I have worked extensively in Kiribati in the past under the auspice of NZ MFAT as well as FFA, and now I’m back under a World Bank-supported mission that will go over a few months. I’ll be coming in and out all the way up to May next year… This may sound like a lot, yet there is barely enough time based on the scope of the work.
Walking to the office
I’ll be dealing with and supporting them in the update of the Kiribati NPOA-IUU Fishing and that MFMRD is well positioned to ensure its effective implementation. Supporting them with a review of their PSM activities, in compliance with national, regional and international expectations, and working with them to set up a safe, effective, and efficient transhipment monitoring scheme and practices based on best practices but also in compliance with national, regional and international expectations.
Kiribati is unique from every aspect I can think of… they are an incredibly proud nation that faces unique and severe challenges placed by geography and the inheritance left by some really rapacious colonialism by the British that only left in 1979 after they ended mining Banaba and testing their nuclear weapons in Kiritimati on the other side of the country.
And while they face the challenges of climate change and sea-level rise with stoicism, they are the giants of the tuna at the fisheries level. More tuna is caught in their waters than in the whole of the Atlantic, and it is the player not only in the WCPFC but also in IATTC.
Unlike most countries, Kiribati runs a well-externally managed Revenue Equalisation Revenue Fund or RERF.Non-RERF cash balances increased from $11.3 million in January 2013 to an estimated $173.5 million by the end of 2018, and the RERF balance grew from $613.9 million to $994.4 million over that same period - just short of the government’s $1 billion target. State-owned enterprise commercial debts with ANZ were also eliminated within this timeframe, and the government invested $10 million in a land purchase in Fiji.
The key revenue inputs to this fund come from Kiribati's earnings from the PNA VDS. Interestingly, the government has started what pretty much is a Universal basic income (UBI) in which all citizens receive a guaranteed income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment (i.e., without a means test or need to work) of 50AUD.
So yeah… if you work in fisheries and care about the impact it can have socially, this is the place…
Of course, other issues are not positive, i.e. prostitution, AIDS, abuse, etc.… yet these are documented and discussed extensively, as they should be… yet you hardly hear about the positives these days.
In any case, I’m happy to be here, working with friends.
The picture below: The Port State Measures whiteboard strikes again! A really simple solution we have been using in Majuro for over 5 years. It helps a lot on PSM and transhipment monitoring, is cheap and power cuts proof!
