PICRC Charts Its Next Five Years in New Strategic Plan

Since 2001, when the Palau International Coral Reef Center began its operations, the Center has updated its strategic plan regularly every five years.  As with previous updates, the finished plan reflects the insights of each staff member.  The Center’s staff participated in a series of situation analysis workshops to assess their respective department’s performance, challenges, and opportunities, as well as how their work supports the Center’s legal mandates.

As explained by Dr. Yimnang Golbuu, the Center’s Chief Executive Officer, “We want to continue improving our strengths, change any areas that are not working and stay focused on achieving our goals.” With this in mind, the staff actively considered various scenarios of where they want to be as a Center in five years’ time, and what steps would be needed to get there. After completing the workshops, the entire staff joined a strategic planning retreat to write up the plan and set a new mission, vision and set of goals for the Center. 

The new strategic plan was officially adopted last week by the Center’s Board of Directors.  The Center’s new vision statement reads, “Empowered Ocean stewardship that sustains people and inspires the world” and the mission statement reads “To be a Center of Excellence that produces high quality and impactful research, education, and opportunities to support stewardship of Palau’s ocean resources.”

Covering the next five years, this 5^th updated strategic plan will guide the Center’s work to ensure that it continues to fulfill its mandates and serve the people of Palau to its full potential. “Whatever challenges we confront in the next five years, I believe this plan will help our work continue to be relevant and impactful for Palau” continued Dr. Golbuu. “I’m proud of our team for setting ambitious goals and I’m looking forward to a productive five years.”