By Professor Peter Scott, President and CEO, COL
A ten-year strategy for flexible learning across ten Pacific Island countries, building on a successful Commonwealth Pacific Partnership
In a 10×10 investment, the New Zealand Government is working with the Commonwealth of Learning and Pacific Partners to build on the success of flexible learning for skills and youth for the next ten years across ten Pacific Island countries.
A long-term commitment
Funded by the New Zealand Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is launching Phase 2 of the Pacific Partnership for Open, Distance and Flexible Learning (PP ODFL), a decade-long effort to strengthen education and skills across the Pacific. The new phase runs from 2026 to 2036 and works with ten Pacific Island countries: Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Naoero, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Moving past Phase 1, we are delighted to extend this work even beyond the Commonwealth to include the Marshall Islands.
The Pacific Centre for Flexible and Open Learning for Development (PACFOLD) at the University of the South Pacific is COL’s regional delivery partner.
The ten-year horizon defines the new phase which builds upon the success of the five-year programme that showcased the value of flexible learning for the Pacific.
Building on success
Phase 1 (2020 to 2025) offered a clear demonstration of the power of digital, open and flexible learning for the Pacific and particularly for small island states. More than 7,200 educators enrolled in professional development to drive up the quality of open education. This quality drive sat alongside highly effective skills delivery, in which some 5,900 young people who were outside education, employment and training completed community-based skills training, with a completion rate of 63 per cent, women making up almost two-thirds of participants, and a cost of about NZD 81 per trainee. This first phase of Pacific Partnership produced more than 300 open educational resources adapted to local curricula and contexts.
So, to give just one small but telling example of resilient, high-quality delivery, when an earthquake struck Vanuatu in 2024, the programme’s cloud-hosted learning platform was back in service within a single week!
Education systems change slowly, and durable change in small island states calls for patience, continuity and trust between partners. The first five years lay the foundation. The second five years scale what the evidence shows is working, country by country.
Phase 1 also highlighted a familiar challenge. Projects and partners achieved strong results, but too few had found a permanent home in national systems, budgets and qualifications frameworks. Phase 2 is built to close that gap. Its purpose is to mainstream Phase 1 results, moving proven approaches from pilot to routine practice, owned and financed by Pacific institutions. The new phase therefore gives as much attention to removing the constraints holding systems back as it gives to delivering courses and training. Ten such constraints were identified from Phase 1 experience and validated with Pacific education leaders, among them the recognition of ODFL credentials within national qualifications frameworks, institutional ownership backed by budget authority, climate-resilient infrastructure, educator and trainer capability, safeguarding, and evidence systems. Five design gates, covering safeguarding, recognition pathways, institutional ownership, climate content and evidence readiness, must be passed before delivery scales in any country. Ownership comes before scale, and evidence comes before expansion.
Designed by the Pacific, for the Pacific
In February 2026, 45 leaders from the programme countries met in Nadi, Fiji, for four days of regional consultations, to ensure that the Phase 2 design fully belongs to the region. Working in three technical groups, they tested the problem analysis against country evidence, ranked the binding constraints country by country, and co-designed nine intervention packages. Three sub-regional consultations (May-June 2026) and a regional stakeholder survey extended and validated these findings.
The consultations identified three core areas of work:
First is young people who are not in education, employment or training. Around a third of young Pacific women and a quarter of young men are in this position, and rural young women are affected most. Phase 2 offers them a new bite at learning through community learning hubs, foundation programmes in literacy, numeracy and digital skills, recognition of prior learning, and mentoring into climate-resilient livelihoods.
The second is the upgrading of teachers, with an emphasis on STEM. Educators will earn recognised credentials for professional development in ODFL, STEM teaching and climate-responsive pedagogy, aligned to national and regional qualifications frameworks and supported by offline servers, solar-powered hardware and communities of practice.
And, third is the credentialing of skills training. Working with employers, TVET institutions and qualifications authorities, the programme will develop stackable micro-credentials in green skills such as solar installation, climate-resilient construction and sustainable agriculture, so that skills gained through flexible learning are trusted, portable and recognised.
Inclusion and climate in every action
Two commitments shape every activity and every output. Gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) is a design condition for the whole programme. Dedicated resources build partner capability, a disability screener at learner intake triggers individual support, and participation targets call for at least half of participants to be women across the programme and at least 65 per cent in the youth stream. Safeguarding operates as a gate with no waiver: learner-facing delivery begins only once safeguarding systems have been independently verified.
Climate change is treated as both content and operating condition. Learners, teachers, and communities will gain climate literacy, green skills, and disaster preparedness, while delivery systems are built to keep learning going through cyclones, power outages and displacement. Each year, the programme will review all learner facing activities to ensure the quality of its climate content.
Governance and implementation
As COL’s President, I will Chair the Steering Committee, working with senior representation from MFAT, USP and Members to provide strategic oversight. Our key team members in every country are our Focal Points in the ministries of education. These key individuals will advise programme management, as full members of the Programme Committee, chaired by COL’s Vice President, which monitors performance, steers adaptation and holds authority over safeguarding decisions. PACFOLD sits at the very centre of implementation, to anchor regional coordination, host the programme’s monitoring, evaluation and learning function in the Pacific, and channeling support to national institutions and community partners through agreed arrangements.
What happens next
Initiating a full programme for the next ten years requires us to be very clear about our starting position, so we’ve framed the first year as ‘inception’. For baseline assessments, the Commonwealth team will focus on country plans, partner selection and safeguarding audits for every Pacific Partner. By 2036, the aim is for Pacific institutions to deliver quality, inclusive and accredited flexible learning through their own staff, budgets and governance, with the Commonwealth partnership team in a supporting role.
For more information, please contact PacificPartnership@col.org.
From March to May 2025, more than 240 young people in South Tarawa, Kiribati gained practical skills for work and entrepreneurship through nine inclusive courses delivered by MWYSSA and COL, with support from New Zealand MFAT, Kiribati, 2025. (Image credit: https://www.facebook.com/mwyssaKiribati, Ministry of Women Youth Sport and Social Affairs)
