Pacific Island Countries

This research indicates that the education program developed and delivered to the 18 participants from Pacific island countries was beneficial. Participants reported the education program had a meaningful impact on their knowledge, skills, and attitudes for the delivery of mental health care. This research extends pre- vious research that reports effective outcomes from education- based training programs. This research is seminal to the field as there is nothing currently available to inform the development of educational interventions for mental health workers in the Pacific islands. Research should be undertaken after the next delivery of the education program to further evaluate the effec- tiveness of the program, explore the need for new content to be introduced into the program, and explore the outcomes of the program in participants’ countries of origin.

In the Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) zoonotic diseases such as leptospirosis, scabies, bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis are endemic (Brioudes, Warner, Hedlefs, & Gummow, 2014; Kline, McCarthy, Pearson, Loukas, & Hotez, 2013), but these island countries tend to be free of serious infectious livestock diseases such as highly pathogenic avian influenza, foot and mouth disease, classical swine fever and rabies (Brioudes et al., 2014; Newman & McKenzie, 1991; Secretariat of the Pacific Community, 2009; Yarrow, 2008). The potential introduction and/or dissemination of diseases threatens the development of the livestock sector and also represents a risk to humans who might be exposed to zoonoses, which account for about 75% of all emerging animal diseases. Veterinarians and field animal health workers are key players required to actively protect this favourable animal health situation but they are in severe shortage in the region (Osborne, 1974; Secretariat of the Pacific Community, 2006; Williams, 2008; Yarrow, 2008). In this context of limited human and financial resources allocated to animal health and animal production programmes, a targeted, cost-efficient surveillance programme is crucial to protect the animal health status and to facilitate the trade of animals and animal products (Cardoen et al., 2009; Krause, 2008; Phylum, 2009;

Despite the relative paucity of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) economic data in many areas, there are few islands in which economic data and in particular, the money stock and income are provided by their central banks. Limitations in the data have resulted in only a limited number of empirical studies that investigated the long run relationship of money demand in the PICs. For instance, see Katafono (2001), Kannapiran (2001), Jayaraman and Ward (2003), Rao and Singh (2005a and b), Rao and Kumar (2007), Kumar and Manoka (2008) and Singh and Kumar (2009). The correct specification of both long- and short- run demand for money functions is important. Many central banks are in the process of liberalizing their financial sector and therefore success of such policies requires the accurate estimation of the magnitude of the money demand

This paper has briefly reviewed the literature on the aid -growth relationship with respect to the Pacific Island countries. This review showed that all the empirical works on the PICs have closed followed the specification and methodology of Burnside and Dollar (2000). It is pointed out that there are serious misspecification errors due to the need to estimate the steady state growth equations and the short period values of the variables used. Such data can only be used to estimate the production functions but not steady state growth equations. Consequently there are significant differences between the conclusions of some papers that aid is effective in imp roving growth rates and others that the growth effects of aid are insignificant in the PICs. The latter view is supported by our results based on a modified production function which has been extended to capture the effects of aid on the steady state growth rate of output in Fiji, PNG and the Solomon Islands. Our empirical finds support some controversial conclusions by Hughes (20xx) that aid has been often misused in the PICs.

This paper has briefly reviewed the literature on the aid -growth relationship with respect to the Pacific Island countries. This review showed that all the empirical works on the PICs have closely followed the specification and methodology of Burnside and Dollar (2000). It is pointed out that there are serious misspecification errors due to the need to estimate the steady state growth equations and the short period values of the variables used. Such data can only be used to estimate the production functions but not steady state growth equations. Consequently there are significant differences between the conclusions of some papers that aid is effective in improving growth rates and others that the growth effects of aid are insignificant in the PICs. The latter view is supported by our results based on a modified production function which has been extended to capture the effects of aid on the steady state growth rate of output in Fiji, PNG and the Solomon Islands. Our empirical finds support some controversial conclusions by Hughes (2003) that aid has been often misused in the PICs.

Rapid population growth in many Pacific Island countries and territories demands new approaches to the sustainable use of natural resources for economic, human and social development. A recent study entitled ‘The Future of Pacific Island Fisheries’ by the Forum Fisheries Agency and Secretariat of the Pacific Community is a valuable guide to optimising the benefits from fisheries and aquaculture. However, achieving these benefits over the long term will depend on our ability to recognise and respond to the many drivers affecting the production and use of fish and shellfish.

During an eight-year period (2000-2007), oil prices in- creased three-fold. From early January 2008, there were further increases in oil price, which reached the record level in mid 2008 at US$145 per barrel. Among the 14 Pacific island countries (PICs), only Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a producer and net exporter of oil and refined fossil fuels. The commodity price boom, since the begin- ning of the decade with oil price rising along with gold price doubling and copper prices increasing four fold, has been a big boon to PNG, in terms of improvement in terms of trade as well as resultant rise in its export earn- ings (Australian Agency for International Development, [1]). On the other hand, the smaller PICs with no petro- leum resources have been hit hard by surges in world- wide oil prices (United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and Pacific [2], Asian Development Bank [3,4]). Being totally import dependent for all fuel and other energy needs, their trade balances have deteriorated con- siderably during recent years.

Abstract: Background: The health impacts of climate change are an issue of growing concern in the Pacific region. Prior to 2010, no formal, structured, evidence-based approach had been used to identify the most significant health risks posed by climate change in Pacific island countries. During 2010 and 2011, the World Health Organization supported the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in performing a climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment. This paper summarizes the priority climate-sensitive health risks in FSM, with a focus on diarrheal disease, its link with climatic variables and the implications of climate change. Methods: The vulnerability and adaptation assessment process included a review of the literature, extensive stakeholder consultations, ranking of climate-sensitive health risks, and analysis of the available long-term data on climate and climate-sensitive infectious diseases in FSM, which involved examination of health information data from the four state hospitals in FSM between 2000 and 2010; along with each state’s rainfall, temperature and El Niño-Southern Oscillation data. Generalized linear Poisson regression models were used to demonstrate associations between monthly climate variables and cases of climate-sensitive diseases at differing temporal lags. Results: Infectious diseases were among the highest priority climate-sensitive health risks identified in FSM, particularly diarrheal diseases, vector-borne diseases and leptospirosis. Correlation with climate data demonstrated significant associations between monthly maximum temperature and monthly outpatient cases of diarrheal disease in Pohnpei and Kosrae at a lag of one month and 0 to 3 months, respectively; no such associations were observed in Chuuk or Yap. Significant correlations between disease incidence and El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycles were demonstrated in Kosrae state.

The island of Tuvalu lies in the Western South Pacific, its coordinates are 176 - 180 degrees east and 5 - 11degerees south [1]. The total land area is 26 km 2 with five true atolls and four raised limestone reef islands [7]; [1]. Tuvalu’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extends to 900,000 km 2 and has great fish stocks [8]. The main is- land of Tuvalu is Funafuti and the capital is Fongafale [9]. The population of Tuvalu was estimated to be 11,206 in 2011 [10]. English, Tuvaluan and Kiribati are the three main languages [9]. All the islands have primary school but for secondary school the students travel to Vaitupu Island. For further education the students travel to other Pacific island countries or to Funafuti which has a Uni- versity of the South Pacific Campus, commercial school – Maleta Kapane Halo Computer and Typing School and Tuvalu Maritime Training Institute [11]. The economy of Tuvalu heavily relies on imported food and fuel [9]. Sub- sistence agriculture and fisheries are major activities for the Tuvaluans; tourism, EEZ fishing licence fees and remittances from Tuvaluans employed abroad, mainly as seafarers, is also a source of income [9]. The three com- munities from Tuvalu were Vaiaku and Senala village from Funafuti Island and Tumaseu village from Vaitupu Island. Vaiaku village has 72 households and the popula- tion of Vaiaku village is 485 [11]. There are 142 house- holds in Senala village and the village has a population of 909 [11]. People migrate from outer islands to Funa- futi for further education, better medical facilities and employment opportunities [11]. Motorbikes, cars, trucks and bicycles are the main modes of transportation on the islands [11]. The main sources of income in Funafuti are employment, remittances and subsistence fishing, cutting toddy, handicrafts, farming and livestock (pig and chi-

This article focuses on the challenges for land and disaster agencies in Pacific island countries (PICs) in terms of the linkage between disaster response and land issues, as well as highlighting lessons for improved DRM and longer- term adaptation to a changing climate. The PICs represent a particular set of geographic, economic and social circumstances and challenges. Firstly, the Pacific region is one of the world’s most disaster-prone regions, impacted by both natural and climate-related hazards. According to the World Bank/ GFDRR (2012) extreme events have affected approximately 9.2 million people in the region since 1950, causing 9 811 reported deaths and damage estimates totalling US$3.2 billion. Tropical cyclones are the major cause of loss of life and economic costs, but several other significant threats exist, including tsunamis and floods. For example, the 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake and tsunami caused losses equivalent to 90 percent of the 2006 recurrent government budget. The 2004 Cyclone Heta on Niue caused immediate losses of five times GDP and the 2009 Fiji floods in Nadi, Ba, and the sugar belt area, resulted in losses of F$350 million.

Achieving adequate economic growth is crucially important for the improvement of standards of living and the livelihoods of people in the Pacific island countries (PICs). A successful business sector is an important prerequisite for economic growth in the Pacific islands. However, the inability to attract investment capital, inefficiency, poor performance and even corporate failures, have been common phenomena in the PICs. Poor performance of the business sector has weakened its role as the engine of economic growth in the PICs. It has been widely held that the lack of good corporate governance practice in the business sector is largely responsible for such poor performance. Consequently, boards of directors have come under heavy criticism and scrutiny in the PICs, often accused for being ineffective, corrupt and lacking the ability to drive success in business enterprises. As such, an in-depth understanding of how boards of directors operate is of utter importance not only for academic inquiries but also for government and industry policy developments in the PICs. This thesis examines the role of boards of directors and the factors that affect the board’s ability to perform their roles in the PICs, by focussing on two countries, Fiji and Solomon Islands.

Historically, Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs) have been more severely affected by influenza pandemics than any other part of the world. As an extreme example, during the 1918 influenza pandemic, Western Samoa (now Samoa) experienced the loss of 19-22% of its popula- tion [1]. On the other hand, also during the 1918 pandemic, four Pacific island nations were able to delay or prevent introduction of the influenza virus through strict application of maritime quarantine. Eventually, all experi- enced infection after the quarantine was lifted, but delay in introduction seems to have helped reduce the impact [1]. One area, the remote Lau and Yasawa islands of Fiji, is the only known Pacific area that appears to have avoided the 1918 pandemic altogether [2]. By 2009, all PICTs except for Tokelau and Pitcairn Islands could be reached by commercial air line, making timely quarantine unrealis- tic for most.

The small size of the labour market in these countries may be a great source of costs and inefficiencies if job mobility and skills enhancing is not part of medium-term labour market strategies. Therefore, the solution is not only considering migration programs (seasonal or not) towards Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, but the interconnection across the small Pacific island countries expanding the size of their national labour markets. Following the example of the University of the South Pacific, with campuses along many countries, the Pacific island countries would benefit of creating a basic legal framework facilitating migration in order to cover skills’ shortages. This is what experts usually call South-South migration or the Global South. Previous experiences, as in the Caribbean countries, reaching agreements may be useful (Warner and Anatol, 2014). This type of migration would help to fight unemployment and to increase firms’ efficiency, and would decrease brain drain providing more opportunities. In order to protect workers’ rights, the region needs a common legal framework for visas, seasonal employment, recognition of qualifications etc. Expanding public or private/public partnership in labour market intermediation across the region would be crucial for this task. Beyond facilitating migration across the region with a consistent legal regulation and improving labour market intermediation, fighting again skills’ mismatches requires the active involvement of employers in vocational training programmes in the medium and long terms.

With the emergence of timber exports through middlemen acting on behalf of Malaysian and Korean companies, with concomitant environmental concerns arising out of indiscriminate logging by land owning communities, cocoa and coffee receded into the background. In recent years timber accounted for 11 percent of total exports, copra 31 percent and beef 9 percent. Other exports, besides traditional coffee and cocoa, are minerals and handicrafts. With most of the exports being primary agricultural exports competing with those of other island economies they happen to form a small proportion of total world trade, so Vanuatu is a price taker. Consequently, export earnings are subject to the effects of a high degree of variation in world prices. Since 1997, copra and cocoa prices have fallen considerably. On the other hand prices of most manufactured goods and other strategic imports, including fuel have been on the rise. The resultant effects of high variability in terms of trade are reflected in high volatility in export earnings.

11. Lough JM, Meehl GA and Salinger MJ (2011) Observed and projected changes in surface climate of the tropical Pacific. In: JD Bell, JE Johnson and AJ Hobday (eds) Vulnerability of Tropical Pacific Fisheries and Aquaculture to Climate Change. Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Noumea, New Caledonia, pp. 49–99.

In PICs, corporate governance has attracted attention for very similar reasons. The lack of good corporate governance has led to the inability and failure of state-owned enterprises (SoEs) to generate profit, which has continuously put governments under huge budgetary pressure just to keep them afloat in line with national interest. Some countries have encountered more painful losses following the bankruptcy of important economic institutions. Two prominent cases in point were the collapses of National Bank of Fiji (NBF) in 1995 and the Development Bank of Solomon Islands (DBSI) in 2004. These failures have significantly affected the livelihoods of a large number of employees, customers, shareholders, vendors and other key stakeholders in the two countries (Boyd, 2003). Furthermore, compelling evidence in PICs suggests that enterprises continue to face difficulties in accessing capital to finance even viable projects (Asian Development Bank, 2009; The World Bank, 2010). Significantly related to this, is the lack of investor confidence in the governance mechanisms that supposedly exist to protect the interests of capital providers to enterprises (Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, 2005). In this sense, corporate governance is seen as an important pre- requisite for the success of the corporate sector, and hence, economic growth in the PICs. While corporate governance comprises a broader spectrum of mechanisms, one of the important components of an enterprise’s governance system is the board of directors. Specifically, the effectiveness with which the board of directors governs the affairs of the enterprise affects its ability to meet its objectives.

The 21 Pacific Island countries share trading and shipping links, and in particular certain countries are ‘hubs’ for trade. Providers of processed foods were primarily with countries within the region, or countries with which there were strong economic links such as France, Australia, New Zealand and the United States (US). On this basis, and due to resource limitations, five countries were identi- fied which were considered by the authors to be hubs for trade or to have unique supply chains, thus representing the range of products available in all the Pacific Island countries. These were: Fiji, Samoa (independent state of, formerly known as Western Samoa), Guam, New Caledonia and Nauru.

temperatures are strongly related to the ocean temperatures surrounding the islands and atolls of the country. While Tuvalu also has two distinct seasons, wet and dry, seasonal rainfall variability in Funafuti is not as strongly pronounced as in some other Pacific Island Countries, with rainfall averages being in a range between 200 and 400 mm each month of the year (Figure 8, right panel). This is attributed to the location of Tuvalu near the West Pacific Warm Pool, where thunderstorm activity occurs all year round. Tuvalu’s wet season is affected by the movement and strength of the SPCZ. The WPM can also bring heavy rainfall to Tuvalu during the wet season. Tuvalu’s rainfall varies considerably from year to year due to ENSO and SPCZ displacement. In Funa- futi, El Niño events tend to bring wetter conditions than average (climatology), while La Niña events usually bring drier than average conditions (Figure 8, right panel).

Abstract: Several diseases and vulnerabilities associated with genetic or microbial factors are more frequent among populations of Oceanian, Non-European, Non-Asian descent (ONENA). ONENA are specific and have long been isolated geographically. To our knowledge, there are no published official, quantitative, aggregated data on the populations impacted by these excess vulnerabilities in Oceania. We searched official census reports for updated estimates of the total population for each of the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (including Australia) and the US State of Hawaii, privileging local official statistical or censual sources. We multiplied the most recent total population estimate by the cumulative percentage of the ONENA population as determined in official reports. Including Australia and the US State of Hawaii, Oceania counts 27 countries and territories, populated in 2016 by approximately 41 M inhabitants (17 M not counting Australia) among which approximately 12.5 M (11.6 M not counting Australia) consider themselves of entire or partial ONENA ancestry. Specific genetic and microbiome traits of ONENA may be unique and need further investigation to adjust risk estimates, risk prevention, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, to the benefit of populations in the Pacific and beyond.

166 programme was implemented in workplaces in the Pacific Island countries of Fiji and Solomon Islands. Early evaluations of this programme were mixed, but the programme changed the way participants thought about women (Roberts 2007). Stepping Stones is another Pacific-adapted international training programme that originated from Uganda. This program focuses on gender, HIV communication and relationship skills based upon the principle that gender inequalities affect all in society. This sexual and reproductive health programme was designed to work with men and boys as well as women and girls and has now been incorporated into Fijian and Solomon Islands national strategic plans. For this programme and others like it, a long-term approach is crucial (Osnes 2014). A recent longitudinal study with young men who had participated in Stepping Stones programmes in South Africa showed some improvements for men in terms of relationships and livelihoods. However, high rates of unemployment, peer networks and dominant youth masculinity limited change (Gibbs, Jewkes et al. 2014). This is instructive for PNG where 85 per cent of the population live a village-based subsistence lifestyle and there are very few opportunities for formal employment, meaning there is a prevalence of peer networks such as groups of raskols 19 exerting dominant and often destructive expressions of masculinity (Luker & Monsell-Davis 2011).