Pacific Community

The Pacific Community (PC), formerly the South Pacific Commission (SPC), is an international development organisation governed by 27 members, including 22 Pacific island countries and territories around the Pacific Ocean. The organisation's headquarters are in Nouméa, New Caledonia, and it has regional offices in Suva, Pohnpei, and Port Vila, as well as field staff in other locations in the Pacific. Its working languages are English and French. It primarily provides technical and scientific advice, and acts as a conduit for funding of development projects from donor nations. Unlike the slightly smaller Pacific Islands Forum, the SPC is not a trade bloc, and does not deal with military or security issues. The SPC's regional development issues include climate change, disaster risk management, fisheries, food security, education, gender equality, human rights, non-communicable diseases, agriculture, forestry and land use, water resources, and youth employment. The Pacific Community was founded in 1947 as the South Pacific Commission by six developed countries with strategic interests and territories in the region: Australia, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The SPC's founding charter is the Canberra Agreement. In the aftermath of World War II, the six colonial powers which created the SPC arguably intended it to secure Western political and military interests in the postwar Pacific. Two founding members, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, have since withdrawn from the SPC as the Pacific territories they controlled either gained independence or the right to represent themselves in the organization. From the start, the SPC's role was constrained. The invitation from Australia and New Zealand to the US, France, the Netherlands and the UK to participate in a South Seas Commission Conference in 1947 included the statement that "the [South Pacific] Commission to be set up should not be empowered to deal in any way with political matters or questions of defense or security".