Making Resilience Renewable: Negotiating the New Future with Fogamomi Nicc Moeono
March 1by Jasmine Koria
‘Niccolo BJ Machievelli Moeono-Alaiasa’ (yes, like the philosopher!), is the longest name I remember by heart, and not by choice, either. When we first meet, we are teenagers, and the beautifully competitive Samoan education system has given us a very particular kind of anxiety about each other. In a country brimming with untapped potential, but not with opportunities, you must know your competition. We and thousands of other scholarship hopefuls are fighting our way up for a chance to live seemingly impossible dreams. At our graduation from the National University of Samoa’s (NUS) Foundation Program in 2014, the keynote speaker puts a well-timed coolant onto our egos: “We are the new future. ALL OF US[i].”
Afioga[ii] Fogamomi Nicc Moeono (Nicc) is Samoa’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) In-Country Facilitator, contracted by the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) and the global NDC Partnership to be embedded with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE). His job is, in his words, “everything to do with Samoa’s Nationally Determined Contribution. I’ve been helping to develop the new NDC and an investment program, looking at how to get from where we are to the target. We are setting the foundation for the next five years; whatever projects the Samoan government has identified as priority now, my role is to match those with donors and potential funders who may be able to invest in them. I’m also doing capacity building, not just for government, but for local society.”
A Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) Honors graduate of the University of Waikato with a specialization in renewable energy systems, Nicc is currently a PhD researcher working on a thesis which focuses on ensuring that Samoa has an effective clean energy plan. He has served as an International Youth Climate Delegate to the Conference of the Parties (COP)28 in Dubai, an outgoing Curator of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Apia Hub, and a Samoa National Delegate to the 13th Commonwealth Youth Forum which the Pacific hosted in 2024. A trained international negotiator, Nicc’s service to the Commonwealth itself is also notable: he has been a Young Leader in the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, and a trustee of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC). When I asked about his background, however, he was excited to tell me that his first job was at KFC, selling fried chicken to help his mother with the family finances.
In speaking with Nicc about the nuanced intersections between youth empowerment, climate change, clean energy and community development in the Commonwealth Pacific, I was inspired by his consistent mention of the need for solutions which are both renewable and sustainable. He believes these can be achieved when people with hands-on experience are in leadership. “After university, I worked at the Samoa Electric Power Cooperation (EPC) where I really focused on the operation and maintenance of our renewable energy power stations and also got given quite a few projects to work on. That set the foundation for the work I do now – it gave me a good foothold in the space, and knowledge of where Samoa is heading in terms of its energy sector.”
Nicc shared that his early years as a graduate engineer provided him the opportunity to travel extensively around the Samoan islands. “You get to actually see the sites: solar panels, wind farms, hydro stations. You have to really understand the mechanics, the infrastructure, and all those nitty-gritty details that you read in textbooks. You need to have that practical knowledge and experience.” Never one to be too content with his own success, Nicc quickly transitioned from the public service into running his own consultancy. “I focused on energy efficiency demand management. I did a lot of carbon audits and energy audits, and eventually, I had the first certified Green Business in Samoa.”
I was curious about the resilience required to make the huge leap from selling chicken at KFC to coordinating the efforts around an entire country’s Nationally Determined Contributions. Many young people from the developing Pacific still work minimum wage service-industry jobs, braving long hours and demanding customers – to help provide for their families. “I was skipping school a bit, to make some extra cash,” Nicc recalled. “But” he said, “it doesn’t matter what circumstances you start out with. Focus and discipline: those are attributes that weren’t told to me, they were shown to me. I saw them through my mother, working hard. It was a tough upbringing, and her goal was to have a better life for me and my siblings. I saw that in a practical sense, and even today, she’s still doing some pretty amazing stuff.” Nicc was honest, but not sentimental. “(My childhood) taught me a lot. I learned to keep the end-goal in mind, and how to deal with the business and money-related side of the work I do.”
For all his thrift and business-like discipline, Nicc is one of the most prolific volunteers I have met in Samoa. Five years ago, we actually reconnected post-NUS when I joined the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Apia Hub, a network of young professionals who volunteer together to implement development initiatives that align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nicc was already a member of the executive, serving first as our Impact Officer, and being elected as Curator (president) in 2022. I took the leadership baton from him in 2023, and it enabled me to have my first-ever trip to Europe for the annual Global Shapers Summit. Though it is easy for gatekeeping and nepotism to thrive in these high-level advocacy platforms, Nicc’s work continues to be an example of how youth can support each other on our journeys towards success. That same year, despite his busy schedule, he managed to obtain approval from YOUNGO, the youth arm of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), to run the first ever Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) in Samoa under the Global Shapers banner. A pioneering effort in community climate change dialoguing, Samoa has subsequently hosted two successful LCOYs. Amongst the Global Shapers local network, Nicc is endearingly, and in a very Pacific jest, referred to as the ‘father of LCOY Samoa.’
He wears this not only as a leader in his field, but also as a traditional matai ali’I (high chief) in his coastal village of Falefā, in Samoa.
(Image from Nicc Moeono’s social media)
Opportunities to speak to locally based youth academics-particularly PhD researchers- are few and far between in Samoa. I spent the final minutes of our conversation asking Nicc if he had any advice for the next generation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S.T.E.M) practitioners and scholars from the developing Commonwealth. He answered this very specifically: “At the moment, the ceiling seems to be a master’s degree, and people just stop there. But you can go even higher, do a PhD, become a PhD fellow. These academic qualifications are very difficult (to obtain), but I know it is possible because there are others who have done it before me. I started off not being the brightest student. But I think it doesn’t matter whether you start off struggling or if you’re having early success. Just stay focused.”
After witnessing a decade of his success, I had to ask Nicc who inspires him. I was not surprised when he simply said, “my mum.”
Some days before this piece is published, Nicc and I are waiting for another youth engagement meeting, and we have just finished recording what will eventually become this interview. It is late afternoon and we are at the cafeteria of the TATTE Building in Apia, downstairs from where he is stationed at the Samoa MNRE, and right next door to UNICEF Samoa where I currently work. It is eleven years since graduation from the National University of Samoa’s Foundation Program. We are leaving the final years of our twenties now, and still -slowly but surely, building the new future.
[i] The ‘New Future’ Valedictorian speech was delivered in 2014 by National University of Samoa Top Foundation Year student, Afioga Leaututū Manuia Lameta Brown.
[ii] ‘Afioga’ is the common prefix to high chief titles in Samoa. It is sometimes translated to the English title, ‘Honorable’
