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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the official arm of the Government dealing with most aid assistance to Tonga especially bilateral assistance from Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Multilateral assistance is coordinated by various ministries: Assistance from regional organizations such as the Forum Secretariat and the Secretariat to the Pacific Community is coordinated by the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Natural Resources; the Ministry of Fisheries coordinated assistance from Forum Fisheries Agencies; the Ministry of Finance coordinates assistance from international financial institutions such as the Asia Development Bank (ADB), World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF); and, the Central Planning Department coordinates assistance from Tonga's bilateral partners with the exception of the EU, which is coordinated through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At present, there are no mechanisms in Tonga whereby all these different kinds of assistance mentioned above are coordinated. Also, there are no mechanisms to coordinate efforts concerning international cooperation development assistance for sustainable development.

This common understanding among the UN partners of the key development challenges facing Kiribati will serve as the basis for developing a United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). This, in turn, will identify common objectives and a common time frame for UN system action and will assist individual UN agencies in their detailed programming exercises.