It’s 5am in Palau as we land in Arai’s airport, the plane was delayed by more than three hours and children and adults alike are exhausted. Yet the time and the delays did not seem to diminish the enthusiasm of the entire custom and border office. Top officials and customs officers are all packed at the border anxiously watching as we each take turns in presenting our passports. 

Palau is one of the first Pacific Islands Countries to introduce a digital arrival card system. Thanks to the country’s Coordinated Border Management Working Group, which was supported by the the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Integrated Border Management Project, Palau's border agencies are now operating together to strengthen border security through digital tools.

Thanks to the Japan Digital Agency's technical guidance, Palau is now accelerating a single window process to integrate data in order to minimize operational burden and enhance work efficiency.

But why are we here? A governance scoping mission, engaging with partners at the request of Governments in the North Pacific on entry points for UNDP support in Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia.

The risk of course for a scoping mission is to remain at the surface, generalize some findings from just a few points of views. We’re lucky to be able to rely on some of the long-term work and partnership that UNDP has established in the country. As one meeting follows another in Koror and Babeldaob, what starts to emerge is how the pieces of UNDP’s work from regional project fit together at the national level.