The Pacific Island Forum development co-operation advisor, Alfred Schuster, says there are significant concerns over the way aid is distributed in the region.
New Zealand is this week undergoing a review, under the Forum's aegis, as part of a process to improve the delivery of aid.
Mr Schuster says there are two key matters - the degree of fragmentation between donor countries development policies, and the failure of donors to make use of the recipient countries financial apparatus.
He says many recipient countries have undergone international assessments to ensure their systems are robust but they are still not being made use of by donors.
"Now that doesn't mean that across the board all of the Pacific Islands countries systems are robust but overall there is a general view coming from the peer reviews of Pacific Islands countries that there is a lot of work that has been invested by governments to improve their systems and very little response by partners to use them."
The Pacific Islands Forum's Alfred Schuster.
