The Pacific Community (SPC) was established by a treaty, the Canberra Agreement, in 1947.

SPC’s governing body is the Conference of the Pacific Community, which is charged with establishing the high-level, strategic orientations of the organisation. It meets every two years at the ministerial level. In years when the Conference does not meet, the Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA) is empowered to make decisions on governance issues. CRGA also has three sub-committees that report to it: the Sub-committee on the implementation of the Strategic Plan, the Pacific Board for Educational Quality and the Audit and Risk Committee. The terms of reference for those committees and all SPC’s governance documents can be found in the Pacific Community Governance Compendium.