The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) chair and secretary
general are in the United States this week, leading a
high-level mission to secure funding for the Pacific
Resilience Facility (PRF).
The PRF is a Pacific-owned
and led regional fund that has been set up to support
Forum member nations to access finance for climate
adaptation, disaster preparedness, and early disaster
response projects.
Tonga’s Prime Minister Dr ‘Aisake
Eke and Forum boss Baron Waqa are leading the regional
efforts in Washington, the Forum Secretariat said in a
statement on Wednesday.
It said advocacy mission
follows the successful endorsement of the PRF Establishment
Agreement (Treaty) by Forum Economic Ministers during their
Special Meeting held in Tonga in March of this
year.
Dr Eke said that the mission underscores a
commitment to drive innovative financing and investment
opportunities that suit and relate to the Pacific’s unique
challenges.
He said the mission is being held to
coincide with the global multilateral meetings of the World
Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF).
“It is an opportunity to further engage the
Pacific Islands Forum’s development partners and
multilateral institutions to support the Pacific-owned and
Pacific-led regional resilience financing facility for
Pacific communities, without incurring a further debt burden
for our Members”, he said.
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“Our message is simple: the
Pacific Islands Forum is serious about the PRF.
“We
are saying to our development partners that the time to act
is now, and to support the PRF so that we can demonstrate
the transformative power of this grant investment vehicle,
to predictably finance our communities’ resilience
needs.”
Waqa said the mission was important in
advancing the Forum Leaders’ collective vision under the
2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
“This
advocacy mission is about unlocking new capital flows and
scaling up investments in the PRF from transformative
partnerships that deliver for our Pacific people,” he
said.
“We have fundraised about US$150m from COP28
(2023) to COP29 (2024).
“We are committed to
mobilising resources to raise the balance of US$350m to
reach the US$500m capitalisation target for the PRF by COP31
in 2026.
“We aim to take a ratified PRF Treaty to
COP30. We are engaging with institutions and governments
that can help the PRF as a Pacific-owned priority to assure
access to finance for our communities when we launch our
first call for proposals at the 55th Pacific Islands Forum
Leaders Meeting in Palau in 2026.”
The Forum
Secretarait said the PRF Treaty will be presented to Forum
leaders at their meeting in September in the Solomon Islands
for signature, and thereafter, to deposit their instruments
of ratification by the end of
2025.
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