The Pacific Community (SPC)
The Pacific Community (SPC) is a technical and bilingual organization whose membership is constituted by English and French-speaking countries and territories from the region.
Working in Oceania, the SPC was founded in 1947, in Canberra, shortly after World War II by Australia, the United States, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. At the time, these countries governed Pacific Territories and foresaw the benefits stemming from providing “coordinated” aid to the aforementioned territories.
Originally called « South Pacific Commission », it was renamed in 1997 « Secretariat of the Pacific Community. It is nowadays known as the Pacific Community and it intervenes in an area ranging from the North to the South of the Pacific region.
The Pacific Community has 26 members, including 22 Island Countries and Territories and four founding members: Australia, France, New Zealand and the United States.
The following Island Countries and Territories are members of the SPC : the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, The Northern Marianna Islands, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea , the Pitcairn Islands, French Polynesia, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Niue, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Wallis and Futuna, Nauru, The Salomon Islands, American Samoa, Vanuatu and Samoa.
New Caledonia, the SPC’s host country, is fully conscious of the organization weight and the important role it plays in the Pacific; Therefore, New Caledonia has considerably increased its involvement in the SPC.
From this perspective, New Caledonia and the SPC agreed upon a joint strategy aimed at defining the strategic framework of the collaboration between the two entities. This document defines the main areas in which the SPC can best support New Caledonia for the next five years; this strategy formalizes the collaboration between the two parties as mutually beneficial. Contrary to documents of the same kind signed by the SPC with other countries, the strategy agreed upon with New Caledonia recognizes the support provided by New Caledonia to the SPC and the benefits stemming from the fact that it is headquartered in Nouméa. This key tool was designed while taking the work realized as part of the elaboration of New Caledonia’s Planning and Development Plan, “NC 2025,” into account.
Furthermore, New Caledonia has formalized its operational relationship with the SPC by creating, within the Department for Regional Cooperation and External Relations, a Multilateral Division, tasked with monitoring the collaboration between New Caledonia’s institutions and every local stakeholder impacted by the SPC’s work on the one hand and the SPC’s Divisions on the other.
