An India government delegation has visited the National University of Samoa (N.U.S.) to see educational equipment procured under the Indian UN Development Partnership Fund.

The delegation was led by Saurabh Kumar, who is the Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs in the India government. According to a press release issued by the N.U.S. administration on Wednesday, the educational equipment was procured for the Samoa Knowledge Society Initiative (SKSI) at the N.U.S.

The NUS Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Tuifuisa'a Patila Amosa and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Peseta Dr. Desmond Mene Lee Hang met with the India government delegation and were accompanied by an N.U.S. management team. The management team included the university's librarian, Avalogo Tunupopo and the ICT Director, Leota Sarai Faleupolu-Tevita who took the delegation on a brief tour of the digital scanner room at the library as well as the SKSI server room on campus.

Professor Muagututi'a Ioana Chan Mow, who is the Team Leader of the SKSI Project at the university, provided a brief introduction to the SKSI as well as an overview of current and future SKSI work. SKSI team member Vensel Chan gave a virtual tour of the SKSI platforms with a focus on the digital herbarium, which is an ongoing project as part of the Samoa Digital Library (SADIL).

Mr. Kumar expressed satisfaction at the progress of the project led by the SKSI while highlighting the need for its sustainability.

“It is really heartening to see the work being done and its benefits to help make the information available to each and every individual," said the senior India government official. "And I really appreciate and compliment the university and others who have been associated with this, to bring the project to where it is now.

"But as Professor Muagututi’a mentioned that we have Phase 2 and Phase 3 to go and sustainability is something which is usually important and I would like to wish the National University of Samoa all the success in taking this project further ahead.”

Prof. Amosa extended her appreciation to Mr. Kumar and his delegation for visiting the university to follow up on the project's progress while acknowledging the government of the Republic of India for its generosity in funding the university's SKSI Project.

The SKSI is funded by the Indian-UN Development Partnership Fund and is a joint programme of UNDP, UNESCO, UNRC, and FAO. It was launched on 17 January 2022 to promote knowledge-based sustainable development in Samoa and has three components: SADIL, the Open Access Research repository, and the lifelong learning platform.

SKSI is also a multi-stakeholder project and the following are the N.U.S. contributions to the SKSI project made possible with funding from the India UN Development Partnership Fund. These include the SKSI infrastructure assessment and installation (hardware, software, connectivity), development of a multilingual SKSI website and the 3 platforms, digitization and populating of the digital library (~3600 digitised resources), DSpace & digitization training, the conduct of national water quality research, the development of open access policies, digitisation and editorial guidelines, as well as the continued maintenance of the 3 platforms.