Iakwe Aolep, greetings from the islands of Pohnpei.

I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge Government colleagues in this room today.  A special acknowledgement to the GoRMI for their partnership, to the Climate Change Directorate for ensuring government priorities on the climate change front are being met through various multilateral funding support and through the support of the United Nations Development Programme.

Today marks an important day in our partnership.  As we all know, access to information and data is critical in the work of the REIMAANLAK.  The IT equipment will support the GIS-based management information system including enhancing the scope of the MIS, for example, it will also include a monitoring and evaluation platform that is accessible to both the public and policy makers and a server-based workstation across the CMAC membership with requisite hardware and software licenses maintained to help sustain the user base of the MIS.

The Management information system will also have the capability to house important social and economic data from the SEM surveys, specifically from each community enabling all practitioners to have access to gender disaggregated data and information.  This is important in programing and targeting specific needs, including policy measure targets and interventions on a binary level.  Well into the future, gender disaggregate data, will enable us to measure the policy impacts of our interventions on both women and men.

Our strategy going forward is multi-dimensional and through the support of the R2R, the PAN office now has improved the accessibility or a repository for all spatial biodiversity and resource management to aid policy formulation, enforcement and monitoring and evaluation including adaptive management of community resources and plans.

This is just the first step in the formulation of this system with respect to biodiversity and natural resource management, and I would like to ensure that MIMRA and the PAN office will have the support of UNDP going forward to sustain, expand and grow this national tool vital for the work of the REIMAANLAK.

I hope that this event will also forge a stronger partnership going forward into the future.

I would like to thank MIMRA Director Glen Joseph, MIMRA Chief of Coastal Fisheries Benedict Yamamura, PAN office manager Emma Kabua-Tibon, Director of Climate Change Directorate Clarence Samuel, and Deputy Director for CCD Warwick Harris, for your support to the implementation of the RMI Ridge to Reef in the operationalizing of the REIMAANLAK.

Komol tata.