SUMMARY REPORT 

Prepared by

Titimanu Simi

PARTneR Coordinator – DMO

Brief Overview

The STAR Conference is an annual event that is organized by the Pacific Community (SPC) to provide a platform for scientists, technicians, technologists, resource developers, students, academics and interested people that work and live in the Pacific Islands region to showcase their work of applying science and technology in the development of resources. The STAR Conference 2018 was held in Suva, Fiji from the 10 – 13 July and Mr Titimanu Simi, the PARTneR Project Coordinator under DMO was a participant for the four-day event.

Objective

The aim of this conference was to enable the exchange of information about new technologies and case studies on its applications that could be applied in other countries in the Pacific as well as provide the opportunity to participants to make contacts with people in the same line of work to expand a network of specialized experts within the region.

Expected Outcome

For the PARTneR Project Coordinator, his participation at the conference was an opportunity not only to build his capacity by learning and exchanging knowledge and skills with other attendees but it also allowed him to showcase to members of the region what the PARTnR project is all about. In doing so, this will contribute to increasing the visibility of the project and further raising awareness and understanding about the importance of having suitable tools and systems in place to ensure the realization of integrated disaster risk reduction (DRR) and efficient disaster risk management (DRM) in development planning and risk informed decision-making.

Way Forward

Mr Simi’s participation at this conference proved invaluable in attaining new knowledge and skills through the exchange of information with other participants which will contribute to applying innovative ways of executing his roles and responsibilities as the PARTneR Coordinator. Furthermore, raising awareness to the region about the PARTneR project has informed them of the imperative need to integrate DRR into development planning and risk informed decision-making which will help reduce the socio-economic impacts of natural hazards and in turn contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.