The Forum Leaders established the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific, CROP (formerly the South Pacific Organisations Coordinating Committee, SPOCC) in 1988 with the mandate to improve cooperation, coordination, and collaboration among the various intergovernmental regional organisations to work toward achieving the common goal of sustainable development in the Pacific region. CROP comprises the heads of the intergovernmental regional organisations in the Pacific.

The 1995 Forum mandated the Secretary General of the Forum Secretariat to be the permanent chair of CROP, a decision reaffirmed at the Special Leaders’ Retreat in April 2004. Leaders also mandated the ‘coordination role’ of CROP to the Secretary General. The Secretary General reports to Leaders on CROP matters.

CROP functions as (i) a coordination mechanism between the heads of the regional organisations in the Pacific, and (ii) a high-level advisory body, to provide policy advice and may assist in facilitating policy formulation at national, regional and international level. CROP provides a forum to enable CROP heads to collectively review progress with their respective organisations’ contributions on the Pacific Plan.

CROP takes advantage of opportunities to pool and share expertise and resources to optimise benefits to member countries and territories. Where CROP sees the need, it establishes specific working groups with clear terms of reference to address important emerging or on-going priority issues of a cross-cutting nature.

In addition to the Forum Secretariat, the members of CROP are:

Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (PIFFA)
Pacific Islands Development Programme (PIDP)
Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC)
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO)
University of the South Pacific (USP)
Pacific Power Association (PPA)
Pacific Aviation Safety Office (PASO)