The New Zealand NGO community is backing a call from the Pacific Regional NGOs for the implementation of the Pacific Plan to be delayed.
The PRNGO last week called on the Pacific Islands Forum to immediately impose a two-year moratorium on the Plan to enable a more comprehensive and sustainable dialogue to take place.
The Forum's secretary-general, Greg Urwin, says the discussions about the composition of the Plan will go on for years.
Some elements of the Plan may be implemented within months of the Forum summit next month, but Rae Julian, the executive director of New Zealand's Council for International Development, says it is vital that major issues affecting the region are given the priority they deserve.
She says they are fully supportive of the calls for the implementation to be delayed.
"We work in partnership with the Pacific Regional NGOs. We will be meeting with them next month before the Pacific Forum as part of the civil society forum and our role really is to listen to what the Pacific peoples are saying, rather than impose what we think should be the solutions."
Rae Julian.
There are to be more discussions on the Plan in Wellington and Auckland next week
