Pacific Islands Forum Mission In Washington Seeking Funding For Resilience Facility
Article – RNZ
Tonga's Prime Minister Dr 'Aisake Eke and PIF boss Baron Waqa are leading the regional efforts in Washington, the Forum Secretariat said in a statement on Wednesday.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.
'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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