Samoa is ready to welcome the world

‘We are ready,’ says the woman behind  Samoa’s S.I.D.S preparations

“One thing that we really marvelled at is how the whole world has rallied and partnered with Samoa and our Government and all of us to host this conference”

“We are ready for S.I.D.S. We are ready for the whole world. We are excited.”

Confident words coming from the C.E.O. and National Coordinator of the largest event to be hosted by Samoa - the 2014 Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.S.), Fa’alavaau M. Perina Sila.

So confident is Fa’alavaau of Samoa readiness to step out on to the world stage, you would think she was at least given a two or three year lead time to prepare her country for the main event on the United Nations’ 2014 calendar.

No, she was given just 15 months.

“We didn’t have the luxury of two years. No, we started digging in the fist week of July last year,” Fa’alavaau.

“That was the first building that went up that was the Hockey Stadium.”

“So in fact you are looking at 14-15 months preparation.”

“That was one of our challenges that we had literally 15 months to prepare the site and everything else.”

Despite this and the many other obstacles that she has dubbed as the “typical S.I.D.S. challenges”, Fa’alavaau and her team have done the impossible – they have finished - well before the deadline – in time for a dedication service to be held tomorrow.

“All the work will be finished this weekend,” she said.

“Things are progressing very well, just the landscaping that is going on at the moment that is all there is left.”

Of the buildings, which have taken the names of six islands – Upolu, Savai’i, Manono, Apolima, Nu’utele and Namu’a - five have been completed.

“The last one which is the one on the corner is the main plenary hall there are finishing touches being made to it as we speak and that will be the last of the buildings.”

She added that individual Government ministries were looking after each of the buildings.

Beyond the venue, Fa’alavaau said that her department was providing transportation and security and that was all progressing well with the teams doing dry runs so they do not miss a beat come show time.

“Everything is going well, it is just a lot of work, but everything is progressing well,” she said.

Despite this feeling now, Fa’alavaau did speak of some of the “typical” challenges her team faced.

“The first one we had was the bad weather,” she said.

“If you recall earlier this year, actually from December and then into January and February, it rained almost every day.”

She said the weather delayed some of the contractors at the venue up to a month - meaning that over the last few weeks some of the workers have been pulling double shifts just to hit deadline.

She said the weather also affected the shipments of supplies that people needed.

“This month we have had a lot of shipments from overseas being delayed or being rerouted to Fiji because of bad weather here,” said Fa’alavaau.

“Not only for us where we ordered some directly but also some of the contractors had to delay some of the work because they were waiting in Fiji until the weather was clear.”

“And of course our remoteness being so far away we have to order things way, way in advance.”

Perhaps the biggest challenge – making all this work on what was, in the events world, essentially a shoestring budget.

“We don’t have a bottomless pot of gold or money,” she said. “So we had work to make this work with what ever money the Government has appropriated.”

“We are still trying very hard because this is important for all of us, for our country, for our people and everyone is pitching in.”

She said this challenge aside, “we shouldn’t focus so much on the money side” – before making the valid point that this could very well be a one off event for Samoa in the foreseeable future, as the Pacific only gets to host S.I.D.S. once every 30 years.

“This is a very important project for all of us because this is a one off historic event it may not come back to Samoa in the next 30 years,” she said.

“So we just need to put our best foot forward despite all these financial resources constraints and other challenges.”

“We just need to work around a way what we can do to achieve the objective.”

So how has the S.I.D.S. team done this?

“We have had to work very long hours,” she said.

“Not only us, the contractors some of them have been working late into the night, till two in the morning.”

“We have had to hire more people. Like right now we have employed a lot of youth to come on site to help so it becomes a little bit more expensive if you have such delays because you have to hire more people.”

“But we just have to do it there is no other way about it, just do it.”

Fa’alavaau said, while there have been some obvious challenges; if anything overwhelmed her in this whole experience it was the unwavering support both internationally and locally.

“One thing that we really marvelled at is how the whole world has rallied and partnered with Samoa and our Government and all of us to host this conference,” she said.

“The way countries, especially our traditional partners and all our friends have partnered together to help Samoa.”

“For example China, Australia and New Zealand all those countries who have stood up and said ‘we are here to help you’.”

She said it was not just the donor partners, but intergovernmental organisations and private companies, such as the Microsoft Corporation who is donating all the licencing software for the Conference.

On a local level, one of the highlights for Fa’alavaau was how Samoans have rallied together in support of S.I.D.S.

“The national ownership and the participation of the communities,” she said.

“How people have rallied together and have said ‘hey how can we help’?

“I will give you a classic example – the whole landscaping up there is being done by church communities.

“The L.D.S. Church, the Ululoloa Nazarene Church, the Si’usega Catholic Church, the Tuana’imato Methodist Youth Group, the E.F.K.S. Youth group and the A.O.G. from Lotopa.”

“The Sila-Ah Yen family is also working on the grounds. I have allocated corners to each of them.”

She said driving around town she was also taken aback by the transformation of the villages.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “How people have totally and entirely come together and partnered up after all that is the theme of the conference, Sustainable Partnerships.”

“It is that kind of sentiment that I see in our own people how they have just taken it upon themselves to take ownership of this Conference.”

“So it is a good feeling.”

The fact that this is ‘Samoa’s Conference’ bodes well for our nation – because as Fa’alavaau makes note of, this event is very much important to the nation on many levels.

“First of all it puts Samoa onto the international level,” she said. “I mean who would imagine a person from Estonia or Lithuania would come to Samoa? So it certainly puts us on the map.”

“In terms of the substance of the conference you know the outcomes document of the S.I.D.S. conference has now been called the Samoa Pathway.”

“Because as you probably understand this that when you have an outcomes document of a big conference its usually takes the name of the country where it was hosted.”

“The first original one was held in Barbados 30 years ago it’s (the outcomes document) called the Barbados Programme of Action.

“Now the third one is being held in Samoa and it is now going to be called the S.A.M.O.A. Pathway (S.I.D.S. Accelerated Modalities Of Action).

“So it elevates Samoa now to a much, much higher level at the international scene.”

She said this was of importance to Samoa because when anyone refers to the sustainable development guidelines or platform of action for S.I.D.S. countries they are referring to the S.A.M.O.A. Pathways outcomes document.

In addition to putting Samoa on the map, she said financially S.I.D.S. is a boon for the Samoan economy.

“There are a lot of benefits to the local community,” said Fa’alavaau.

“For example hotels are fully booked, restaurants, taxies you name it…the caterers, the contractors…and the people who are making handicrafts.”

“People who got business out of preparing helping us prepare the venues, the infrastructure.”

“So it is everywhere so you can just think of things and everyone is benefiting.”

Fa’alavaau said at the same time S.I.D.S. will expose Samoans to people from many different countries, all with their own unique cultures and experiences.

“So that is like an eye opener for them or it exposes them to people South Africa or from other parts of the world from the Caribbean, from Jamaica that we would not normally come across,” she said.

For this reason she said it was time for Samoans to show the world what they do best – make their guests feel warmly welcomed.

“You know Samoans are very well known for their hospitality,” she said.

“So be an ambassador in every sense. Accept our guests for who they are and where they come from, respect them.

“When people ask for directions please be nice and say hey that is the Mulivai Cathedral. Be friendly.”

“Customer service is very important treat people right.”

“The very fundamental principals to being an ambassador are respectfulness, acceptance, honesty and good customer service.”

She said by doing this, people will create lasting memories for our guests that go far beyond the souvenirs they may pick up at the market.

So is she worried about the so very many things that could go wrong?

“No,” she said, her confidence still unshaken.

“We have a Plan B for everything. We have prepared for everything physical that we can see.”

“Everything has been built on site, we have installed standby water we have standby electricity with the generators.”

“We have got free wireless on site for the delegates and for everyone we also have a back up plan for that…it is underground, it is cable.”

“We have all the emergency services on standby. We have two medical clinics on site as well as ambulances and fire services everything that we can see those are the tangible standby services.”

“We have got contingencies for everything, plans for any emergencies.”

Well for almost everything. During our whole conversation the only time Fa’alavaau showed any signs of stress was when she talked about extreme weather.

“There are certain things that we cannot foresee so if for example, God forbid, if a cyclone comes,” she said.

She was quick to regain her composure saying that it would be dealt with it, if and when it happened.

“Those are the things that we cannot do much about…we cannot predict God’s nature,” she said.

“Otherwise everything we can do we have a Plan B for everything. We are ready for S.I.D.S.”

With more than 2000 people already registered for S.I.D.S. and many more set to sign up, it would appear Samoa is lucky to have Fa’alavaau running the show.