RAMSI and Australian Bilateral Aid to be Seperated

RAMSI and Australian Bilateral Aid to be Further Separated

The management of Australia’s aid to Solomon Islands is to be further separated between RAMSI and the Australian High Commission.

Following a decision to separate the responsibilities of the RAMSI Development Coordinator and the head of AusAID in Solomon Islands, the Australian Government’s overseas aid agency is upgrading its bilateral aid representation at the Australian High Commission.

Under the new arrangements RAMSI’s civilian programs will remain the responsibility of the RAMSI Development Coordinator while a new AusAID post at the Australian High Commission will be responsible for managing Australia’s bilateral aid program to Solomon Islands.

Announcing the increased separation of AusAID’s bilateral and regional assistance to Solomon Islands, RAMSI’s outgoing Development Coordinator, Blair Exell said AusAID will now be represented at the Counselor-level in the High Commission.

“This position will focus solely on managing Australia’s bilateral aid program to Solomon Islands and provide a separate point of contact for the government and the community generally on matters concerning our bilateral aid programs.”

Mr Exell said the move was partly in response to concerns expressed by the Solomon Islands Government that the demarcation between Australia’s assistance to the Regional Assistance Mission and its bilateral aid program in Solomon Islands was not obvious or clear enough.

“Although AusAID funds for RAMSI’s civilian programs are already provided separately from Australia’s long-standing bilateral aid program to Solomon Islands, we hope these new arrangements will help make this clearer to those dealing with AusAID,” Mr Exell said.

RAMSI’s civilian programs cover the assistance AusAID provides through the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands law and justice sector, and RAMSI’s machinery of government and economic governance programs.

Australia provides around SBD$173 million worth of bilateral aid annually focusing on the health sector, lands and forestry administration, community strengthening, non-government organizations, disaster risk management and Australian and regional scholarships.

ENDS

© Scoop Media