Pacific Islands Forum provides ongoing support to developmen

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Pacific Islands Forum provides ongoing support to Pacific development

In the wake of 13 Pacific Forum Island Countries (FICs) completing peer reviews of their country development systems over the last four years, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) is continuing to review progress made on implementing the review Recommendations.

The Forum Secretariat is also continuing to discuss with countries their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) progress and the post 2015 development agenda. As part of this ongoing support, a review team from the Forum Secretariat is visiting and meeting with government, development partners, NGOs and private sector representatives in both Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu in order to gauge progress against the peer review recommendations and the MDGs.

It is a long term endeavor, and success depends on the sustained commitment and participation of Forum Island Countries, development partners and other stakeholders, says Charmina Saili, Regional Planning Adviser at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. We are here this week to continue our support, to discuss progress, challenges and how we and the rest of the region can help.

The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is focused on supporting this crucial follow-up process and where needed helping countries mobilize additional resources to support the implementation of their peer review recommendations.

Over time the real benefits of better development coordination such as more effective use of development resources, reduced administrative burden for countries, improved information to guide decision-making and ultimately more effective delivery of health, education, energy, water and sanitation services to Pacific citizens will be fully realized.

The Forums Regional MDGs Adviser, Resina Katafono, is part of the delegation and will be discussing with government and their stakeholders progress and actions taken to achieve the MDGs by 2015. Papua New Guinea developed its own set of targets and indicators associated with each of the MDGs, says Ms Katafono. They did this in order to better reflect the realities in the country.

The 2013 Tracking the Effectiveness of Development Efforts in the Pacific Report notes that there has been good progress over the past year in strengthening country systems and processes for planning, budgeting, public financial and aid management. Peer reviews of country systems have revealed that FICs are paying more attention to setting medium term costed priorities and establishing frameworks and systems to underpin and ensure effective progress in implementing national development plans.

There are strong signs of good progress at the country level to strengthen country systems and processes. As a result, more FICs are exerting stronger leadership over their development agenda and engaging more effectively with development partners.

The challenge now is for FICs to sustain this momentum with the collective support of their development partners.

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Pacific Islands Forum provides ongoing support to developmen

Understanding new and emerging export markets

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Understanding new and emerging export markets

The Pacific Islands Trade & Invest (PT&I) network, the trade and investment arm of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, is organising a three day workshop from 31 March to 2 April in Suva.

The Pacific Path to Market Workshop a first for Fiji, will address market compliance constraints and highlight specific solutions to enhance exporters capacity. The importance of branding, cost-effective packaging, dealing with logistics and having an effective supply chain will also be discussed.

The Pacific Path to Market Workshop is specifically designed to respond to the exporters current and future needs. The programme has been developed based on consultations with a number of businesses in Fiji over the past year to assist in increasing their exports.

The workshop is funded by the European Union through the European Development Fund, under the Pacific Integration Technical Assistance Project (PITAP) implemented by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. PITAP is a component of the Strengthening Pacific Economic Integration through Trade (SPEITT).

The Pacific Islands Trade & Invest network has brought industry experts and international speakers from China and New Zealand to give a first-hand account of doing business in these markets. Export promotion staff from the PT&I offices in Auckland, Beijing and Sydney will be presenting opportunities in these markets for Fiji exports.

More than 80 businesses have confirmed attendance. This high level of interest shown by Fiji businesses is an indication of the drive that Fijis private sector has to explore new and emerging opportunities.

The Pacific Path to Market Workshop is expected to be organised in other Forum island countries later in the year. Representatives from some of the Pacific island countries are attending as observers at this workshop.

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Understanding new and emerging export markets

New Gene 'Atlas' Maps Human DNA Activity

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WEDNESDAY, March 26, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists say they've constructed an "atlas" that maps the ways human genes are turned on and off, offering potentially important new insights into health and disease.

The new atlas builds on the achievements of the Human Genome Project -- the mapping of all of the approximately 20,500 human genes, first completed in 2003. Speaking at the time of the Human Genome Project's publication, Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute, called it "a shop manual, with an incredibly detailed blueprint for building every human cell."

The new gene-activity map describes those networks that govern genes' activity in major cells and tissues in the human body, according to a team of 250 experts from more than 20 countries.

"Now, for the first time, we are able to pinpoint the regions of the genome that can be active in a disease and in normal activity, whether it's in a brain cell, the skin, in blood stem cells or in hair follicles," Winston Hide, an associate professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at Harvard School of Public Health, said in a Harvard news release.

"This is a major advance that will greatly increase our ability to understand the causes of disease across the body," added Hide, who was one of the authors of the main paper in the March 27 issue of Nature.

The findings from the three-year project -- called FANTOM5 -- are described in a series of papers published in Nature and 16 other journals. The project was led by the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies in Japan.

In their work, Hide and his colleagues mapped the activity of 224,000 switches that turn human genes on and off. The map includes switches -- which are regions of DNA that manage gene activity -- across a wide range of cell and tissue types.

"We now have the ability to narrow down the genes involved in particular diseases based on the tissue cell or organ in which they work," Hide said. "This new atlas points us to the exact locations to look for the key genetic variants that might map to a disease."

"The FANTOM5 project is a tremendous achievement. To use the analogy of an airplane, we have made a leap in understanding the function of all of the parts. And we have gone well beyond that, to understanding how they are connected and control the structures that enable flight," David Hume, director of The Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and a lead researcher on the project, said in a university news release.

"The FANTOM5 project has identified new elements in the genome that are the targets of functional genetic variations in human populations, and also have obvious applications to other species," he added.

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New Gene 'Atlas' Maps Human DNA Activity

Designer genes take a leap forward

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Human DNA has much in common with the DNA of the humble yeast cell.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Look miles into the future and imagine a day, when geneticists can design a flawless set of human genes in a laboratory.

That future vision may never arrive, but it has taken a step closer.

Scientists have built a designer chromosome and inserted it into a cell, geneticist Jef Boeke from New York University announced this week.

The chromosome was a heavily altered version, a departure from its natural counterpart. A team of scientists from around the world made 500 changes to its genetic base.

"When you change the genome, you're gambling," said Boeke, who led the project. "One wrong change can kill the cell."

But the cell survived and made use of its new chromosome. It also reproduced, and subsequent cells carried the new chromosome forward.

Actually, make this breakthrough a second step closer to that way-out-there future.

Researchers were already able to duplicate a chromosome on a computer four years ago, build it in the lab, insert it into a cell and watch it work.

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Designer genes take a leap forward

Costly Paper Trail – Health Care Law’s Massive Paperwork Cost – Eyes On Obamacare – Fox & Friends – Video

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Costly Paper Trail - Health Care Law #39;s Massive Paperwork Cost - Eyes On Obamacare - Fox Friends
Costly Paper Trail - Health Care Law #39;s Massive Paperwork Cost - Eyes On Obamacare - Fox Friends =========================================== **Please Cli...

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United States Federal Budget: Social Insurance, Earned Benefits, & Entitlements – Video

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United States Federal Budget: Social Insurance, Earned Benefits, Entitlements
Social insurance is made up of programs that help workers and their families replace part of income lost due to unemployment, disability, retirement, or deat...

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United States Federal Budget: Social Insurance, Earned Benefits, & Entitlements - Video