5th Steering Committee Meeting for the Japanese Technical Cooperation for Promotion of Regional Initiative on Solid Waste Management in Pacific Island Countries (J-PRISM)

J-PRISM Media Release - J-PRISM is a 5-year technical cooperation project conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) since 2011 for the purpose of developing human and institutional capacity in Solid Waste Management conducted in partnership with SPREP through the implementation of the “Pacific Regional Solid Waste Management Strategy 2010-2015 (RS 2010). The project consists of 11 sub-projects carried out over 11 Pacific island countries  including Samoa, which allows each country’s priority issues on solid waste management to be addressed, as well as allowing for the efforts of Pacific island countries to be consolidated through region-wide activities and for their achievements to be expanded within the region.

As a special side event of the 26th SPREP Meeting J-PRISM held its 5th and final Steering Committee Meeting at the SPREP campus, Apia, Samoa on 25th September 2015. This meeting was held in the presence of all stakeholders so that both regional and member countries could share the lessons they had learnt over the last five years of the project and furthermore to allow the results of the terminal evaluation of the project to be reported. The meeting was conducted by JICA HQ and chaired by Suluimalo Amataga Penaia, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Samoa. About 50 participants from Pacific island countries, International Organisations, Donor Agencies, and Private Sector participated in this meeting.

The meeting was launched with welcome speeches from both Mr. Hideyuki Suzuki, JICA's Resident Representative within Samoa, and Mr. David Sheppard, the Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP), who emphasised the meeting's great potential to serve as a platform for meaningful exchange of lessons learnt and knowledge gained, between counterparts from all over the Pacific. Mr. Sheppard also emphasised the genuine and durable partnerships between SPREP and JICA that has existed for more than 15 years.

In the morning session practices conducted by all J-PRISM counterparts over the last 5 years, such as the 3Rs Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; improvement to waste collection services; and the rehabilitation and management of disposal sites, were discussed. Updates were given by Country Representatives from selected countries; Samoa - Ms. Fa'atamali'iamio Meredith, Kiribati - Ms. Eliza Tokataake, Solomon Islands - Mr. Joe Kelsi and PNG - Mr. Simeon Terina, and from selected fields; the rehabilitation of disposal sites - Mr. Charles Lohn of Pohnpei FSM, Market Composting  - Mr. Robert Randolph from Suva Fiji, the community collection system  - Ms. Mele Finau of Vava'u Tonga,  and the Container Deposit Legislation - Mr. Calvin Ikesiil of Palau. Through these updates and discussion it was evident that a great wealth of knowledge and experience has been gained and can now be used to assist with continued efforts to improve waste management in the 11 Pacific island countries and beyond.


The morning session was then wrapped up with remarks from Dr. Melchior Mataki, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management, & Meteorology, Solomon Islands, who emphasised the importance of the journey over the destination within the J-PRISM project. He also highlighted intangible outcomes, such as changes in community attitudes and communities' relationships to their governments as significant positive outcomes of the J-PRISM project

In the afternoon the plenary session was opened by remarks from both Leota Kosi Latu, Deputy Director General, SPREP and the Honorable Kazumasa Shibuta, the Japanese Ambassador in Samoa. Mr. Latu gave thanks for the durable partnership between the Pacific region and JICA. He emphasised the need for further strengthening of cooperation between SPREP and JICA to expand the platform for the benefit of sustainable waste management in the region. SPREP and JICA's considerable achievement to date has been in line with the new regional strategy known as "Cleaner Pacific 2016", which has just been endorsed at the SPREP meeting 24th September. The Honorable Kazumasa Shibuta spoke of the Japanese Government's support in waste management in the Pacific region over the past 15 years and expressed a keen desire to continue offering such support in collaboration with SPREP and other donors including EU and GEF. He also went on to cite strong partnerships at the national, regional and international levels as the key to continued positive outcomes.


Mr. Shiro Amano, Chief Adviser of J-PRISM detailed the progress of regional and member countries' activities, before introducing J-PRISM and SPREP's newly established database for regional capacity development activities and human resources on solid waste management, known as the "Pacific Island Database of Capacity Development Activities (PIDOC)". This database stores the names and training of all individuals and organisations who have undergone training conducted by JICA and J-PRISM creating a pool of human resources.

After his presentation Mr. Amano announced the awards for 2014/2015 and handed them out to recipients.

• Award for the best counterpart/team/Special 2014/2015
• Best Counterpart Award: Contributers to "The Pacific Solid Waste Management Guidebook"
• Best Team Award : Team PNG and Team Fiji
• Special Award : Jaffa's Sanitary Systems Limited (Samoa), Pacific Recycle Company Limited (Samoa), Gio Recycling (Tonga), Island Paradise Recycle Company (Yap, FSM), Micronesia Eco Inc. (Kosrae, FSM)

The result of terminal evaluation of the J-PRISM project was reported by Mr. Naoki Mori, Executive Technical Advisor to the Director General, JICA HQ as well as the chief of the final evaluation mission. The mission was organised in July and visited almost all member countries starting from early August. They mainly interviewed counterparts and developed the reports in accordance with indicators of the plan of operation for the project.
The report consists of three streams, which are integrated, regional and country specific. Mr. Mori delivered the following recommendations and discussed lessons learnt in his presentation.

Recommendations for the remaining period
 Utilisation of the trainers and trainees database
 Following-up recommendations in each country and with SPREP
 Communication between SPREP and Japanese counterparts

Lessons learnt
 Cooperative approach applicable to Pacific island countries
 Collaboration from the initial stage of RS 2010
 Capacity development of the trainers who have the experiences as practitioners
 Disaster waste management by the local experts trained by J-PRISM
 Necessity of high level commitment


The integrated report was endorsed by all member countries and will be signed by both Mr. Sheppard from SPREP and Mr. Mori from JICA, as well as being witnessed by Mr. Penaia, the chair of the meeting.

The Meeting was then drawn to a close by Mr. Mori and Mr. Sheppard who conveyed both JICA and SPREP's eagerness to continue supporting the improvement of waste management in the Pacific region even after the completion of J-PRISM in February 2016.