Pre-Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) 17th

The Pre-SOM and SOM-17th Meetings were successfully conducted by CTI-CFF. The Regional Secretariat organized this meeting, which was held virtually. The Vice Chair of the Committee of Senior Officials, H.E. Acacio Guterres, Director General for Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Comoro, Dili, Timor Leste, presided over the opening of the Pre-SOM, with remarks delivered by the Executive Director of the Regional Secretariat.

Several updates on key topics were discussed during the Pre-SOM, including:

• Governance Working Group
• Internal Resource Committee (IRC)
• Financial Resources Working Group (FRWG)
• Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group (MEWG)
• Technical Working Group
• CTI-CFF Partners
• Cross-Cutting Initiatives

As Chair of the CTI-CFF Committee of Senior Officials, H.E. Dr. Melchior Mataki, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management, and Meteorology, Honiara, Solomon Islands, delivered the welcome and opening remarks and also chaired the 17th Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM-17). The main points of the meeting included:

• Chair's Report
• Country Reports
• Address by the Executive Director of the Regional Secretariat
• Governance Working Group: Internal Resource Committee
• Governance Working Group: Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group
• Technical Working Group: Workplan and Budget
• Cross-Cutting Initiatives
• CTI Partners Presentation
• Ministerial Meeting Agenda and Joint Ministerial Statement
• Review of Chair's Summary of SOM-17 and Closing

A special agenda item for SOM-17 was the "Ministerial Meeting Agenda and Joint Ministerial Statement," which included the handover ceremony from CTI COM.