Establishment of the Pacific Regional Infrastructure Facility Coordination Office

A total of 24 knowledge products were developed during this TA. Examples of successful and effective hand-over projects include the Pacific utilities benchmarking performance work of PRIF to the Pacific Water and Wastewater Association (PWWA) and to the Pacific Power Association (PPA). The 2016 PWWA benchmarking report was released during the Pacific Water conference and Expo in Tonga, August 2016. The report was based on the indicators developed during 2013 PWWA benchmarking exercise supported by PRIF. Similarly, the benchmarking of the 2015 Fiscal Year data for the PPA Utilities was the first year in which the Association had taken full responsibility of collection and verification of the data as well as the production of the key performance indicator after receiving support from PRIF for its earlier reports. The knowledge products by PRIF covered challenging issues such as: transport accessibility for people with disabilities, solid waste management, the capital cost of renewable energy projects in the Pacific, and constraints in the application of building codes and standards in the Pacific. The building codes publication has attracted requests from PICs to review their country’s building codes. The key challenge met is the lack of opportunities for Pacific Islanders to build stable career paths and fully benefit from new knowledge acquisition.