COOK ISLANDS NEWS – Wednesday September 30, 2020 Written by Emmanuel Samoglou Published in Economy
A multiyear initiative aiming to contribute towards achieving a higher standard of living among Cook Islanders concludes this year.
In 2016, the Cook Islands set itself a Vision that by 2020 it “would be enjoying the highest quality of life consistent with the aspirations of our people, and in harmony with our culture and environment”.
This is the basis of Te Kaveinga Nui – the National Sustainable Development Plan 2016 – 2020, which steers the Cook Islands towards its 2020 vision.
Tasked with tracking progress of achieving that vision is the Central Policy and Planning Office (CPPO) of the Office of the Prime Minister.
CPPO staff are currently reviewing data and information from different government ministries to measure progress against 66 different indicators which act as ‘markers’ to achieving sixteen national sustainable development goals.
“We’re aiming to have our report that spans our full Te Kaveinga Nui from 2016 to 2020, ready for release next year,” said Valentino Wichman, Director of CPPO.
“To do this we’ve been working with different government ministries, sifting through information shared with us, to develop a report which tells us if we are on track, off track or have areas of concern.”
The last report, produced in 2019, found one of the 16 goals were on track and continuing to improve, this being goal two – to expand economic opportunities, improve economic resilience and productive employment to ensure decent work for all. The report also indicated three of the 16 goals were of concern and regressing, requiring attention.
Goals to improve health and promote healthy lifestyles, accelerate gender equality, and advance the rights of youth, the elderly and disabled, as well strengthening resilience to mitigate impacts of climate change and natural disasters, were all assessed and found to be in requirement of attention.
“These reports, also known as our Te Kaveinga Nui indicator reports, contain a wealth of information that gives us an overview which can also guide our future work,” said Wichman.
She said the findings will contribute to the development of an initiative called the Cook Islands National Sustainable Development Agenda 2020+, building on Te Kaveinga Nui which concludes at the end of 2020.
Known as NSDA2020+, it will have a 100 year vision, divided into five-year strategies to measure advancement.
Consultations have been underway since August to gather viewpoints and ideas as to how the Cook Islands can achieve “a 100 year vision of wellbeing”.
To date, over 35 consultations have taken place with government ministries, state owned enterprises, NGO’s, and the Pa Enua.
Consultations are continuing and will soon branch to the private sector, the general public, and Cook Islanders living overseas.
The public can share submissions with researchers at www.pmoffice.gov.ck.
