Executive Summary

The Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security (CTI-CFF) is a multilateral partnership of the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste with a common stand to work together to sustain extraordinary marine and coastal resources by addressing crucial issues such as marine biodiversity climate change and food security. The CTI-CFF was officially established along with its Secretariat during the Summit of Heads of States in 2009 as stated in the "CTI Leader's Declaration".

Since its establishment, the CTI-CFF was supported by an Interim Regional Secretariat (IRS) to implement CTI-CFF activities with its office based in the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Over the years, the CTI-CFF has made substantial, solid progress in several fields and areas. The gradual but steady progress in the organizational development is, for example, reflected in the appointment of the first Executive Director on 1 April 2015. This appointment marked as the first step of a transformation status from an Interim Regional Secretariat to the permanent Regional Secretariat.

The Regional Secretariat provides a central coordinating mechanism for all CTI-CFF activities and has been mandated to promote regional cooperation, sharing of lessons, and facilitate learning across the CT6 member countries. The Regional Secretariat (RS) also coordinates and monitors the progress towards meeting the goals of the CTI-CFF Regional Plan of Action (RPOA).

The Regional Secretariat has met several major milestones since its inception in April 2015, among others, the signing of the Host Country Agreement with the Indonesian Government as a host country for CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat on 1 December 2015; organizing the 11^th Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM-11); signing of Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), Coral Triangle Center (CTC), Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Indonesian universities namely Bogor Agricultural University, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya, Hasanuddin University and Sam Ratulangi University; in addition to the activities under the respective Technical Working Groups (TWGs), Governance Working Groups (GWGs) and cross-cutting themes; and a number of working visits to several potential institutions to further strengthen the CTI-CFF.

This Activities Report is prepared to highlight the activities between the period of April 2015 to mid of October 2016 which can be viewed as laying the foundation for future activities and cooperation. The Activities Report consists of three (3) main parts; the Executive Director’s deliverables; activities of the working groups, cross-cutting themes and technical programs as well as activities of cooperation development (i.e. external relations and partnership engagements).

The CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat sincerely hopes that this Activities Report will serve to promote and enhance public awareness of the CTI-CFF, highlight its activities, promote its image and status, and help to make it a more dynamic and effective collaborative mechanism for economic progress and development of its member countries. The CTI-CFF hopes to become one of the foremost regional cooperation for sustainable marine resources as it has all the potential through its strong support from its Development Partners to become one.