Ms. Vasiti Soko
Director – National Disaster Management Office, Fiji
Vasiti’s industry experience spans 15 plus years in the highly technical field of geospatial science and surveying. She has assisted a number of significant projects while working for the Fijian Government including developing a disaster-integrated system prior taking on her current role. She has also worked across a number of regional projects in Nauru, Federate of Micronesia, Palau, Tuvalu, Marshall Island, Kiribati and Australia.
During her stint with the Sugar Industry Tribunal as its GIS Manager, Vasiti worked on creating the first GIS web portal that not only linked Fiji’s four main sugarcane mills remotely but also published live harvesting data during crushing season. This information was than overlaid with climate data to identify high risk farms.
Vasiti studied in Melbourne, Australia and her research work focused on the impact of the Fiji’s new datum to which she updated the transformation parameters for the Fiji’s maritime boundary which was initially done by GeoScience Australia.
Vasiti is the first female Director for Fiji’s NDMO. She is very familiar with the challenges of working in a male-dominated profession like hers and as a result she has developed a keen interest to put those norms to the test. She is passionate to change the stereotyping centred particularly around gender roles in the wider Pacific community. Since taking over NDMO, some significant achievements were the Partial Relocation of Narikoso Community due to sea level rise, the establishment of Fiji’s Community Disaster Risk Management Training Manual, Fiji becoming the first country in the world to validate target E of the Sendai framework 2020, reviewed the Natural Disaster Management Act, completed renovation for Fiji’s NDMO warehouse and having the biggest reach on advocating on disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and early recovery through different forms of media platforms. She is currently the Co-Chair for Pacific Technical Working Group (TWG) on Human Mobility, Deputy Chair for Asia – Pacific, Technical Working Group (TWG) on Disaster-related Statistics and CO- Chair for the Pacific Response to Disaster Displacement Advisory Board. Finally she champions the cause of Inclusivity and thus the first NDMO Director to introduce sign language in all media briefing.