The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Pacific Community (SPC) have pledged to collaborate on a ten-year plan, the Pacific Strategic Plan for Agriculture and Fisheries Statistics (P-SPAFS) which aims at strengthening the collection and dissemination of statistics related to food security, agriculture, fisheries, and natural resources to support policy formulation and sector decision making. The P-SPAFS framework was created in recognition of the need for timely, accurate, and comprehensive data to support the national Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) action plans of Pacific Island countries and territories. Accurately measuring these SDG indicators at a national level is vitally important as an indication of the success of development interventions and the sustainable development of countries and the Pacific region as a whole.

"Accurate and comprehensive data is vital for informed decision-making in agriculture and fisheries. Through our collaboration with SPC and the implementation of P-SPAFS, we aim to strengthen the collection and dissemination of statistics to support sustainable development in the Pacific region," noted FAO Subregional Coordinator for the Pacific Islands, Xiangjun Yao.

As part of FAO’s ongoing support to P-SPAFS, a regional workshop was held, bringing together representatives from the Pacific Island countries and territories. The workshop aimed to share potential and priority activities identified from previous projects and gather feedback on the priority, feasibility and desirability of potential activities for immediate implementation.

Based on the findings of the workshop and follow-up discussions with individual countries, specific recommendations and requests for technical assistance were made to FAO, which will be addressed through this Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP). Targeted countries include the Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.