Reverend Dr Alesana Pala’amo
Heads of Delegations
Honourable Ministers
Deputy Secretary General, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Boys and Girls
Talofa lava and warm Pacific greetings.
It is an honour for Samoa to host this Forum for the first time. We are pleased to welcome the highest level of leadership from countries, institutions as well as organizations because your support and presence reflects the growing prioritisation of Early Childhood Development (ECD) across our Blue Pacific region, Today, we are not simply opening another meeting. We are here to honour our greatest legacy: our children.
The theme “Our Children, Our Heritage: Blue Pacific Resilience through ECD Leadership” serves to remind us that our children are not passive recipients of care or policy they are culture-bearers, climate actors, and the heartbeat of Pacific resilience .
This Forum represents a turning point in our Pacific story – a collective reaffirmation that the future of our region begins with the well-being, identity, and protection of our youngest citizens.
Since the 2017 Pasifika Call to Action, and most recently, the 2023 ECD Forum in Nadi, we have walked together through natural disasters and economic uncertainties yet never losing sight of this shared commitment.
In Samoa in February this year, we launched the Samoa National ECD Framework (2024–2034), a historic and whole-of-government pledgeto invest in children from conception through their early years. This Framework, endorsed by Cabinet, integrates health, education, protection, nutrition, parenting, and inclusion and is grounded in culture, faith, and village governance.
Regionally, Samoa has contributed to the elevation of ECD within Pacific policy architecture where ECD was endorsed in the 2024 Triennial Pacific Women Ministers Communiqué; highlighted in the Pacific Youth Ministers Meeting Outcome; featured prominently in our CSW69 statement to the UN; and continues to shape our regional economic and resilience agendas.
These are not just technical milestones but cultural shifts representing our collective will to shape a Blue Pacific where ECD is foundational to gender equality, climate justice, and economic stability.
But perhaps our greatest achievement is not in declarations but in acknowledging and listening to the voices that matter. Today, Samoa and UNICEF Pacific, will host the inaugural Pacific ECD Summit for Caregivers and Frontline Workers. For the first time, the region will hear from those who carry our children through daily life – grandmothers, fathers, teachers, health workers.
Tomorrow, you will hear their collective voice. And I urge you: listen not with policy ears, but with ancestral hearts.
The Work Ahead for all of us is From Call to Action I emphasize, this is not the time for polite consensus but for bold decisions. Let us use this Forum to:
Embed language, identity, and cultural knowledge into every ECD setting;
Infuse climate adaptation and environmental awareness into every curriculum and caregiving approach;
Sustain the work of the PRC4ECD with long-term political and financial commitment;I close my remarks with a reminder that I had shared in 2023:
“If we change the beginning of the story, we change the whole story.” Let this Forum be a space of brave conversations and honest listening. May your talanoa be rich with wisdom and may the voices of our children be the compass that guides every dialogue. And Why? Because in the end, it is not only what we build for them but what we build with them – that will endure.
I now declare the 2025 Pacific Early Childhood Development Forum open
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