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Islanders discuss poverty in Pacific
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Posted on Feb 15 2001
Pacific Island delegates at a conference in the Philippines have discussed growing concerns with the issue of poverty in the Pacific region.
Asian Development Bank President Tadao Chino opened the first Asia and Pacific Forum on Poverty last week by announcing the Bank’s commitment to poverty alleviation in member states and strategic alliances with other donors to address poverty in the Asia/Pacific region.
At a special session on the Pacific chaired by the Director of the ADB’s Office of Pacific Operations, Basudev Dahal, delegates from the Pacific region including Samoa, Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands and Fiji discussed growing poverty concerns.
Professors Vijay Naidu and Cros Walsh from the University of the South Pacific based in Fiji, outlined the results from studies in a number of Pacific Island countries indicating increasing poverty and growing inequalities.
The Pacific concept of “subsistence affluence” was said to obscure the realities of island life and failed to reflect conditions in outer islands and inland rural and highland communities.
Concern was also expressed that although the region was diverse, the common social and economic development issues had not been effectively addressed in the region.
These included the impacts of globalization, anti-poverty public policies, poor governance, unfriendly business, rapid population growth, low functional literacy levels and significant infant mortality in some Pacific islands countries.
Other stresses were linked to urbanization, land tenure, fisheries degradation, environmental vulnerability and the pressures on traditional social support structures brought about by structural adjustment programs and political crises.
