Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific
The Forum Leaders established the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific, CROP (formerly the South Pacific Organisations Coordinating Committee, SPOCC) in 1988 with the mandate to improve cooperation, coordination, and collaboration among the various intergovernmental regional organisations to work toward achieving the common goal of sustainable development in the Pacific region. CROP comprises the heads of the intergovernmental regional organisations in the Pacific and is governed by the CROP Charter.
The 1995 Forum mandated the Secretary General of the Forum Secretariat to be the permanent chair of CROP, a decision reaffirmed at the Special Leaders’ Retreat in April 2004. Leaders also mandated the ‘coordination role’ of CROP to the Secretary General. The Secretary General reports to Forum Leaders on CROP matters.
CROP functions as a coordination mechanism between the heads of the regional organisations in the Pacific, and as a high-level advisory body, to provide policy advice and may assist in facilitating policy formulation at national, regional and international level. CROP provides a forum to enable CROP heads to collectively review progress with their respective organisations’ contributions on the Framework for Pacific Regionalism.
In September 2018 CROP agencies presented their inaugural Annual Report to Leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Working groups of the CROP can be established only by the Council, or as directed by FOC, either of whom will determine a terms of reference. Working groups are accountable to the CROP for their activities.
The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, as secretariat to CROP, facilitates the calling of working group meetings, and coordinates the preparation of agendas, papers and outcomes documents. Chairing arrangements for Working Groups has become increasingly flexible, with hosting organisations often being offered the chair.
While some groups have developed a regular schedule of Suva-based meetings, others have generally used opportunities provided by representatives having to attend specific, relevant, fora to also hold group meetings, which thus vary significantly in their regularity and location. However, the working groups make extensive use of ICT to continue work between physical meetings.
| Working Group | Members | Work Focus |
| CROP Harmonisation | PIFS, SPC, SPREP, FFA
Chair: PIFS Contact: Simon Clegg, Director Corporate Services, PIFS |
The CROP Harmonisation Working Group was established to facilitate the harmonisation of remuneration policies amongst the CROP agencies. |
| Gender | Core Group: PIFS, SPC, USP, SPTO, FFA, SPREP
Gender and Development Partners: UN Women, UNDP PC, UNFPA, UNICEF, EU, ADB, World Bank, International Financial Corporation, PIPSO, FEMLink, Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, DAWN Pacific, New Zealand Aid Program, Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development, DFAT, Pacific Youth Alliance, GIZ Co-Chairs:PIFS and SPC [PIFS is lead Chair in 2017] Contact: Seema Naidu, Gender Officer PIFS seeman@forumsec.org |
The Gender Working Group works to ensure that the principles of gender equality and human rights are included as a primary component of all work undertaken by CROP at international, regional and national level.
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| Health and Population | SPC, PIFS, FSMed, PIFS, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS, MFAT, DFAT, Pacific Disabilities Forum, UN Women
Chair: SPC – Deputy Director, Public Health Division Sunia Taniela Soakai Contact: sunias@spc.int |
The CROP Health and Population Working Group was established in May 1998 and involves regional, UN and other agencies and NGOs working in the sector. The specific objectives of the group were developed in response to the 1997 Regional Strategy.
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| Human Resource Development | USP, SPC/EQAP, PIFS, UNICEF, UNESCO, MFAT, DFAT, EC, Council of Pacific Education (COPE), ONOC
Chair: Vice Chancellor USP, Professor Rajesh Chandra Secretary: Filipe Jitoko Social Policy Adviser, PIFS. Contact: filipej@forumsec.org |
The Human Resource Development Working Group reviews, clarifies, and provides advice on priorities in human resource development, with a particular focus on education.
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| Information, Communication & Technology (ICT) | SPC, USP, ITU, SPREP, PIFS, UNESCAP, PICSOC and PITA.
Chair: USP Vice Chancellor, Professor Rajesh Chandra |
The ICT Working Group reviews, clarifies, and provides advice on the development of priorities in the ICT sector. The Working Group determines areas of complementarity and overlap and any potential gaps in the coverage of existing and proposed regional activities and initiatives in ICT. The Working Group recommends to CROP implementation procedures for enhancing coordination and cooperation, and for ensuring that priority areas are adequately addressed.
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| Marine Sector |
All CROP agencies Relevant UN system agencies Relevant International NGO organisations Relevant development partner organisations Relevant academic institutions
Chair: Forum Fisheries Agencies (FFA) Contact: alice.mcdonald@ffa.int |
The Marine Sector Working Group works to provide effective and coordinated advice and support to Pacific Island countries maritime and ocean issues that relate to sustainable development. |
| Sustainable Development | PIFS, SPREP, SPC, FFA, USP, SPTO, UN Resident Representative Office, UNESCAP-POC, UNDP, UN Women, UNICEF, CI, WWF, IUCN, PiPP
Chair: PIFS Deputy Secretary General, Cristelle Pratt
Responsible Technical Adviser: Charmina Saili, Regional Planning Adviser, PIFS. Contact: charminas@forumsec.org |
The objective of the Working Group is to provide, through the CROP, effective and well-coordinated advice and support to Pacific Island countries issues that relate to sustainable development.
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Note that in addition to the agreed seven CROP Working Groups, a number of other active CROP technical working groups also exist.
| Working Arm on Climate and Disaster Resilient Development (WARD) | SPC, PIFS, SPREP, USP, SPTO, PPA, FFA
The CROP CEOs Sub-Committee is jointly chaired by the SPREP DG and PIF SG. The WARD chair is implemented on an annual rotational basis. PIFS was the chair in 2016 and SPC is the incoming chair for 2017/2018.
The SPC WARD Chair’s contact is Ms Sylvie Goyet, Director for Climate and Resilient Development (sylvieg@spc.int). |
The CROP officials Working Arm on Resilient Development (WARD) is the key coordination mechanism for CROP on climate change and disaster risk management. The mechanism was established in 2010 to promote strong collaboration and coordinated effort. WARD provides advice to, and implements specific decisions of, the CROP Executive Sub-Committee on Climate and Disaster Resilient Development. WARD meets at least 3 times per year.
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The Council meets 2 – 3 times a year to take advantage of opportunities to pool and share expertise and resources to optimise benefits to member countries and territories. Where CROP sees the need, it establishes specific working groups with clear terms of reference to address important emerging or on-going priority issues of a cross-cutting nature. Since 2017, CROP produces an annual action plan to guide the work of CROP Working Groups and implementation of Forum Leaders’ initiatives.
