Today, USAID Senior Development Advisor Dr. Alexandria Huerta presented completion certificates to participants who successfully completed the Project Management Practice course supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The course is part of the USAID Ready Project’s partnership with the University of the South Pacific – Pacific Technical and Further Education to help Pacific island countries become more resilient to environmental changes. The five-month course strengthened management skills to design and implement disaster resilience projects. Twenty-five participants, including mid-level managers of government departments, government corporations and representatives from the private sector, completed the course.

U.S. Ambassador Joseph Cella sent his greetings from Suva and commended the commitment of course participants. “The U.S. Government is delighted to work with Pacific governments, building bridges with the private sector, and civil society to address your most pressing development needs,” Ambassador Cella said.

This is the first project management course supported by the USAID Ready project in the Northern Division. Dr. Huerta said, “We are particularly happy to have supported this course in the Northern Division to assist communities in this part of Fiji to become more resilient.”

USAID Ready works with 11 priority countries – Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu – to achieve their climate change adaptation goals by assisting them to develop policies and legislation, access climate finance and build capacity to manage adaptation projects.