May I take this opportunity to thank all those who have made it possible for me to be here at the Peace Summit last week in Victoria and this World Peace Forum. Thank you.

For the sake of those who do not know where Solomon Islands is on the world map, Solomon Islands is a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea, north-east of Sydney, Australia. The country is surrounded by 1.2 million square kilometers of water and has a land mass of 29,000 square kilometers, which is made up of 999 islands.

Now I will turn to what I intend to tell this morning, and I promise that I will not take up too much of your time. Secondly, I do not intend to bore you with what we have been doing as a ministry; rather I will briefly inform you about how we were able to create a ministry for peace in Solomon Islands and highlight for you the potential threats to our very existence as a ministry.

Unlike many of your countries, we did not have any difficulty in establishing a ministry for peace. Seven years ago we had three years of ethnic conflict in our country, Solomon Islands. When we finally brought these warring parties together, an agreement was signed between them that required implementation by a legal body or institution - thus, the Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace was established.

It never dawned on us that we were the first country in the world to create such a ministry, nor did we ever realize that there has been a worldwide yearning for ministries or departments of peace in every country.

Initially, as earlier alluded to, our focus was very narrow. Our Ministry of Peace was established with a specific mandate, and that was to implement the agreement that brought about the cessation of the ethnic tension between the conflicting parties at the time, and to provide crisis management of the situation that prevailed immediately after the cessation of violence.

Like many of your countries, the government ministry portfolio distribution in Solomon Islands is such that certain issues that may be considered peace issues have already been allocated as portfolios of other sectoral government ministries. Thus, in Solomon Islands, issues concerning women and youth are functions that fall under the Ministry of Home Affairs, while environmental issues on the other hand are functions of the Ministry of Forestry, Environment and Conservation. It is evident that this may pose the single major constraint to many who wish to have a set up similar to ours.

While we may be celebrating our success in attaining ministerial status, this could pose the biggest threat to our survival as a ministry, as I am counting on your global support to ensure that we remain a ministry.

Last week’s Peace Summit in Victoria, BC, and the last two days I have been here with you in Vancuver, BC, at the First World Peace Forum, has enabled me to establish so many important connections with many of you and your organizations, which I consider to be very vital to our course in ensuring our survival as a Ministry of Peace.

I am confident we can do it and I wish to take the opportunity to thank you all for your support. The journey may be tough and long, but the harder the battle the sweeter will be our victory.

* Fred Fakari'i is Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Solomon Islands. At the time of these remarks, he was undersecretary in the Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation, and Peace.