Push Stepped Up for Permanent CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat

Efforts are ongoing to push ahead plans for the establishment of the permanent CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat by May 2014.

Following a roadmap endorsed by the 9th Senior Officials Meeting last November 2013, the newly installed Interim Regional Secretariat (IRS) Chair, Prof. Dr. Ir. Sjarief Widjaja, Ph.D. FRINA, has taken the lead in facilitating entry into force of the CTI-CFF Agreement to establish the Regional Secretariat. The roadmap targets the establishment of the Secretariat by the 5th CTI-CFF Ministerial Meeting in May.

On February 6, the IRS Chair traveled to Putrajaya, Malaysia to meet with the CTI-CFF Council of Ministers (COM) Chair, Dr. Dato' Ewon Ebin, and discuss options for accelerating the ratification of the Agreement, the work being done toward the establishment of the permanent Secretariat, and preparations for a special CTI-CFF Senior Officials Meeting to be held before the May Ministerial Meeting. He was accompanied by a delegation composed of other IRS officials and representatives from CTI-CFF Partner organizations.

Ratification by at least four of the six CTI-CFF member-states is required for the Agreement to enter into force. As of this posting date, only Malaysia has ratified the Agreement.

On February 17, to help speed up the ratification process, Prof. Widjaja, who is also the Secretary-General of Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, led an IRS and Indonesian delegation to Dili to confer with Timor-Leste’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Honorable Mariano Assanami Sabino. As well as discussing bilateral matters, the delegation inquired about the status of ratification of the CTI-CFF Secretariat Agreement.

Minister Sabino said the document has been forwarded to their foreign affairs ministry for further discussion and subsequent approval by the Council of Ministers. He assured the delegation of his commitment to expedite the ratification process.

Similar visits to Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines are being planned.

In a related development, the CTI-CFF Coordination Mechanism Working Group (CMWG) met in Putrajaya on February 18 to deliberate on key organizational documents that will guide the transition from interim to permanent Secretariat. On February 19, the Appointment Committee that will carry out the selection of the Executive Director for the Secretariat convened for the first time to map out their plan for the recruitment process.

Australia is helping the CMWG in operations and budget planning, and has also contracted Hudson Global Resources, a Sydney-headquartered global recruitment specialist firm, to assist the Appointment Committee. The US Government meanwhile has extended until September 2014 its US CTI Support Program (USCTI) to continue supporting the establishment of the Secretariat. USCTI provides funding and staffing support to the IRS and Technical Working Groups to help advance the ratification process and the CTI-CFF Regional Priorities at the regional, national and local levels in all six countries.