The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is reassuring NGOs that the body is committed to continued engagement with them, as mandated by the region's leaders.
This comes after NGOs, which are preparing to meet in Auckland, raised concerns about how they could maintain links given their annual communiques appear to be ignored by the leaders.
But the acting Secretary General of the Forum, Feleti Teo, says civil society play a critical role in advocating for change, policy development and service delivery.
He says Forum leaders recognise the role civil society plays in assisting grassroots development and the importance of conveying some of these views to national policy-makers.
Mr Teo says the leaders recognise that civil society has expertise in some fields and can provide alternate perspecitves which add value to the policy making process.
He says the Forum wants this relationship to work, but working out the mechanisms will take time.
