Solevaka Pacific, 23 September 2019 - An online platform called Solevaka has been designed to create a space for virtual knowledge exchange and collaboration in the Pacific region to accelerate progress and address challenges for the achievement of the SDGs in the Pacific.
Solevaka is derived from the I-Taukei (Indigenous Fijian) term meaning coming together as a community to work on a project or goal. The second part of the word “Vaka” is a common term in the Pacific meaning canoe which references the journey of navigating the global development challenges faced in the Region.
“The new Solevaka platform aims to strengthen collective approaches for addressing issues at the regional, national and local level. ” Patrick Tuimalealiifano, Deputy Team Leader, Inclusive Growth, UNDP Pacific. In line with the SDG principle of leaving no-one behind; Solevaka is designed to strengthen the voice of the most vulnerable and marginalized members of the Pacific community and to provide input into local, national, regional and global decision making forums and processes.
It is envisaged as a digital meeting place that will bring the broader Pacific development community together (government officials, regional organization personnel, non-government organization and community representatives, researchers and academics and private sector representatives), emphasising dynamic discussions and consultations, creating connections and linkages between people, and providing fit-for-purpose tools and resources to accelerate SDG implementation in the Pacific. The aim is to promote the work of all development partners in the Pacific and strengthen partnerships with non-traditional and traditional stakeholders for better and more equitable development impact.
Currently, there is a discussion on Solevaka which is on the Pacific’s response to the UN Secretary General’s call to raise for all leaders to come to New York on 23 September for the “2019 UN Climate Action Summit” with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent over the next decade, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
The key features of Solevaka are:
- Virtual meeting rooms with interactive timelines, polls, discussions, surveys, etc
- Analytics that provide instant demographic analysis & feedback to facilitators/moderators
- Hosts a variety of multimedia formats
- Accessibility for low bandwidth users
- Dynamic and searchable knowledge archive
- Ability to assign public & private access
- Members create profiles, direct message & customise notifications
- Public and Private meeting spaces for collaborations and co-creation