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.
