has pivoted most of its programs to focus on COVID recovery and the effected of COVID 19 through the provision of support to public health, agriculture, fisheries arrangement, economic recovery among others.

This meeting showed that work in the region could continue despite the challenges of closed borders and limited travel. Internet connectivity will continue to be an issue that we face in the region but that will improve over time. 

For me personally, this meeting was more demanding that the others that I sat in because PNG was the chair and we had an additional duty than just participating in the meeting. By the end of the week, I feel like I am very well versed with running multiple channels during a meeting and being a very supportive technical assistant to the chair. I also feel like I have contributed to improving PNG's visibility in this organization (Pacific Community) as I put together a Head of Delegation's issues brief and intervention notes which was very well contributed to the meeting.