PIDC Hosts Immigration Executive and Management Strategic Planning Programme in Tonga
The Pacific Immigration Development Community (PIDC) and Tonga Immigration hosted eleven Executive officers from ten Pacific Island immigration agencies in Nukualofa, Tonga for four days (30 July – 2 August 2018) to harmonise key activities and priorities through a joint strategic planning programme. The regional event was opened by the Honourable Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration Honourable Samuela ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who called for strong leadership to ensure strong institutions in the region.
Facilitated by Dr Danielle Watson from the University of the South Pacific “this programme was developed specifically for immigration Directors in the Pacific and tailored for participants to develop their national strategic planning frameworks with participants successfully meeting this desired outcome at the end of this four-day workshop session”.
The workshop was highly interactive with participants fully engaged in all sessions. Mr Rajeev Keerthiyil, the Immigration Director for Nauru found the interactive workshop sessions useful and agreed that “aligning national mandates to regional immigration priorities is important for any strategic planning process as it sets out the internal and external expectations within the planning framework.” The Director of Immigration for Solomon Islands Mr Mason Fugui stated that “understanding our national mandates and aligning these with regional migration priorities supports a consistent approach to addressing migration issues in the Pacific”.
Immigration agencies in recent times have had to modernise their structures and operations to meet the demands of the changing migration landscape in the Pacific. “The workshop was timely as it introduced participants to modern strategic planning approaches to meet the changing expectations and demands of immigration stakeholders” noted the Acting Immigration Director for Tonga, Mrs Telesia Kaitapu. “The workshop guided participants through the different strategic planning stages and the use of planning tools to analyse their internal and external business environment and its impact on our respective performance”.
PIDC Head of Secretariat Mr Ioane Alama noted that while strengthening the PIDC leadership group was a key priority, this was the first time that the organisation had supported a regional activity to specifically strengthen collective national strategic planning. Mr Alama advised that this was the third PIDC regional activity designed to strengthen leadership since 2017 and noted that it was designed to contribute significantly to PIDC efforts to combat transnational crime and promote labour migration for economic growth.