Mr Mark Vurobaravu
Deputy Director, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vanuatu
Mark Vurobaravu is the Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), Republic of Vanuatu.
He currently holds a Bachelor of Agriculture degree from the University of the South Pacific, and a Master of Arts in Natural Science from the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan.
His area of expertise is in agriculture and climate change adaptation in island communities.
He joined the Public Service in Vanuatu in 2008 as a Plant Protection Officer with the Department of Biosecurity, prior to joining DARD in 2012 as Principal Agriculture Officer responsible for agri-technical services, and later promoted to the position of Deputy Director in 2021.
His 15 years experience in the public service has also yielded strengths in leadership management, planning and public policy.
Mr Vurobaravu is a current peer-reviewer representative of Vanuatu in the Pacific Regional Research Agenda for Agriculture and Forestry.
ABSTRACT
An Overview of the Pacific Regional Research Collaborative Framework
The 7th Head of Agriculture and Forestry Meeting (PHOAFS) highlighted the need for better research coordination and resource sharing to address development issues in Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs). Funded by the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research, consultations were held to develop a Regional Research Agenda (RRA) framework. The RRAs vision is to identify common forestry and agriculture development challenges, establish Pacific research partnerships, and define research strategies. The RRA was presented and endorsed at the 8th PHOAFs meeting held in 2023.
The RRA is broken down into three main components: Hearing Pacific Voices, Peer Review and Partners in Research. The Pacific Community (SPC) as the secretariat is working closely with nominated Peer Reviewers from PICTs to test each component of the RRA. The testing has identified the need for platforms to hear Pacific Voices and ensure that research from the region is shared and documented. These initial findings have led the Peer Reviewers to recommend a biennial conference to bring together researchers, to share their work. Data access was also a challenge highlighted during the testing process. The Peer Reviewers are now working on a Regional Journal to support Pacific Island researchers publish their work.
The project team are currently testing the final component of the framework using the researchable priority of promoting climate resilient crops. The results from this will be shared with the PHOAFs in May 2025 at the Pacific Week of Agriculture and Forestry which will be held in Tonga.