Training and Instituionnal Strenghthening

Background

Training and institutional strengthening are a priority for the CRISP programme, in order to answer to the strong pressure for permanence and persistence of actions after the end of financings. Two strong axis must be differentiated:

• on one hand, – technical trainings and institutional strengthening for Pacific countries nationals through workshops held as part of the programme, on proper funding, but also and often through cofunding.

• on the other hand, the – training of students, by favouring exchanges allowing French students to be trained in Englishspeaking structures, especially the University of South Pacific (USP), and students from the Pacific to be trained into Frenchspeaking structures, often in mainland France.

This chapter describes preferentially the second axis, knowing that technical trainings targeting in priority technicians more than students are treated further down, depending on the themes addressed (for instance the monitoring of coral reefs state of health which is particularly dynamic in terms of trainings offered).

Last progress

CRISP funding allowed the creation of ten new trainings in 2008, one of which is the thesis of a French student working, within component 2A and under IRD (UR128) supervision, on the impact of reef invertebrate exploitation both in New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Brief Review

In 2006-2007, 18 students were formed as part of programme. Eight of them were Frenchspeaking, while 10 came from English-speaking countries of the Pacific, Fiji being the most frequent origin Among these trainings, 3 thesis, which are long and costly trainings (3 years) deserve special mention. A French student from EPHE has been positioned at USP to accomplish a job on the optimization of re-sowing methods of reef fish post-larvae in their natural environment (to compensate for the fall in grown-up fish populations). A framework agreement was signed between USP and the University of Perpignan, to which the EPHE student depends administratively, in order for the degree to be simultaneously recognized by both institutions. This anchoring of EPHE within USP allowed in addition the realization of several Master training courses of French students, made possible thanks to the partnership between EPHE, IRD (UR128) and USP within the component 2A of the CRISP programme. The component 2C implemented by IRD (UR152) is also the other very active provider of crossed trainings, to the main benefit of the Pacific countries students. Hence, two USP students are accomplishing a thesis since 2007 in mainland France, thanks to CRISP funding, supplemented by cofunding from IRD and the Embassy of France in Fiji. A post-doc, 3 masters and a professional training are also to be credited to component 2C between 2005 and 2007.