The European Union STREIT PNG Programme has reached the milestone of providing support to over 15,000 cocoa, vanilla and fisheries-dependent households in the Sepik region in the first nine months of 2022.
High officials attended the PSC meeting from the PNG Department of National Planning and Monitoring (DNPM), Department of Agriculture, Department of ICT, Provincial Administrations of East and West Sepik, the European Union, including representatives from five involved UN agencies.
The meeting highlighted the need to further strengthen the partnership between implementing partners, counterparts, and stakeholders at national, provincial, and local levels.
The high level Programme Steering Committee convenes every six months to review progress and accomplishments and take decisions on the next steps and work plans.
Wesley Wellie, the head of DNPM’s National Authorising Officer-Support Unit, in his remarks, highlighted the EU-STREIT PNG Programme as “An important investment made by the EU in partnership with the Government of PNG, FAO, ILO, ITU, UNCDF, and UNDP.”
The EU Ambassador to PNG, His Excellency Jacques Fradin, said, “The EU-STREIT PNG Programme is an initiative that aims to empower the people of East and West Sepiks to help improve their cocoa, vanilla and fisheries value chains.”
Mentioning the way forward to tackle the existing challenges in the Programme’s implementation, the EU Ambassador highlights “The need to move collectively to solve issues.”
The UN Resident Coordinator a.i. in PNG, Marielle Sander, stated, “The EU-STREIT PNG Programme, as a UN joint project, benefits from the convergence of expertise from the five UN agencies involved in its implementation and also benefits from the experiences and capacity of the PNG partners at the national, provincial and local level government.”