A country connected by sea
In Solomon Islands, a country nestled between Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu on the Solomon Sea, is a vast archipelago of over 900 islands with communities far and wide.
Many islands can only be reached by boat, where people take the risk and cross the open sea from one island to another on small, motorised boats. In a country that moves by ocean, port, and seaport – it can make responding to disasters a logistical challenge.
For Penaia, as an Emergency Supply Chain Officer deployed to the World Food Programme and embedded within the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) in Solomon Islands, he is focused on supporting the NDMO to strengthen their humanitarian logistics and disaster preparedness, so that they can reach communities faster when disaster strikes.
A shared connection
Originally from Fiji, Penaia has been deployed to Solomon Islands since August 2025 as an Emergency Preparedness and Response Supply Chain Officer. Penaia has found common ground with Solomon Islanders through their lived experience with disasters. ‘Being from the Pacific, the disaster space is not new to me,’ said Penaia. ‘We are also exposed as an impacted population, and this has developed my interest in the disaster space. It’s pushed me to this work as a responder, and being part of the communities that have been impacted by disaster.’
For Penaia, building trust and relationships is fundamental in this line of work.
‘You cannot work with people if you don’t understand them, and also if they don’t understand you,’ said Penaia. ‘Relationship building is key. So, they need to accept us first as part of them, before they can open be to conversations, ideas, concepts – I need to be accepted and trusted first.
'Relationship building is key. So, they need to accept us first as part of them, before they can open be to conversations, ideas, concepts – I need to be accepted and trusted first.'
It’s Penaia’s lived experience and professional learnings that continues to guide his ability to work collaboratively.
‘You come here with an open mindset, with the ability to learn, to read between the lines and adjust your way of life, communication, leadership, and work to match what is actually happening on the ground level, so that you can make a difference,’ said Penaia.
As a Pacific Islander, Penaia also believes that this has made it significantly easier to build this trust.
‘Fijians and Solomon Islanders have a long outstanding relationship over the years. It’s not hard for me to adapt, to sync in with the team, and to blend in with them because we are from the same Melanesian group,’ said Penaia. ‘The other advantage is that most of my colleagues here were educated in Fiji. It’s easy for them to blend with me, because they have interacted with a lot of Fijians and they lived in Fiji for quite a few years of their life.’
Pacific Humanitarian Warehousing Program
One of the key areas of focus for Penaia and the Solomon Islands NDMO is the pre-positioning of humanitarian supplies, which will ensure communities impacted by disaster would receive support faster.
‘They need humanitarian storage facilities to be prepositioned in key locations and provinces, so that when a disaster strikes, it will enable the provincial Government to respond within the first 24-48 hours, before international assistance arrives or even before the NDMO in Honiara send teams and supplies to the affected communities,’ said Penaia.
The Pacific Humanitarian Warehousing Program (PHWP) is playing a critical role to support this within Solomon Islands. Penaia provides support to this project as the embedded NDMO connector: building relationships, resolving issues, and bridging the different perspectives between key stakeholders.
‘Projects need to listen to the needs of the country, but also looking at the project’s perspective, they are focused on budgets, scope of work, and available funding,’ said Penaia. ‘It’s a matter of open discussion and connecting this understanding between all stakeholders and balancing the perspectives of the country and the project.’
'They need humanitarian storage facilities to be prepositioned in key locations and provinces, so that when a disaster strikes, it will enable the provincial Government to respond within the first 24-48 hours...'
The PHWP is currently focused on building Solomon Islands’ first humanitarian warehouse in Malaita, one of the largest and most populous islands. For Penaia, the project’s completion will set a precedence for Solomon Islands’ disaster preparedness and prepositioning, while also supporting communities.
‘This warehouse will be a benchmark for future projects, especially around the humanitarian warehousing concept,’ said Penaia. ‘We are navigating this slowly and steadily through the leadership of PHWP Project Management Unit (PMU) from the Pacific Community (SPC), the Infrastructure Specialists Unit (ISU) and Solomon Islands Government.’
Given the vast spread of its island archipelago, Penaia knows that Solomon Islands Government intends to ensure other provinces also have pre-positioned humanitarian supplies.
‘In fact, the need of humanitarian warehousing and prepositioned emergency relief supplies also exists in two other provinces, Western and Temotu,’ said Penaia. ‘I believe we can apply lessons learnt from the Auki project in Malaita so that other future humanitarian warehouse projects in the country will be smoother and easier to proceed with.’
Building locally relevant systems
Penaia is also focused on a range of capacity building initiatives, as part of his embedded role within Solomon Islands NDMO. The strengthening of systems and processes, he believes it will ensure these projects are sustainable in the long-term, beyond the term of his deployment.
‘We have a lot of contexts in the Pacific, there’s no one size that fits all,’ said Penaia. ‘Whatever works in Fiji doesn’t work here, whatever works in Vanuatu won’t work here… I’m trying to focus on building systems and processes that is in accordance with the demand of Solomon Islands NDMO, relevant to the context of the country.’
‘While the construction of the humanitarian warehouse is time-bound, the sustainability of the program is through its systems and processes… So, building this will be determined by the NDMO themselves, in accordance with the context, resources, and infrastructure that exists in the country.’
Responding to Tropical Cyclone Maila
In April 2026, when Tropical Cyclone Maila struck Solomon Islands, Penaia’s expertise as a logistician and supply chain officer filled an important gap within Solomon Islands NDMO’s response mechanism.
‘The Principal Logistics Officer retired last year, and the government is currently recruiting, so I was asked to fill this gap by assisting the warehouse officer and NDMO staff in both Choiseul and Western province,’ said Penaia. ‘I count myself lucky to be in the country at that time, and I’m so grateful to the NDMO Director, Jonathan, and the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) Committee for putting their trust in me to co-lead the logistics component of the response and be part of the NDMO Field Advance Team that were deployed within the first 48 hours of the disaster down to the Western Province.’
As part of this response, Penaia travelled via Royal Australian Airforce C-27 to Western Province to secure the port of entries at Munda Airport, Noro Port and Gizo Port, vital logistics lifelines to enable the delivery of humanitarian supplies.
‘The response to Choiseul is only limited to one island. So, that’s why the Chairman of NEOC decided that we should focus our logistics on Western Province, because it consists of several big islands and stretches out from Central Province border right through to the border of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea,’ said Penaia.
The Australian Government’s humanitarian warehouse and their staff (Humanitarian Logistics Capability program or HLC) played an important role in delivering Australian Aid humanitarian supplies to Solomon Islands. As the logistics co-lead in this response, Penaia played an important role in advising the HLC team on the country’s needs and was integral to the coordination of the delivery from the national level to provincial level and onwards to impacted communities.
‘The Solomon Islands Government requested the Australian Government to activate Australia’s humanitarian warehouse team and to deliver emergency relief items here,’ said Penaia. ‘For the humanitarian warehouse team, their role was to transport the humanitarian supplies, and I was with the Solomon Islands NDMO rep sorting out the logistics to the most needed areas on the ground.’
Within 48 hours of the Solomon Islands Government’s request for assistance, a range of humanitarian supplies – including community tents, shelter tool kits, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, and solar lights – had reached Honiara, and transferred to Munda for Western Province and to Taro for Choiseul Province.
For Penaia, it was an eye-opener for him to see the critical role he played in Australia’s support to Solomon Islands through the different programs of Australia Assists, PHWP, and HLC. ‘It blends well with all of us here.’
Lessons beyond the deployment
Looking towards the future, Penaia wants to see more Pacific Island humanitarians deploying around the region and the world and sharing their expertise.
His advice reflects the same values that have shaped his own journey.
‘You have to interact with people of all ages, all cultural backgrounds, and people with different statuses,’ said Penaia. ‘You have to treat people as human because we are working in the humanitarian space and we should have the heart to serve the people, especially in our region where we know that we are vulnerable to disasters, social factors, and more.’
‘Go to where people are and try to build up from there.’
Disclaimer: The information and views published here are the individual’s own and do not necessarily represent the partner organisation, Australia Assists or the Australian Government’s views, positions or opinions.