The big idea

Pacific Islands countries (PICs) boast “big ocean” economies, with young and mobile and highly adaptative societies. Past and recent investments have however fallen short of developing diverse economies offering inclusive services and opportunities, resilient to external shocks and the increasing pace of climate disasters. While the scale of Pacific economies does not allow them to respond to all challenges alone, public investment and revenues would gain from empowered officials accountable to keep basic service delivery and development priorities in mind while driving fiscal decisions.

What does that mean? It means we need to make sure we keep reminding those handling public monies to focus on the essential: delivering basic services and constructing a future with Pacific people at its center.

How? By providing support and space to all the actors conducting checks, controls, oversight, or simply those who should be put at the center: the people and our planet.

The Vaka Pasifika project

Official name: “Accountable Public Finances to serve Pacific people – Vaka Pasifika”

How we actually call it: Vaka Pasifika

Who supports it: European Union

In numbers: EUR6million (roughly US$6.5millions)

Timeline: July 2022 to December 2026 

Our activities work with:

• All actors who play a role in the accountability of public finances on articulating Pacific-specific solutions by regularly meeting, putting on paper and testing new ideas;
• Supreme Audit Institutions, Ombudsman, Leadership Code Commissions, Public Service Commissions through technical support, developing tools and learning by doing;
• PIANGO (Pacific Islands Association of Non-governmental organisations) and its network of civil society representatives in the region to make budget information accessible, engage with government on priorities and ensure that budgets reflect citizen and community priorities;
• Governments of the Pacific at all level and across sectors when they want to test new tools and ideas on making public finance available and reecvie inputs from citizens;
• Change-makers, think tanks and media to ensure economic and public finance analysis and knowledge generation is done by Pacific actors for the Pacific.
• Regional and global public finance actors (multilateral banks, technical assistance facilities, non-governmental alliances and movements) to ensure Pacific actors are part of the global narrative.

The Vaka Pasifika project (2022-2026) builds on the results of the “Strengthening Public Finance Management and Governance in the Pacific” (PFM) project implemented between 2018 and 2022.

Vaka Pasifika Project: 2022 in Review