Shining our spotlight on our Pacific people that work for our Pacific environment is this Q and A series from your Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
Ms Maraea Slade-Pogi is the Procurement Officer within Secretariat’s the Finance and Administration team. In her role, Ms Slade-Pogi is responsible for ensuring that the Secretariat’s procurement activities are carried out in accordance with applicable policies and procedures.
Ms Slade-Pogi joined SPREP in 2009 and has held various roles within the Finance and Administration department. She served as the Assistant Accountant in 2009, before she was appointed the Accounting and Administration Officer in 2013. She advanced to her current role in 2016, and was awarded the Director General’s Excellence Award the following year for exceptional performance and service to the Secretariat.
Q: What has been your greatest achievement in this role?
A: One of the key activities for SPREP last year, led by the Finance team, was the EU Pillar Assessment in which I played a key role in facilitating this process. SPREP was positively assessed and endorsed by the EU, which was a great achievement for our team and SPREP as a whole.
Q: What is one of the best things about your job?
A: My work cross-cuts across all our programmes and departments so I get to work closely with the different teams and the various projects to support their work. I enjoy this part of my job as not only do I get to work with all our projects but at the same time gain a better understanding of the exciting work SPREP does to support our member countries throughout the region.
Q: What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
A: “Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be.”
Q: What environment fact do you think we should all know?
A: By 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans – a simple yet effective method of helping to cut down on waste is the 4Rs of waste management – Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
To learn more about the Finance and Administration department please visit www.sprep.org.