10th Senior Officials Meeting Successfully Held in Dili, Timor-Leste and Produces Strategic Decisions

Jakarta, Indonesia

The Meeting was opened and closed by the Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, His Excellency Marcos da Cruz and attended by the all the CT6 delegations, all Partners, Brunei Darussalam as observer and several potential partners and collaborators. The current chair of the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) represented by Ms. Kay Kalim from Papua New Guinea (PNG), Mr. Lourenço Borges Fontes from Timor-Leste and Mr. Manuel D. Gerochi from the Philippines chaired the sessions.  Mr. Toni Ruchimat from Indonesia and Dato’ Mohd Azhar bin Hj. Yahaya from Malaysia co-chaired some sessions. The Vice-Chair I of the CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat (IRS), Mr. M. Eko Rudianto led the facilitation and provided assistance throughout the Meeting. 

Aside from confirmation on the entry into force of Agreement on the Establishment of CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat and appointment of Executive Director, several important outcomes were produced by SOM-10.  On areas of membership cooperation with other organizations, the meeting acknowledged progress made by Brunei Darussalam in complying with the requirements for application as a new member of CTI-CFF, advised for development of cooperation agreement on specific program and activities with FAO, and approved the proposed cooperation agreement with SEAFDEC.

While it was agreed that the 2nd CTI Local Government Network Forum will be hosted by Papua New Guinea in March 2015 and the 4th CTI Regional Business Forum will be held in Indonesia in April 2015, it was also recommended by SOM-10 to explore the possibility of holding an informal CTI Leaders gathering in the Philippines at the sidelines of APEC 2015. Senior Officials acknowledged the progress of activities by CTI Women Leaders’ Forum and fishing communities under Fishers’ Forum. The meeting also requested for initial steps activating Capacity-Building Working Group and establishing the Scientific Advisory Group to be commenced soon.

On reports by member countries on the status of National Plan of Actions’ implementation, the Senior Officials acknowledged progress made and enjoined the countries to utilize the CTI-CFF Monitoring and Evaluation System in preparing country reports in the next SOM. Partners were requested to clarify support for Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM), Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Threatened Species (TS) Working Group’s regional actions and activities. Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Working Group’s Regional and National Roadmaps for 2014-2015 was endorsed and it is recognized that the need for funding to support the implementation of roadmap is around $US1.5 million annually.

A decision was also adopted concerning the development of guidelines on the use of CTI-CFF RPOA goals/targets, Coral Triangle geography, and Coral Triangle brand in the process of securing funding for project and other fund-raising activities. In addition, the development of structure and mechanism of the CTI-CFF Fund or Special Fund in the form of trust or other types of fund was also recommended. In line with these decisions, SOM-10 endorsed the establishment of the CTI-CFF business development unit (BDU) to coordinate initiatives and efforts in financial resources and business development.

The meeting graciously endorsed several proposed areas of regional investments to be made by the Government of Australia to support implementation of CTI-CFF RPOA, namely support to seascapes activities, support to regional ecotourism and small grants, micro-financing and fellowship programs, both supportive of CTI-CFF cross-cutting themes and could potentially cover one or more regional goals. SOM-10 also acknowledged the proposal for the development of USAID’s Oceans for Biodiversity Conservation and Food Security Project involving the EAFM Working Group, the CTI Regional Secretariat, National Coordination Committees (NCCs) and the relevant development partners and regional organizations.