Kevin Nyango
TechInPacific – Pacific Connect Network Dialog set out in Honiara, the Solomon Islands from November 22 – 23, 2018. The dialog brought together 16 participants from the Solomon Islands and Australia from various background of industries, such as agriculture, business, education, finance, IT, and law.
The dialog aimed at discussing how digital connectivity in the Solomon Islands could be improved and driven educational opportunities. Furthermore, the dialog also meant to create broader networks between all the participants.
Coming as co-facilitators of the dialog were Dr. Ian Watt AC, Peter Fritz AM, and Peter Kenilorea Jnr. They helped to assist all the participants to discover potential projects with two main themes; education and digital connectivity. Some of the projects were potential to be expanded to obtain certain funding, especially the concept ‘every building is a classroom’ and take the advantage of the current database tech to identify education needs in the Solomon Islands.
The formal meeting had left positive outcomes, including many potential projects and collaborations. All the participants seemed to be excited about the discussion, and it was seen from their enthusiasm and interest, especially when the discussion had to be interrupted for morning tea after a session finished.
The dialog also decided to uncover opportunities for youth leaders, women, and associated organizations from Solomon Islands to extend their networks, involve them in project collaborations, and open access to mentoring and development professionally in several programs, such as the Global Shapers Program (World Economic Forum), the Asia-Pacific Mentoring Council, etc.
One of the participants from the Solomon Islands expressed his feeling about the dialog after it ended, “Sincere thanks for accepting and giving me such an opportunity to actually meet with other like-minded Solomon Islanders, whose desires are to support our education services moving forward into the future esp. in terms of the digital systems.”
“It was my pleasure to be involved in what I see is a very valuable vehicle for even closer cooperation with Australia,” said the other one.
After the dialog ended, some of the key participants’ networks were invited by International Centre for Democratic Partnership (ICDC) to partake and share information regarding the dialog projects through a short workshop. The aim of the workshop was to identify and address common issues as well as to develop long-term relationships between the participants, ultimately to the benefit of Pacific Island countries.
