The Guadalcanal Province Premier, Hon. Francis Sade, met with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) team last week on Friday, 8 July 20222.

The MCC is an independent U.S. Government foreign assistance agency created by the U.S. Congress in 2004 to help deliver U.S. aid. It is guided by the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, focuses on good policies, country ownership, and results.

According to the U.S. Embassy to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu website, “MCC provides time-limited grants and assistance to countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption and respecting democratic rights.”

The MCC team in Honiara had requested to meet with Premier Sade to discuss the potential development that it can support Guadalcanal Province through its USD $20M MCC-Solomon Islands ‘Threshold Grant Program’, which was signed in January this year.

The two main projects under the MCC-Solomon Islands Threshold Grant Program are the “Forest Value Enhancement Project (FoVEP)” and the “Accessing Land for Tourism Investment Facilitation (ALTIF) project”.

This is a partnership between the U.S. Government and the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) that was announced in a joint MCC and SIG media statement in early January.

The statement says, “The forestry enhancement project will provide Solomon Islands’ communities with economically viable alternatives to unsustainable logging practices and generate eco-friendlier, reliable benefits from the country’s natural forests.

“The land and tourism project will target Solomon Islands’ tourism sector by working with the government to make land access more responsive to the needs and well-being of local communities while enhancing the attractiveness of public and private investments to the sector.”

At last Friday’s meeting, the MCC team updated Premier Sade on their programs in the country, especially in FoVEP in Malaita and the ALTIF in the Western Province. The team informed the Premier that MCC is keen to support Guadalcanal Province, the largest island in the country and second most populated, with these two similar projects.

Premier Sade thanked the MCC Team for including the Guadalcanal Province in discussions about these projects.

“I’m really happy to meet you on behalf of my Executive Government and the people of Guadalcanal. Thank you for your friendly invitation and willing potential development partners”, says the Premier.

Premier Sade also highlighted some of the struggles that his province is facing. These include the lack of social, economic, and infrastructure developments since the 1980s. He also mentioned the negative impacts of centralization of public goods and services in Honiara which have had an adverse impact of unregulated urbanization, land grabs, and environmental issues such as the lack of appropriate waste management. There are also concerns about the dumping of wastes outside the Honiara City boundaries.

Premier Sade said since entering Office in mid-2019, his Government is slowly improving the provincial government by introducing appropriate financial management and compliances and also focusing on creating environmental and land management ordinances, which would address some of the longest overdue developments on Guadalcanal.

Consequently, he stated that projects such as FoVEP and ALTIF would be great for Guadalcanal Province.

Premier Sade said, “The FoVEP program will assist and benefit customary landowners conserve and manage their rainforests and participate in carbon trade. It is high time natural resource owners change their mentality and stop logging in their land”.

“The ALTIF projects will benefit the Guadalcanal Province, for example the Marau Tourism Township projects and beyond. Marau Tourism Township is an ideal township that has the potential of attracting both the local and international tourists due to its pristine terrestrial and marine ecology”.

Premier Sade also stated that as one of the sites of WWII’s Pacific War and the U.S. “Battle of Guadalcanal” 80 years ago, he is glad to see the U.S., through its aid agencies such as MCC and Peace Corps, will continue to support the people of Guadalcanal.

The MCC Team thanked Premier Sade and the Guadalcanal Provincial Secretary, Timothy Ngele, for the meeting. They said they will support Guadalcanal Province with these projects.

Source: Guadalcanal Province Media