13 February 2012: The Pacific Island Forum Secretariat (PIFS) announced that, as part of the Cairns Compact on Strengthening Development Coordination in the Pacific, a peer review is underway in the Marshall Islands on national planning, budgeting, financial and aid management systems and processes.

The peer reviewers include representatives from the Governments of the Cook Islands and Vanuatu, as well as UN and PIFS staff.

The Cairns Compact is an initiative agreed by Pacific Leaders at the 2009 Pacific Islands Forum. It aims to accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by strengthening Forum Island countries’ (FIC) leadership of their own development agendas and encouraging development partners to work more effectively together. The Compact establishes new review and reporting processes involving Forum countries, development partners and the Forum Secretariat, a key feature of which is the peer review of each FIC’s national development plan.

In 2010, Nauru and Kiribati completed peer reviews, followed by Vanuatu and Tuvalu in 2011. According to PIFS, the peer review exercise aims to develop simple and practical actions, tailored to local capacity and based on regional experience, which can be implemented in the short- to medium-term to improve development coordination. [PIFS Press Release]