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Maritime Security Issues in an Arc of Instability and Opportunity

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Maritime Security Issues in an Arc of Instability and Opportunity

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Livelihood Security in a Changing Climate

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Livelihood Security in a Changing Climate

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Impacts of Climate Change by Country 2014

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Impacts of Climate Change by Country 2014

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Source: World Bank

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The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries according to their perceived levels of public-sector corruption. The 2011 index draws on different assessments and business opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions.

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U S Navy 7th Fleet Band Plays Last Pacific Partnership Gig

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Pacific Partnership Philippines 2014: Humanitarian Medical Efforts

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All Hands Update July 8, 2014 #2 Humanitarian medical efforts are underway in the Philippines for Pacific Partnership 2014.

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Aid, Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Education, Featured, Gender, Global Governance, Headlines, Human Rights, Labour, Population, Poverty & SDGs, Regional Categories, TerraViva United Nations, Women & Economy, Women in Politics

- A pledge by political leaders two years ago to accelerate efforts toward closing the gender gap in the Pacific Islands has been boosted with the announcement that three women will take the helm of the regional intergovernmental organisation, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, headquartered in Suva, Fiji.

At this year's Pacific Islands Forum leaders' summit in Palau, former Papua New Guinean diplomat and World Bank official, Dame Meg Taylor, was named the new secretary-general, taking over this year from the outgoing Tuiloma Neroni Slade. Taylor, who will hold the post for three years, joins two female deputy secretaries-generals, Cristelle Pratt and Andie Fong Toy.

The appointment is a significant breakthrough for women in the upper echelons of governance. According to Pratt, the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration made at the 2012 leaders' summit in the Cook Islands has galvanised leadership action on the issue.

"A positive change has been the indirect creation of a peer review process on gender at the highest level," Pratt told IPS, adding that gender equality is "slowly gaining traction at the central policy making level", as high up as the prime minister's office in some Forum countries.

Raising the status of women in the Pacific Islands is an immense challenge, given that the region has the lowest level of female political representation in the world at three percent, compared to the global average of 20 percent.

Furthermore, violence against women is endemic and they are poorly represented in formal employment. Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a gender inequality index of 0.617 and Tonga 0.462, in contrast to the most gender equal nation of Norway at 0.065.

The declaration is a sign of greater recognition by the male political elite of the critical role women have to play in achieving better human development outcomes across the region.

National leaders have committed to reforms, such as adopting enabling measures for women's participation in governance and decision-making at all levels, improving their access to employment and better pay, and supporting female entrepreneurs with financial services and training. They have also promised to deliver improved legislative protection against gender-based violence and support services to women who have suffered abuse.

"What is significant about the declaration is that leaders have taken it on board as a priority and I believe our leader took it seriously and followed it through with a law change in Samoa," Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, Samoa's minister of justice and veteran female parliamentarian, told IPS.

Last year a law was passed in Samoa reserving 10 percent, or five of a total of 49 seats in parliament for women.

"It is a significant step in that it provides a 'floor' as opposed to a 'ceiling' and there will never be less than five women in any future parliament," she continued. "It is important that women are in parliament to be seen and heard and to serve as evidence that it can be done."

Women's low political representation ranges from two percent in the Solomon Islands to 8.7 percent in Kiribati, with no female political representation at all in the Federated States of Micronesia and Vanuatu, with populations of 103,000 and 247,000 respectively.

Contributing factors include entrenched expectations of a woman's place in the domestic sphere, low endorsement from political parties and the greater difficulties women have in accessing funding and resources for election campaigning.

There has been incremental progress in other countries with last year witnessing the first female elected into the parliament of Nauru -the smallest state in the South Pacific - in three decades, and three women winning seats in the Cook Islands national election this July.

Women's participation in local level governance received a boost in Tuvalu after the government passed a law requiring female representation in local councils. Blandine Boulekone, president of the Vanuatu National Council of Women, noted that women gained five of a total of 17 seats in the Municipal Elections held in the capital, Port Vila, in January.

Gender parity in education, necessary for improving women's status in all areas of life, has, according to national statistics, been achieved in most Pacific Island states, except PNG, Tonga and Solomon Islands, with girls outperforming boys at the secondary level in Samoa and Fiji.

Nevertheless, the Pacific Islands Forum reported last year that "higher education for young women does not necessarily lead to better employment outcomes due to gender barriers in labour markets", with most countries reporting less than 50 percent of women in non-agricultural waged jobs.

Last year Samoa passed legislation against sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, while similar draft legislation is being developed in Kiribati, Vanuatu and Tonga.

Pratt also claims there has been good progress with "the enactment of domestic violence legislation in Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and Solomon Islands." Last year domestic violence also became a criminal offence in PNG following the passing of the Family Protection Bill.

Sixty to 75 percent of women in the region experience family and intimate partner violence. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by early marriage, the practice of 'bride price', low levels of financial independence and women's inadequate access to justice systems.

However, Shamima Ali, coordinator of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, commented, "As practitioners on the ground, we can say that while all these policies and legislations look great on paper, the implementation is another matter."

"One also needs to invest financially to ensure new legislation and policies are effective."

Fiji has had a domestic violence decree since 2009, but Ali said, "While most magistrates and judges deal well and follow the new decrees, there are many who still display traditional entrenched views regarding rape and domestic violence and often injustice is meted out to survivors, particularly for 'sex crimes'."

Law enforcement is a great challenge, too, especially in rural communities.

"Women, girls and children in rural and maritime areas have little recourse to justice for crimes of violence committed against them due to lack of police presence and resources in these areas," she said.

Pratt agrees that the road to real change in the lives of ordinary Pacific women is a long one.

"The declaration is still new and there is a need for more awareness, advocacy and accountability toward meeting the goals," she emphasised.
Edited by Kanya D'Almeida

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Gender Equality Gains Traction with Pacific Island Leaders

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A pledge by political leaders two years ago to accelerate efforts toward closing the gender gap in the Pacific Islands has been boosted with the announcement that three women will take the helm of the regional intergovernmental organisation, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, headquartered in Suva, Fiji.

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Joint efforts to tackle organised crime in Pacific

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Joint efforts to tackle organised crime in Pacific

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Updated August 07, 2014 21:03:40

Australian and international police say they are trying to work with Pacific nations to address the growing threat of transnational criminal networks.

Source: ABC News | Duration: 2min 30sec

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Police, agencies join forces to tackle organised crime in Pacific

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Updated August 07, 2014 21:03:40 Australian and international police say they are trying to work with Pacific nations to address the growing threat of transnational criminal networks. Source: ABC News | Duration: 2min 30sec

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Brief Summary of Fiji's Political History

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Brief Summary of Fiji's Political History

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The Australian Government's official DFAT summary brief on Fiji

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Dying islands: Solomons battles with rising seas

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Dying islands: Solomons battles with rising seas

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As Australia grapples with resettling asylum seekers in the Pacific, the region is struggling to deal with its own displaced people.

Islands are becoming uninhabitable as the sea level slowly rises, forcing people to relocate.

Thousands will be affected in the Solomons Islands alone and the government has no firm plans yet for what to do with them.

A tranquil lagoon in Malaita, Lunga Lunga is sprinkled with islands but they are not the typical tropical variety.

These precarious mounds of coral, with pole houses perched on the water's edge, are artificial islands.

Across Malaita province, tens of thousands of people live like this.

"This island was built to stay, our forefathers from the bush, come down and stay the island so they build the island here to stay in the island," says Victor Wale from Auki island, just a short boat ride off-shore from Malaita's capital.

Nobody really knows why thousands of people live on these fragile artificial islands.

Some theories suggest the people were refugees, who built these islands with coral from the reef to escape mainland ethnic fighting or headhunting raids.

They are estimated to be at least 500-years-old.

Today the inhabitants are still building up the islands but their battle now is against the sea.

"Those islands are greatly affected because salt water comes right up in the middle of the island, so it affects the root crops," says Alick Maeaba, Deputy Premier of Malaita provincial government.

"That's one of the major problems they've encountered. So it will continue to grow worse in the near future."
Listen: SBS's Stefan Armbruster reports
Australia's Pacific Climate Change Science Program estimates the sea is rising in the Solomons by about eight millimetres a year.

That is almost three times the global average.

Locals say sea temperature rises have driven away the fish, their main source of protein.

Solomon Islands Red Cross disaster risk reduction manager Cameron Vudi has travelled to many remote islands across the Solomons.

"(There is) a big impact on low lying islands, especially (with) the salinisation of their water sources. I've seen this in the small islands I've been to," Cameron Vudi says.

"The wells are getting salty. And especially the dry season when there's no rain, people have no choice but to drink the salt water or the coconuts only."

Victor Wale says people are leaving the island.

"Everything like food gardens and catching water, that's at mainland, so they decide to move to the mainland...Here in the island, we paddle every day," he says.

The remaining islanders wonder where they can go.

"The land issue is so controversial and complicated because the lands are customary lands, owned by local people," says deputy premier Alick Maeaba.

"Land is their birthright. In culture, our land is our mother, so people really treasure it much."

Land disputes sparked a brutal five-year ethnic conflict in the Solomons that ended in 2003.

The national government is still working on the resettlement issue.

"Obviously there is going to be a very, very open discussion, with the communities," says Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo.

"Then it will have to have rethinking, some creative ideas in engagement with all the parties concerned, to be able to agree to a situation of better and amicable co-existence of the people that are facing the effects of climate change and those that are willing to offer their land."

The World Bank in recent Development Reports suggests resettling people in urban centres, where they are close to public services, provided there is more infrastructure spending.

In the Solomons, the main urban centre is the capital Honiara, a hectic little city surrounded by squatter camps.

It was here that the ethnic tensions over land started in 1998.

Malaita deputy premier Alick Maeaba says he does not think the idea will work.

"Generally speaking, if they can resettle to the main towns and the main cities, I don't think so," he says.

"From the experience out of the ethnic tensions, because town boundaries are very limited and anything beyond town boundary is the provincial government-owned land, and other provinces could not allow such a thing to happen."

The Red Cross's Cameron Vudi says another solution has to be found.

"There's a lot of issues that need to be resolved in the urban centres now rather than adding extra pressure to the existing ones we have already," Mr Vudi says.

Organisations like the local Red Cross, funded largely with Australian aid money, are preparing for the long haul.

"Adaptaton is the way to go now, that's because for relocation, it's still a long process before we achieve proper relocation for coastal communities," says Mr Vudi.

"For the smaller island communities, I think if we get them to adapt now, give or take we still have a few decades. But the way the sea's been rising, the sea level rise, or the coastal erosion's been happening, I don't think we have much time."

But time has already run out for some islands.

In the Solomons, and elsewhere in the Pacific, it could leave thousands of people displaced, looking for a new home.

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Dying islands: Solomons battles with rising seas

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As Australia grapples with resettling asylum seekers in the Pacific, the region is struggling to deal with its own displaced people. Islands are becoming uninhabitable as the sea level slowly rises, forcing people to relocate. Thousands will be affected in the Solomons Islands alone and the government has no firm plans yet for what to do with them.

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More than a decade after independence and two United Nation interventions Asia's youngest nation remains an impoverished and fragile state. For a decade Timor was the highest recipient of foreign aid in the world, in per capita terms, with Australia, Portugal and Japan footing most of the bill. While the country has since 2007 been receiving significant revenues from oil and gas, to the tune of $2 billion a year, very little has reached the common people. Meanwhile the country's infrastructure remains one of the worst in the region, with power cuts frequent even in the capital Dili.

Unemployment is among the highest in the world, with the International Crisis Group estimating that the percentage of the available workforce that is either unemployed or informally employed is 71 percent. Nearly two thirds of the country's population is under 30 years old creating a serious source of tension. Has of 2010 the country had the highest rate of urbanization in the world at 5 percent a year with thousands of unemployed young men moving into the capital. Slums without the minimum conditions are emerging on the foot of the mountains that encircle Dili. While luxury houses such as the one being built by the Minister of Finance Emilia Pires in Farol are being erected by a few privileged ones. Pires has been exposed on multiple occasions by leaked documents linking her to several other fraudulent episodes.

Timor is no stranger to poverty. However, the appearance of small pockets of affluence next to abject poverty is new. Child prostitution is quite common, particularly among school children. In June this year the secretary of state for gender told the media that prostitution was increasing in the country, particularly among high school children. Timorese social media is replete with allegations that several government ministers and other senior officials are involved in child prostitution.

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Corruption is fast becoming endemic, with several scandals exposed in the media involving ministers and other senior officials. In 2010 Mario Carrascalao, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão's own deputy prime minister resigned after denouncing several corruption cases, including one involving Gusmão's daughter Zenilda. Five Timorese ambassadors have been recalled for reasons ranging from corruption to attempted rape.

Following the July 2012 elections, former guerrilla commander Gusmão created the largest government in the Asia Pacific, with a cabinet comprising 55 members in a country with a population of just over 1 million. Not only is the government ridiculously large, but many of the ministers have murky pasts, such as minister for State Administration Jorge da Conceição Teme, who was recalled from his post as ambassador to Canberra after he became the subject of sexual harassment claims.

Not surprisingly, the state bureaucracy is in total disarray with Gusmão himself admitting that most of his numerous ministries are able to execute only about 30 percent of their budgets. Public servants go for months without pay; for the hundreds of international advisors the wait is often up to a year.

The country offers generous retirement packages for its politicians. Ministers, deputy ministers, members of parliament, judges and other senior officials are entitled to a life pension that varies from $2500 to $4000 after completing a mere five-year term. Neither the government nor the opposition has been very keen on changing the law. Millions are being spent on luxury cars, houses and trips abroad while unemployment continues to grow. So far, Gusmão has been able to keep a fragile peace by spending significant amounts on expanding patronage networks, awarding contracts and other benefits to his supporters, while buying off critics.

As long has the state continues to have access to generous finances from the country's oil wealth the current strategy is likely to work. The problem is that several studies indicate that the country's oil and gas reserves will last for another 15 years at most. If these studies prove accurate, the next generation of Timorese will pay a bitter price for their fathers' mistakes. In more than a decade of independence, riots, corruption and outright arrogance on the part of the young nation's leaders have led to an economy completely dependent on oil and gas that produces little else. Oil and gas exports account for more than 90 percent of the nation's GDP, the highest dependence on natural resource extraction in the world.

Nonetheless, there are some signs of hope. Despite all these challenges, Timor remains a democracy with one of the freest medias in the region. Figures like President Taur Matan Ruak, a former defense force chief and guerrilla fighter, and minister of State Agio Pereira are widely respected for their honesty. However, they are a tiny minority in an ever more corrupt and incompetent government.

For years the Timorese leadership has blamed bizarre conspiracies by the Australian intelligence services and the CIA for their predicament. The international community has been generous towards the young nation, remembering its heroic fight for independence from Indonesia during which a quarter of its people were massacred. Timor should not take such generosity for granted; its leaders must start taking responsibility for their actions.
Loro Horta is a graduate of the People's Liberation Army National Defense University senior officer's course and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce Central School.

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More than a decade after independence and two United Nation interventions Asia's youngest nation remains an impoverished and fragile state. For a decade Timor was the highest recipient of foreign aid in the world, in per capita terms, with Australia, Portugal and Japan footing most of the bill.

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Air Force EOD helping clear explosive remnants of war from Solomon Islands

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Operation RENDER SAFE 2013 is an Australian Defence Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) mission in the Solomon Islands. The Operation comprises 200 EOD specialist and support staff from the ADF, New Zealand Defence Force, Canadian Armed Forces, the US Navy and Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.