Government of Tonga’s ministry of Meteorology, Environment, Information, Disaster, Energy, Climate and Communication known as MEIDECC.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Tonga, the Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni approved the internship program. The organization that I worked for was the Ministry of Information under the Government of Tonga’s ministry of Meteorology, Environment, Information, Disaster, Energy, Climate and Communication known as MEIDECC. These seven large ministries are under the portfolio of the deputy prime minister.

I was given the opportunity to pick whichever ministry I wish to intern for. These seven ministries MEIDECC have the following functions;

-        1)  Ministry of Meteorology is responsible for Tonga’s meteorological and coast radio services that provides weather information, weather forecast, tsunami warning, and other natural disaster information. This is the ministry’s website: www.met.gov.to

-        2)  Ministry of Environment is responsible for the environmental management, preservation and protection. This is their website which is a joint venture with the Climate Change ministry: www.mecc.gov.to

-        3)  Ministry of Information is responsible for all information pertaining to Tonga. It manages, control and update the governmental portal and working with radio communication related media through providing fair and impartial information to the public. This is their website which is also a joint venture with the communication ministry: www.mic.gov.to

-         4) Ministry of Disaster is responsible for disaster planning, disaster emergency and disaster management. It provides relevant plan and activities on how to prepare and address any impact of natural disaster. This is their website: www.tonga.nemo.worldpress.com

-          5) Ministry of Energy is responsible for Energy, Sustainability and energy conservation. It manages and coordinates all energy related areas within government but not limited to electricity, oil and renewable energy. Their website is www.tonga-energy.gov.to

-          6) Ministry of Climate is responsible for climate change, climate disaster planning and manages the effects of climate change on the environment. This is their website: www.mecc.gov.to

-         7)  Ministry of Communication is responsible for all communications by management all means of communication within Tonga and issues licensures of radio, television, all radio frequencies on tele-radio, internet and telecommunication companies. This is their website: www.mic.gov.to

The information ministry specifically wanted my help though, so I was fully committed to this ministry for the entire duration of the internship. This ministry is a new ministry with no existing policy in place, therefore I was responsible to research, collect data, and to submit a policy guideline for the information department to use in designing its own policy. At the end of the internship program, the Arizona State University intern submitted a 55 pages policy guideline to the ministry of information.

The Government of Tonga plans to shift to e-government in the very near future. This initiative is spearheaded by the Ministry of Information. Although this is going to be a very complicated transition and challenges for the government, however it can be done and will be done sooner than later. One supports the migration from traditional formation of government administration to a more digitize formation provided of course that Tonga is prepared.