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ACFID members' work in the Pacific Australian NGOs have long-standing experience working with local partners in the Pacific. Whilst most of their work is in Melanesia (especially in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji). Australian NGOs also work in other Pacific Island countries such as Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and Tuvalu.
Approximately 57 ACFID member agencies undertake a wide range of development assistance activities including health, education, water and sanitation, literacy, community development, natural resource management, youth support and HIV awareness.
Australian NGOs work mostly in partnership with Pacific civil society organisations, community based groups and non-government regional and national networks. However, in some cases Australian NGOs partner with Pacific Island governments to provide technical assistance e.g. through Australian volunteer placements in Pacific Island government departments such as health and education. |
| Facts and figures The 22 Pacific Island countries and territories that make up the Pacific Islands region fall into three major groups: Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Development challenges for Pacific Islands relate to their vulnerability due to remoteness from major trade and commerce, their small size, high rates of population growth, limited employment opportunities, very limited natural resources (of some countries), and their vulnerability to extreme natural events (cyclones, droughts, earthquakes and impact of climate change).
Australian Government support focuses on 'governance' in line with Australia's long-term development goals in the Pacific which are outlined in the Pacific Regional Aid Strategy 2004–09
ACFID member agencies are very active in the Pacific, focusing their activities on a wide range of development issues and involving hands-on capacity building, especially of Pacific civil society. |
| Pacific Plan A Pacific Plan was developed by the Pacific Islands Forum and endorsed by member states in 2005. The Plan focuses on 'regionalism' and endeavours to create stronger and deeper links between Pacific Island countries and to identify sectors where the region can most benefit from sharing of resources.
Oxfam New Zealand (ONZ) has expressed support for several practical and promising initiatives identified in the Plan but remains concerned that urgent development challenges in the Pacific are conspicuously absent from the Plan, as outlined in ‘Reorienting Economic Growth in the Pacific Plan: Towards Equitable and Sustainable Development'', October 2006 ( 117kb) |
| Parliamentary inquiries relating to the Pacific Two major inquiries have been held relating to Australia’s role in the Pacific (in 2003 and in 2006). Documents relating to these include:
Inquiry into Australia’s Aid Program in the Pacific, ACFID Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Human Rights Sub-Committee, July 2006 (240kb)
A Pacific Engaged: Australia’s Relations with Papua New Guinea and the Island States of the South-West Pacific, Government Response to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade references Committee Report, April 2005 (98kb)
Summary Analysis of Senate committee Report: A Pacific Engaged: Australia’s relations with PNG and the island states of the South West Pacific, ACFOA, September 2003 (205kb) |
| Pacific Labour Mobility Greater access for Pacific Islanders to Australian labour markets is an issue that attracts considerable attention. There is a growing literature on the issue including:
Perspectives on the future of the harvest labour force, Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Education, 2006
Pacific Labour Mobility, ACFID Opinion Piece, January 2006 (36kb)
At Home and Away: Expanding Job Opportunities for Pacific Islanders Through Labour Mobility, The World Bank report, 2006
Labour Mobility in the Pacific: Creating Seasonal Work Programs in Australia, Nic Maclellan and Peter Mares, October 2005 (313kb)
Freer Labour Movement for Pacific Islanders, ACFID Briefing Paper, 2005 (99kb)
Labour mobility for sustainable livelihood in Pacific Island states, Satish Chand, ANU, 2004 (128kb) | |
| Pacific — gender Documents relating to gender issues in the Pacific include:
Women not represented in Pacific Parliaments, Dame Carol Kidu, media release, June 2006 (88kb)
Advocacy or activism: Gender politics in Fiji, Nicole George, October 2004 (256kb)
Domestic violence For in-depth articles on domestic violence please refer to the PNG section of this website.
Gender Equity — Pacific The 10th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women was held in Noumea 27–31 May 2007 and was attended by Ministers, officials from Pacific island countries and territories holding responsibility for women's ministries and departments, and development partners including from regional organisations, research institutions and civil society.
Items discussed at this important meeting included:
- mainstreaming gender into national policy development, implementation and reporting
- gender statistics and indicators
- building a women's movement and
- influencing regional and international development frameworks about gender equity and gender equalit.
Outcomes from 10th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women ( 87kb) |
| Pacific — trade Documents relating to trade issues in the Pacific include:
Updates on Developments in the Pacific , Jane Kelsey paper to International Coordinating Network WTO Preparatory Meeting, Hong Kong, February 2005 (84kb)
Big Brothers Behaving Badly, April 2004 (160kb) |
| Growing disability movement in the Pacific Pacific Island countries are increasingly recognising the importance of disability issues. An NZAID commissioned review, 'Free and Equal: A Review of NZAID Pacific Regional Disability Programme', documents the context for disability issues in the Pacific Islands region. This report, produced in October 2005, provides background to NZAID's strategic direction for assistance in the area of disabilities for the next five years. | | Links and resources | | Address to Pacific Human Rights Consultations, The Hon Duncan Kerr SC MP, December 2008 |
| Nuku'alofa Communiqué, Pacific Regional CSOs Forum 2007
( 54kb) |
| Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2007, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
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| A Civil Influence, Speech outlining the role of civil society in the Pacific, Hon. Joni Madraiwiwi, Fiji's Deputy Prime Minister, October 2006
(187kb) |
| The Impact of Globalization on the Pacific Islands, Stewart Firth, 2005
(187kb) |
| Frontline Human Rights Defenders at Local Level: Community Paralegals and Legal Rights Training Officers within the Pacific Regional rights Resource Team (RRRT) Network, P. Imrana Jalal, Sept 2004
(111kb) |
| | Governance and Security: A Major Challenge to Pacific Civil Society, Aisake Casimira, ECREA, Fiji, August 2004 (118kb) |
| Intervention, regionalism, engagement: New Forms of Security Management in the South Pacific?, David Hegarty, June 2004
(194 kb) |
| A Brief Overview of Pacific Security Issues, R.J. May, April 2004
(106kb) |
| The Pacific and Papua New Guinea: Sustaining reform, Bruce David, Director General AusAID, March 2004
(82kb) |
| Good Governance Pacific-style: the Role of Australian NGOs working with Pacific civil society, Neva Wendt, ACFID, 2004
(144kb) |
| Regional Governance, Peace and Security in the Pacific: A Case for Give and Take, William Sutherland, 2004
(65kb) |
| | A commentary on Helen Hughes’ ‘Aid Has Failed the Pacific’, Claire Slatter, USP, Suva, 2003 (76kb) |
| | Critique of Helen Hughes’ position that aid has failed the Pacific, Janet Hunt, 2003 (119kb) |
| | Pacific Aid, ACFID Opinion Piece, 2003 (35kb) |
| Aid to Pacific Island States, Neva Wendt, ACFID 2003 (Paper published in Dialogue — Journal of the Academy of the Social Sciences)
(201kb) |
| | Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (205kb) | |
