As in cultivating the land, the POETCom team has also had a bit of a turnover and this year we would like to welcome two new staff – Fuatino Fatiaki and Rajhnael Deo – who joined us in the last quarter of 2021. Together we will continue to ‘till’ the land of POETCom and strive to bear fruit for all seasons, especially in this pandemic.

Fuatino Fatiaki – Organic and Agroecology Production Systems Officer

Fuatino, commonly known as Tino joined the Pacific Community’s POETCom programme of the Land Resources Division in December 2021 as the Organic and Agroecology Production Systems Officer. Her main responsibilities for this role include gathering, facilitating, implementing and monitoring of agroecological best practices for climate adaptation in the countries that will benefit from the Organic learning farms network project under the Kiwa initiative.

Tino has over seven years’ experience in the agricultural sector working with various NGOs before joining SPC in 2020 under the Sustainable Agriculture team focusing on pest and disease management as well as coordinating and implementing climate smart agriculture CSA activities for the PaCSAA (Pacific Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance) housed in SPC. In addition, Tino has experience in providing technical training of trainers and farmers, regional and national project implementation, and optimisation of affiliated networks to scale up organic and agroecology practices in the region. Furthermore, Tino received AUD 20,000 funding from the ACIAR, Alumni Research Support Facility (ARSF) grant in late 2020. The funding was to carry out organic pesticide trials on common pest problems in Fiji. Tino hopes to expand the findings from these trials into the Organic Learning Farms (OLF).

Tino is a graduate of the University of the South Pacific with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science; Postgraduate Diploma in Chemistry; Postgraduate Diploma in Agriculture and a Masters in Agriculture. She also has practical experience in monitoring and evaluation.

Originally from Samoa, she is now a dual citizen of Fiji. She is based at the LRD’s Narere office and can be contacted via email fuatinof@spc.int or landline (679) 3370733.

Rajhnael Deo – Monitoring and Evaluation Officer

Rajhnael Deo joined the Pacific Community’s POETCom programme of the Land Resources Division (LRD) as the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer in December 2021. He is responsible for providing overall support, advice and oversight on program level and project level monitoring, evaluation and learning to POETCom.

Rajhnael has worked in the regional programmes in the Pacific and brings over 10 years of expertise monitoring, evaluation, statistics analysis and results measurement, especially in the agricultural sector.

He has previously worked at the Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access Plus Program (PHAMA Plus) and the Oceania Customs Organisation (OCO) Secretariat. Rajhnael is a returning SPC staff, having worked in the Trade and Agricultural Statistics unit  at the LRD.

Rajhnael has an educational background in economics and governance, with keen interest in linking production to markets and sharing lessons through impact studies.

He is based at SPC’s Narere campus, where POETCom is housed, and can be contacted on rajhnaeld@spc.int or via phone +679 3370733.