Summary of Conventions

Country	Status	Year
American Samoa	member	31-Dec-1969
Australia	member	31-Dec-1969
Cook Islands	member	31-Dec-1969
Fiji	member	31-Dec-1969
France	member	31-Dec-1969
French Polynesia	member	31-Dec-1969
Guam	member	31-Dec-1969
Kiribati	member	31-Dec-1969
Marshall Islands	member	31-Dec-1969
Micronesia, Fed. States of	member	31-Dec-1969
Nauru	member	31-Dec-1969
New Caledonia	member	31-Dec-1969
New Zealand	member	31-Dec-1969
Niue	member	31-Dec-1969
North Marianas	member	31-Dec-1969
Palau	member	31-Dec-1969
Papua New Guinea	member	31-Dec-1969
Pitcairn	member	31-Dec-1969
Samoa	member	31-Dec-1969
Solomon Islands	member	31-Dec-1969
Tokelau	member	31-Dec-1969
Tonga	member	31-Dec-1969
Tuvalu	member	31-Dec-1969
United Kingdom	member	31-Dec-1969
USA (contiguous states)	member	31-Dec-1969
Vanuatu	member	31-Dec-1969
Wallis and Futuna Is.	member	31-Dec-1969

Language
English
French

Document text

	
	The Role of SPC

 A Pacific Island organization serving the  region... with Islanders deciding its work

 The Secretariat of the Pacific Community 's role in Pacific Islands development, unlike its structure, membership and  home, has not changed significantly since 1947. Its mission has always been to provide technical advice, assistance,  training and applied research to its Island member countries and territories.

Responding to the needs of the region

To ensure that SPC responds to the expressed needs of its   Island members, the South Pacific Conference approves the   Work Programme and budget each year (from 1998   Conference will delegate this responsibility to the Committee   of Representatives of Governments and Administrations   [CRGA]). Requests carry government or administration approval, and are transmitted to the Secretariat via official country or territory contacts, ensuring that the organization concentrates its efforts on priorities identified directly by its Island members. Also contributing to the formulation of the Work Programme are regional conferences and technical meetings, which gather specialists working in the region to ensure that SPC remains effective.

What is the Commission ?

SPC is the oldest regional organization in the Pacific, with 26 member countries and territories.   It is a technical advice, assistance, training and research agency serving the 22 Island countries and territories of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.  SPC enables all of the region’s Island countries and territories to express their needs and identify their own development priorities.

It is a bilingual organization, with English and French as its official working languages.  SPC has 175 staff members (as of 1 October 1996) and an annual approved budget of 18,523,803 CFP units for 1997.

What it is not SPC is a non-political organization, gathering countries and territories as full members irrespective of their political status.  Although SPC offers small awards and grants in selected areas, it is not a funding organization.

What it does 

The Commission implements the activities and projects identified as priorities by its members and incorporated     in its annual Work Programme.  It provides technical assistance, advisory services,  information, research and  clearing-house services to the Island countries and territories of the region.

SPC conducts regional conferences and technical meetings, as well as training courses, workshops and    seminars at the in-country (local) level.  It helps develop local expertise and promotes regional  co-operation, with emphasis on self-reliance and  development activities.

SPC's activities

The heart of SPC is its integrated Work Programme. This powerful combination of diverse disciplines offers a unique approach to the development of the region’s land-based, marine-based and human resources. The focus of the Work  Programme is now technical assistance, education and training, delivered through courses, workshops and seminars at the in-country, sub-regional and regional levels. However, the                               Commission also has strong applied research components, particularly in its Oceanic Fisheries and Agriculture      Programmes. The Work Programme covers:

Technical services in marine resources:

Coastal fisheries
Oceanic fisheries

Technical services in land-based resources:

Agriculture
Plant protection
Forestry
Maritime Programme
AIDS/STD Peer Education Project
Community Education Training Centre
Regional Media Centre

Technical services in social resources:

Health
Statistics
Economics
Demography
Technology
Pacific Women's Resource Bureau
Youth
Culture

 Awards and Grants

How to benefit from our programmes

Requests for assistance or for grants must have the approval of the Government or Administration concerned. Although informal contacts can be made directly with SPC programme staff, requests must then be channeled through SPC official contacts (usually the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Office of the Governor). All such requests must be addressed to the Director-General. This process, although time-consuming, ensures that SPC only responds to those requests identified as priorities by the country or territory concerned, and is one of  the reasons for the organization's history of accomplishments.

Full Island members

No provision was made in the Canberra Agreement, however, for any additions to the six original Participating       Governments. New Zealand granted Western Samoa independence in 1962, technically removing it from the      Commission’s membership. An Amending Agreement, signed in London on 6 October 1964, named Western Samoa (the only independent island state at that time) and stated that any territory within SPC’s influence could become a full member if invited to do so by all the Participating Governments. Western Samoa became a full, voting member of the Commission on 17 July 1965, and was followed by Nauru, on 24 July 1969,  and Fiji, on 5 May 1971, when those Pacific Islands achieved independence.

The Amending Agreement also changed the voting procedure:  previously each member had one vote. The new system gave members one vote for each dependent territory, which would be transferred after independence and accession as a full member. Therefore Australia had five votes, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States four and Western Samoa one when it joined the five remaining metropolitan countries. The newly independent Island states were able to continue receiving assistance themselves, because even after acceding to the Canberra Agreement as Participating Governments, they remained under the scope of the Commission.

Blending the old and the new 

The single greatest change to SPC’s membership occurred in 1983, at the 23rd South Pacific Conference in Saipan. At this meeting, along with several other major institutional innovations, all previous associate members of the Commission joined the Participating Governments as full voting and contributing members of SPC. The Conference Chairman, Lieutenant Governor Pedro A. Tenorio of the Northern Mariana Islands, hailed the ‘age of the new Pacific’  in his opening address, proposing that ‘our destinies will be determined by the successful blending of our old ways with the new’.

Thus a truly regional organization came of age in 1983, with a comprehensive membership (communicating in two  languages), and equally distributed voting power, regardless of political status.

The formula adopted for assessed contributions to SPC was based on per capita income (Gross Domestic Product divided by population) for the Island countries and territories, with the five founding member countries contributing 92.266 per cent of the total core budget. Since then, the United Kingdom has withdrawn from the Commission (1 January 1996). For this and other reasons the figures are now being re-considered.

From 1998 on contributions will be based on a 90:10 ratio between donor countries and Island members, and will be
re-calculated every three years. The actual percentages for each member have yet to be finalized.

Short Name:	SPC
Full Name:	Secretariat of the Pacific Community
Purpose:	general
Established:	06-Feb-1947
Entered into force:
Type:	body, multi-lateral
Place where established:	Canberra, Australia
Schedule to expire:
Goals and Objectives:	The Commission (named before 1998: South Pacific Commission) is tasked to provide technical advice, assistance and training, and applied research, to its Island member countries and territories; to develop the region's land-based, marine-based and human resources through its integrated Work Program. SPC cooperates with other regional organizations working to improve the economic and social qualities of the region.
Related Legislation:	[06 Feb 1947] Agreement Establishing the South Pacific Commission (Canberra Agreement) [07 Nov 1951] Agreement Extending the Territorial Scope of the South Pacific Commission
Internet source:	#http://www.spc.org.nc#

Secretariat's address	Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) BP D5 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia
Telephone	+687 262000
Fax	+687 263818
E-Mail	spc@spc.int#mailto:spc@spc.int#
Home Page	#http://www.spc.org.nc#