On May 20, 2016, during the closing ceremony of the first week of MPI's 2016 Annual Peacebuilding Training, MPI Director Christine Vertucci and Peter Mae, Undersecretary of the Solomon Islands' Ministry of National Unity Reconciliation and Peace (MNURP), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU "states the intention of cooperation for collaboration on mutually beneficial learning and development opportunities in areas of peacebuilding."
The following press release was authored and made available by Peter Mae:
On 20 May 2016 at the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation (MPI), in Davao City, Philippines the Ministry of National Unity Reconciliation and Peace (MNURP) has secured a long term learning and development empowerment initiative and understanding through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation. Given the unstoppable occurrences of local and national disputes and the probable flow-on effects from regional and international factors that can have the likelihood to inflate and escalate our local and national disputes into aggravating conflicts, MNURP has taken the learning and development approach to advance peacebuilding in this regard.
Endeavouring to build and develop the human resources of MNURP to be relevant and remain relevant in order to effectively and efficiently provide the strategic, operational and tactical leadership and management in all matters of peacebuilding in the country, this learning and development empowerment initiative is timely, and in extent the fulfillment of one of its corporate objectives under its Human Resources Development Plan 2013-2017, its Eight (8) Key Priority Areas under its revised Corporate Plan 2016-2019 and broadly the National Objective Five (5) with its Medium Term Strategy Fourteen (14) under the National Development Strategy 2016-2035.
Also, considering the effects of the past ethnic tension and the continuous dynamics of globalization that continue to pose demands and challenges to the national security including the country’s societal fabric, stepping up in providing such most relevant peacebuilding learning and development initiatives of the ministry’s human resources can be seen as an approach that is productively appropriate and important in order to effectively curb and (or) address these said demands and challenges. Let alone the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands complete mission end come mid of 2017.
Signing the Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation is Ms. Christine Vertucci, the Director of MPI and on behalf of the Ministry of National Unity Reconciliation and Peace is Mr. Peter Mae, the Under Secretary (Policy Planning Programme Development) of the MNURP.
In the key note address after the signing, the Under Secretary highlights that this MoU will provide the intention of cooperation for collaboration on mutually beneficial broader learning and development opportunities in areas of peacebuilding for the technical officers of the Ministry with the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute providing a means of institutional avenue and opportunity for the MNURP to directly engage and access the expertise and professionalism that MPI has and shall offer under this MoU in areas of peacebuilding for MNURP, with further recognizing MPI as the external source of role player and provider in this respect.
It is a significant step forward in the Ministry’s overall learning and development empowerment initiative under the Ministry and government’s learning and development strategic and policy outputs, particularly in areas of peacebuilding, especially given that this sector area is a recent inclusion of learning and development and national human resources development area of priority of the government.
In response, the Director of the Institute highly acknowledged and praised the Ministry of National Unity Reconciliation and Peace and the government for taking this step of institutionalizing peacebuilding through a learning and development strategy through the signing of this MoU, and equally expressed that the signing of this MoU is a milestone for the Institute given that, with this signing of the MoU, it is the first of its kind that the Institute enters into cooperation for collaboration in peacebuilding with a government institution.
And in making this, the Director conveys, that MPI will aspire and endeavour from its pool of expertise and professionalism to educate, train and build the capacities of the officers or Ministry practitioners and the Ministry in the field of peacebuilding and as well in equivalent to the needs and local context of the country.
The signing of the MoU ceremony was traditionally symbolized further, with the gifting of the specifically designed shell-money necklaces to two Board members represented, the Director of the MPI and two officers of the MPI office.
Monday, 23 May 2016