Given the significance of agriculture to the Pacific region, a workshop currently underway in Suva aims to assist Pacific governments to better plan and target public spending on agriculture and to increase value for money in public agriculture expenditure.
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The three day workshop is targeting senior agriculture, forestry, finance, and treasury officials from the governments of Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, and Vanuatu.
In 2011-2012, the agriculture sector accounted for 3 to 24 percent of Pacific Island economies and employed between 20 and 50 percent of workers in the larger Pacific Island countries. Despite this, over the same period, the sector was allocated only 1 to 3 percent of government budgets.
The Head of the European Union Delegation for the Pacific, Ambassador Andrew Jacobs said "as public budgets for agriculture are relatively small in the region, it is of utmost importance that they are efficiently allocated and executed in order to promote inclusive and sustainable development.
This is what Public Expenditure Reviews, and this workshop, should help you achieve." Ambassador Jacobs added, "In 2016 the EU will launch important support initiatives for the agriculture sectors in Vanuatu (€25 million), Solomon Islands (€10 million) and Fiji (€20 million). For all these initiatives the EU is seeking to implement budget support programmes.
This means moving away from a project approach to initiatives that put the entire management responsibility on the beneficiary governments and their ministries of agriculture. The focus of the workshop is therefore very timely."
The World Bank is leading the first part of the workshop which introduces Public Expenditure Reviews for the agriculture sector in the Pacific.
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