The reality of any relocation in Vanuatu is that it is mostly carried out in the context of kasto... more The reality of any relocation in Vanuatu is that it is mostly carried out in the context of kastom (community-based culture), as 97% of land in Vanuatu is under customary tenure. The state’s role in managing disaster-induced displacement is nuanced owing to its overlap with customary institutions serving a similar function. Cultural systems must therefore be effectively integrated if disaster risk management is to be successful.
We salute the exceptional contributions of five ni-Vanuatu who passed away over the last year to ... more We salute the exceptional contributions of five ni-Vanuatu who passed away over the last year to the archaeological understanding of Vanuatu and the wider Pacific over a 50-year period. They were all at one time members of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre's unique network of Filwokas (fieldworkers) who are involved in protecting, promoting and preserving the country's cultural heritage. Their careers spanned the pre-and post-Independence (1980) period when archaeological research itself was transformed from a largely colonial exercise to being fully locally coordinated and regulated with an emphasis on grassroots awareness.
Vanuatu's new Political Parties Registration Bill is central to political integrity reforms, prop... more Vanuatu's new Political Parties Registration Bill is central to political integrity reforms, proposing minimum political party accountability standards. • Passage of the current Political Parties Registration Bill allows for iterative political settlement in a dynamic, complex context. However, there are some areas for strengthened accountability.
The value proposition of Pacific regionalism in an
increasingly dynamic geopolitical environment ... more The value proposition of Pacific regionalism in an increasingly dynamic geopolitical environment must balance the agreed rhetoric of Blue Pacific stewardship that drives a regional ethos, with the realpolitik of governments looking at shorter-term timeframes potentially at the expense of these stated values of custodianship. Maintaining Pacific agency and regional resolve will become increasingly tested in 2024. This paper explores Pacific island countries’ prospects in advancing sustainable development objectives in 2024. It considers what will be necessary to regain and sustain Pacific development gains while navigating a challenging economic and climate outlook amidst increasingly dynamic geopolitics.
InBrief Series ANU Department of Pacific Affairs, 2022
This In Brief explores the case study of maritime boundary delineation negotiations between Vanua... more This In Brief explores the case study of maritime boundary delineation negotiations between Vanuatu and Solomon Islands in order to provide insights into the role of Oceanic cultural diplomacy in contemporary interstate diplomacy in the Pacific Islands region. It is part of series on Oceanic diplomacy introduced by In Brief 2021/23, which defined it as ‘the distinctive diplomatic practices and principles which come out of the long history and diverse cultures of the Pacific Islands’.
COVID in the Islands: A Comparative Perspective on the Caribbean and the Pacific, 2021
This chapter recounts and examines the events triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic that produced a ... more This chapter recounts and examines the events triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic that produced a steep decline in Vanuatu's tourism industry, the key economic sector during the preceding three decades. This necessitated a rapid policy shift by the Vanuatu Government towards COVID-safe business readiness and a programmatic response to build domestic tourism to revive Vanuatu’s tourism industry during the pandemic. This chapter focuses on Vanuatu’s experience in terms of impacts to tourism businesses, a new domestic tourism campaign and public-private policy shifts to support the resilience of an industry in crisis. It presents three cases that illustrate the response and recovery efforts at the business, sector and policy levels.
What role can partnership brokering play in navigating head-field office dynamics to foster susta... more What role can partnership brokering play in navigating head-field office dynamics to foster sustainable development partnerships? This question is explored in the context of the author’s professional experience working for multilateral, multi-national and regional organisations in the Pacific, where the challenges of distance, isolation and smallness necessitate head-field office arrangements that can efficiently address economies of scale. The paper explores the plurality of roles for an internal partnership broker in such contexts and unpacks concepts of power, alignment and consensus in head-field office dynamics. It explores how the central principles of effective partnership brokering can be applied.
Often characterised as a region of relative peace due to the absence of inter-state conflicts, th... more Often characterised as a region of relative peace due to the absence of inter-state conflicts, the Pacific island region is not immune to violent conflict. Episodes of violence, political unrest and instability have hampered development; a ‘business as usual’ approach to development does not guarantee that the Pacific will remain peaceful in the future. The link between peace and development is a central tenet of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) acknowledging the inter-connectedness between the drivers of poverty and conflict. This presents an opportunity to integrate and expand on traditional concepts of development and security. A holistic consideration of the social, economic, environmental and governance factors underpinning peaceful and prosperous societies sits at the heart of this transformation. Political and policy responses can either pave the way for peace and development—or build up tensions and, eventually, trigger conflict.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 (the ‘peace goal’) is a key policy opportunity to safeguard development gains in the Pacific. Fostering peaceful sustainable development in the Pacific will require a re-thinking of the development approaches taken, particularly where pervasive exclusion and inequality are linked to potential drivers of conflict. This paper highlights four areas for attention: resource scarcity, migration and displacement, urbanization, and exclusion and inequality. As a threat multiplier, climate change exacerbates all of these development challenges, and the policy urgency is immediate. Future conflict can, however, be avoided. The paper offers that for Pacific island countries, policy emphasis on strengthening institutions – both formal and informal – combined with conflict-sensitive programming will go a long way to mitigating drivers of conflict and realizing the intent of SDG 16 as ‘the peace goal’. Acknowledging limitations in the reach of and access to Pacific island state institutions, many such solutions will necessarily be through informal structures. At a regional level, a revisiting of the Pacific Human Security Framework 2012-2015 in the context of the 2030 Agenda and SDG 16 may also offer new ways to guide and monitor peaceful development.
Alienation of customary land represents a significant, and increasing, challenge in many parts o... more Alienation of customary land represents a significant, and increasing, challenge in many parts of the world. In Vanuatu the 1980 constitution restored perpetual land rights to “indigenous custom owners and their descendants”. Implementing this principle after decades of land alienation often proved to be difficult and contested. Government infrastructure, tourism, business, agriculture, industry, urbanization, and the desire to use land to secure financial loans are some of the driving forces behind the creation of leases. The Justice for the Poor program’s national leasing profile represents the first comprehensive attempt to document nation-wide leasing activities in Vanuatu and highlights the importance of maintaining a uniform and reliable database of land lease registration that could inform land use planning decisions.
Pacific diplomacy has entered a new chapter in the twenty-first century ; it should chart a strat... more Pacific diplomacy has entered a new chapter in the twenty-first century ; it should chart a strategic course among diverse geopolitical agendas, new and multiple actors, including beyond the traditional nation state, and evolving regional identity politics. Often on the receiving end of " soft diplomacy " from the established and rising powers of the Indo-Pacific seeking to exert influence, the Pacific Island nations face real consequences of transnational challenges such as climate change and marine resource depletion, and are craft-ing their own pragmatic diplomacy. The emerging Pacific approach suggests that aspects of network diplomacy—leveraging bilateral, multilateral, and multi-actor relations to forge issues-based coalitions around a common goal—will increasingly become a necessary feature of Pacific states seeking to navigate shifting geopolitics, and situate themselves within an emerging Indo-Pacific region.
The current state of Pacific regionalism is faced with a range of
external and internal factors t... more The current state of Pacific regionalism is faced with a range of external and internal factors that are acting to reshape the region and which call for a rethinking of Pacific regionalism. Within this context a range of new and in some cases reinvigorated groupings of political actors have emerged, seeking to influence and shape the region. Interpretations of this plurality of political groupings differ, with some authors seeing it as a direct challenge to the previously existing regional order, while others argue it signals a return to a foundational Pacific voice in regional politics. This article suggests that the present plurality is more than resituating a ‘Pacific voice’ and is not necessarily a challenge to the existing order. Rather, the Pacific’s experience mirrors global trends in the evolution of regionalism as a practice, in which network diplomacy or coalition-building across the plethora of actors will become a predominant feature of new regionalism. Further, the authors argue that the Framework for Pacific Regionalism provides the platform for effectively navigating this new context through facilitating the politics of networks and coalitions to drive the shared interests of the region, and presents a shared platform to test paradigm-shifting ideas.
Slim electoral margins, combined with a high turnover of incumbents at election time and widespre... more Slim electoral margins, combined with a high turnover of incumbents at election time and widespread ‘patronage politics’ are associated with political parties in Melanesia (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). In Vanuatu, the absence of political finance regulation, limited state-initiated investigation and minimal documentation of electoral fraud are challenges to ensuring electoral integrity. This paper examines the Republic of Vanuatu’s experience during and after the October 2012 national election. Following this election, 24 electoral petitions relating to bribery, fraud and voting miscounts were lodged with the Vanuatu Supreme Court. This paper describes post-election forensic analyses of the October 2012 national elections that test for irregularities on polling day and during the vote count, in order to gather evidence for improving campaign monitoring and electoral transparency. An analysis of electoral practice and the perceived spread of electoral corruption associated with the increased localization of politics is provided within the context of Vanuatu’s single non-transferable vote (SNTV) system.
Making Land Work Volume 2 Case Studies (DFAT), Jun 2008
The village land trust is a concept used in Vanuatu after independence
(1980) to meet the pressi... more The village land trust is a concept used in Vanuatu after independence
(1980) to meet the pressing need for a legally recognised body to make
decisions on behalf of customary owners whose alienated lands were
being returned. In the decades since, although the use of village land trusts
has not spread around Vanuatu, the two main ones established—Ifira
Trustees Limited and Mele Trustees Limited—have enjoyed relative success,
albeit with mixed experiences. They have enabled leases to be negotiated
over former alienated lands, revenues to be collected, investments to
be made in businesses, and a wide range of services to be provided
to the villages involved. The trusts have also been a symbol of village
solidarity—a ‘common basket’ from which everyone can eat.
The experiences of the village land trusts provide some important lessons.
» Land trusts can be an effective vehicle for representing
group ownership in the formal economy.
» The incorporation of land trusts requires a regulatory
regime to ensure accountability and transparency.
» Governments can play a supportive role when
land trusts are being set up.
» Land trusts can have the flexibility to incorporate
traditional decision-making structures.
» Business and investment activities are best kept separate
from the land management activities of land trusts.
» Land trusts would benefit from an intermediary advisory body.
Pacific women are hardworking, creative, resourceful and resilient agents. Yet their predominant ... more Pacific women are hardworking, creative, resourceful and resilient agents. Yet their predominant portrayal is one of vulnerable victimhood distinguished by limited opportunities for empowerment and intractable gender inequality and gender violence. Our discussion of gender and social protection in the Pacific starts with the recognition of women’s agency while also acknowledging that pervasive structures and processes of inequality severely constrain their creativity and resilience in adversity. Pacific women are doubly devalued by masculinist structures that have their origins in both indigenous cultures and the introduced culture of a globalizing capitalism in both colonial and contemporary epochs. This discus sion paper considers these dynamics in three countries of the region – Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu – exploring how best to approach social protection so as to promote gender equality rather than risk reinscribing prevailing gender inequalities.
This paper was prepared to both document Vanuatu's efforts to elevate gender rights in the land r... more This paper was prepared to both document Vanuatu's efforts to elevate gender rights in the land reform process of the 2000s, as well as to identify future areas for policy engagement in advancing women's access to productive resources both in Vanuatu and in the global arena.
Cultural shifts in Vanuatu over the last century or so have seen a progressive sidelining of wome... more Cultural shifts in Vanuatu over the last century or so have seen a progressive sidelining of women’s roles in customary land tenure systems. Women’s relationship with the land has been increasingly blurred by time leading to a common perception that women’s land rights are secondary to men’s, and therefore lesser and/or negligible. This perception is inadvertently perpetuated by the Constitution and state’s articulation of customary land tenure, to the extent that the boom in land speculation in Vanuatu in the early 2000s disenfranchised several women from accessing land due to their omission from decision-making processes. Attempts at reconciling customary land practice with national land legislation (to form ‘hybrid’ systems) have often increased the marginalisation of women. The various legal systems (traditional, state and hybrid) in Vanuatu need to be clear on their understanding of kastom and land and its impact on women and other disadvantaged groups. Recent research by the author and others argues that it is time to move away from thinking about land in terms of “ownership” and to think about it more as a “common basket” that sustains all its people; men, women, the old and the young.
The reality of any relocation in Vanuatu is that it is mostly carried out in the context of kasto... more The reality of any relocation in Vanuatu is that it is mostly carried out in the context of kastom (community-based culture), as 97% of land in Vanuatu is under customary tenure. The state’s role in managing disaster-induced displacement is nuanced owing to its overlap with customary institutions serving a similar function. Cultural systems must therefore be effectively integrated if disaster risk management is to be successful.
We salute the exceptional contributions of five ni-Vanuatu who passed away over the last year to ... more We salute the exceptional contributions of five ni-Vanuatu who passed away over the last year to the archaeological understanding of Vanuatu and the wider Pacific over a 50-year period. They were all at one time members of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre's unique network of Filwokas (fieldworkers) who are involved in protecting, promoting and preserving the country's cultural heritage. Their careers spanned the pre-and post-Independence (1980) period when archaeological research itself was transformed from a largely colonial exercise to being fully locally coordinated and regulated with an emphasis on grassroots awareness.
Vanuatu's new Political Parties Registration Bill is central to political integrity reforms, prop... more Vanuatu's new Political Parties Registration Bill is central to political integrity reforms, proposing minimum political party accountability standards. • Passage of the current Political Parties Registration Bill allows for iterative political settlement in a dynamic, complex context. However, there are some areas for strengthened accountability.
The value proposition of Pacific regionalism in an
increasingly dynamic geopolitical environment ... more The value proposition of Pacific regionalism in an increasingly dynamic geopolitical environment must balance the agreed rhetoric of Blue Pacific stewardship that drives a regional ethos, with the realpolitik of governments looking at shorter-term timeframes potentially at the expense of these stated values of custodianship. Maintaining Pacific agency and regional resolve will become increasingly tested in 2024. This paper explores Pacific island countries’ prospects in advancing sustainable development objectives in 2024. It considers what will be necessary to regain and sustain Pacific development gains while navigating a challenging economic and climate outlook amidst increasingly dynamic geopolitics.
InBrief Series ANU Department of Pacific Affairs, 2022
This In Brief explores the case study of maritime boundary delineation negotiations between Vanua... more This In Brief explores the case study of maritime boundary delineation negotiations between Vanuatu and Solomon Islands in order to provide insights into the role of Oceanic cultural diplomacy in contemporary interstate diplomacy in the Pacific Islands region. It is part of series on Oceanic diplomacy introduced by In Brief 2021/23, which defined it as ‘the distinctive diplomatic practices and principles which come out of the long history and diverse cultures of the Pacific Islands’.
COVID in the Islands: A Comparative Perspective on the Caribbean and the Pacific, 2021
This chapter recounts and examines the events triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic that produced a ... more This chapter recounts and examines the events triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic that produced a steep decline in Vanuatu's tourism industry, the key economic sector during the preceding three decades. This necessitated a rapid policy shift by the Vanuatu Government towards COVID-safe business readiness and a programmatic response to build domestic tourism to revive Vanuatu’s tourism industry during the pandemic. This chapter focuses on Vanuatu’s experience in terms of impacts to tourism businesses, a new domestic tourism campaign and public-private policy shifts to support the resilience of an industry in crisis. It presents three cases that illustrate the response and recovery efforts at the business, sector and policy levels.
What role can partnership brokering play in navigating head-field office dynamics to foster susta... more What role can partnership brokering play in navigating head-field office dynamics to foster sustainable development partnerships? This question is explored in the context of the author’s professional experience working for multilateral, multi-national and regional organisations in the Pacific, where the challenges of distance, isolation and smallness necessitate head-field office arrangements that can efficiently address economies of scale. The paper explores the plurality of roles for an internal partnership broker in such contexts and unpacks concepts of power, alignment and consensus in head-field office dynamics. It explores how the central principles of effective partnership brokering can be applied.
Often characterised as a region of relative peace due to the absence of inter-state conflicts, th... more Often characterised as a region of relative peace due to the absence of inter-state conflicts, the Pacific island region is not immune to violent conflict. Episodes of violence, political unrest and instability have hampered development; a ‘business as usual’ approach to development does not guarantee that the Pacific will remain peaceful in the future. The link between peace and development is a central tenet of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) acknowledging the inter-connectedness between the drivers of poverty and conflict. This presents an opportunity to integrate and expand on traditional concepts of development and security. A holistic consideration of the social, economic, environmental and governance factors underpinning peaceful and prosperous societies sits at the heart of this transformation. Political and policy responses can either pave the way for peace and development—or build up tensions and, eventually, trigger conflict.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 (the ‘peace goal’) is a key policy opportunity to safeguard development gains in the Pacific. Fostering peaceful sustainable development in the Pacific will require a re-thinking of the development approaches taken, particularly where pervasive exclusion and inequality are linked to potential drivers of conflict. This paper highlights four areas for attention: resource scarcity, migration and displacement, urbanization, and exclusion and inequality. As a threat multiplier, climate change exacerbates all of these development challenges, and the policy urgency is immediate. Future conflict can, however, be avoided. The paper offers that for Pacific island countries, policy emphasis on strengthening institutions – both formal and informal – combined with conflict-sensitive programming will go a long way to mitigating drivers of conflict and realizing the intent of SDG 16 as ‘the peace goal’. Acknowledging limitations in the reach of and access to Pacific island state institutions, many such solutions will necessarily be through informal structures. At a regional level, a revisiting of the Pacific Human Security Framework 2012-2015 in the context of the 2030 Agenda and SDG 16 may also offer new ways to guide and monitor peaceful development.
Alienation of customary land represents a significant, and increasing, challenge in many parts o... more Alienation of customary land represents a significant, and increasing, challenge in many parts of the world. In Vanuatu the 1980 constitution restored perpetual land rights to “indigenous custom owners and their descendants”. Implementing this principle after decades of land alienation often proved to be difficult and contested. Government infrastructure, tourism, business, agriculture, industry, urbanization, and the desire to use land to secure financial loans are some of the driving forces behind the creation of leases. The Justice for the Poor program’s national leasing profile represents the first comprehensive attempt to document nation-wide leasing activities in Vanuatu and highlights the importance of maintaining a uniform and reliable database of land lease registration that could inform land use planning decisions.
Pacific diplomacy has entered a new chapter in the twenty-first century ; it should chart a strat... more Pacific diplomacy has entered a new chapter in the twenty-first century ; it should chart a strategic course among diverse geopolitical agendas, new and multiple actors, including beyond the traditional nation state, and evolving regional identity politics. Often on the receiving end of " soft diplomacy " from the established and rising powers of the Indo-Pacific seeking to exert influence, the Pacific Island nations face real consequences of transnational challenges such as climate change and marine resource depletion, and are craft-ing their own pragmatic diplomacy. The emerging Pacific approach suggests that aspects of network diplomacy—leveraging bilateral, multilateral, and multi-actor relations to forge issues-based coalitions around a common goal—will increasingly become a necessary feature of Pacific states seeking to navigate shifting geopolitics, and situate themselves within an emerging Indo-Pacific region.
The current state of Pacific regionalism is faced with a range of
external and internal factors t... more The current state of Pacific regionalism is faced with a range of external and internal factors that are acting to reshape the region and which call for a rethinking of Pacific regionalism. Within this context a range of new and in some cases reinvigorated groupings of political actors have emerged, seeking to influence and shape the region. Interpretations of this plurality of political groupings differ, with some authors seeing it as a direct challenge to the previously existing regional order, while others argue it signals a return to a foundational Pacific voice in regional politics. This article suggests that the present plurality is more than resituating a ‘Pacific voice’ and is not necessarily a challenge to the existing order. Rather, the Pacific’s experience mirrors global trends in the evolution of regionalism as a practice, in which network diplomacy or coalition-building across the plethora of actors will become a predominant feature of new regionalism. Further, the authors argue that the Framework for Pacific Regionalism provides the platform for effectively navigating this new context through facilitating the politics of networks and coalitions to drive the shared interests of the region, and presents a shared platform to test paradigm-shifting ideas.
Slim electoral margins, combined with a high turnover of incumbents at election time and widespre... more Slim electoral margins, combined with a high turnover of incumbents at election time and widespread ‘patronage politics’ are associated with political parties in Melanesia (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). In Vanuatu, the absence of political finance regulation, limited state-initiated investigation and minimal documentation of electoral fraud are challenges to ensuring electoral integrity. This paper examines the Republic of Vanuatu’s experience during and after the October 2012 national election. Following this election, 24 electoral petitions relating to bribery, fraud and voting miscounts were lodged with the Vanuatu Supreme Court. This paper describes post-election forensic analyses of the October 2012 national elections that test for irregularities on polling day and during the vote count, in order to gather evidence for improving campaign monitoring and electoral transparency. An analysis of electoral practice and the perceived spread of electoral corruption associated with the increased localization of politics is provided within the context of Vanuatu’s single non-transferable vote (SNTV) system.
Making Land Work Volume 2 Case Studies (DFAT), Jun 2008
The village land trust is a concept used in Vanuatu after independence
(1980) to meet the pressi... more The village land trust is a concept used in Vanuatu after independence
(1980) to meet the pressing need for a legally recognised body to make
decisions on behalf of customary owners whose alienated lands were
being returned. In the decades since, although the use of village land trusts
has not spread around Vanuatu, the two main ones established—Ifira
Trustees Limited and Mele Trustees Limited—have enjoyed relative success,
albeit with mixed experiences. They have enabled leases to be negotiated
over former alienated lands, revenues to be collected, investments to
be made in businesses, and a wide range of services to be provided
to the villages involved. The trusts have also been a symbol of village
solidarity—a ‘common basket’ from which everyone can eat.
The experiences of the village land trusts provide some important lessons.
» Land trusts can be an effective vehicle for representing
group ownership in the formal economy.
» The incorporation of land trusts requires a regulatory
regime to ensure accountability and transparency.
» Governments can play a supportive role when
land trusts are being set up.
» Land trusts can have the flexibility to incorporate
traditional decision-making structures.
» Business and investment activities are best kept separate
from the land management activities of land trusts.
» Land trusts would benefit from an intermediary advisory body.
Pacific women are hardworking, creative, resourceful and resilient agents. Yet their predominant ... more Pacific women are hardworking, creative, resourceful and resilient agents. Yet their predominant portrayal is one of vulnerable victimhood distinguished by limited opportunities for empowerment and intractable gender inequality and gender violence. Our discussion of gender and social protection in the Pacific starts with the recognition of women’s agency while also acknowledging that pervasive structures and processes of inequality severely constrain their creativity and resilience in adversity. Pacific women are doubly devalued by masculinist structures that have their origins in both indigenous cultures and the introduced culture of a globalizing capitalism in both colonial and contemporary epochs. This discus sion paper considers these dynamics in three countries of the region – Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu – exploring how best to approach social protection so as to promote gender equality rather than risk reinscribing prevailing gender inequalities.
This paper was prepared to both document Vanuatu's efforts to elevate gender rights in the land r... more This paper was prepared to both document Vanuatu's efforts to elevate gender rights in the land reform process of the 2000s, as well as to identify future areas for policy engagement in advancing women's access to productive resources both in Vanuatu and in the global arena.
Cultural shifts in Vanuatu over the last century or so have seen a progressive sidelining of wome... more Cultural shifts in Vanuatu over the last century or so have seen a progressive sidelining of women’s roles in customary land tenure systems. Women’s relationship with the land has been increasingly blurred by time leading to a common perception that women’s land rights are secondary to men’s, and therefore lesser and/or negligible. This perception is inadvertently perpetuated by the Constitution and state’s articulation of customary land tenure, to the extent that the boom in land speculation in Vanuatu in the early 2000s disenfranchised several women from accessing land due to their omission from decision-making processes. Attempts at reconciling customary land practice with national land legislation (to form ‘hybrid’ systems) have often increased the marginalisation of women. The various legal systems (traditional, state and hybrid) in Vanuatu need to be clear on their understanding of kastom and land and its impact on women and other disadvantaged groups. Recent research by the author and others argues that it is time to move away from thinking about land in terms of “ownership” and to think about it more as a “common basket” that sustains all its people; men, women, the old and the young.
The movement for independence in various Melanesian countries was
galvanised by the demand to ret... more The movement for independence in various Melanesian countries was galvanised by the demand to return alienated land to the indigenous populations. The constitutions of Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands reflect this aspiration by retaining customary control over most land. In Vanuatu, for example, the Constitution has specifically maintained the jurisdiction of customary institutions over land. Since Independence, however, customary land has again been parcelled, commodified and leased. The recent land rush in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu demonstrate the potential impacts of land leasing on the customary system. These land transformations are discussed at length in this publication, and as such the volume offers important insights into understanding land issues in Melanesia. A number of chapters in this volume deal with the implications of increasing urbanisation across Melanesia. While the problems associated with urbanisation look different across the region, all countries have faced challenges in trying to provide suitable land for the expanding populations around urban centres. These are difficult issues, but Melanesian policy makers must recognise that not everyone living in urban areas has an island or village to which they can return. The state has an obligation to try and provide its population with access to urban services, and necessarily this will involve the creation of new state land through the acquisition of new areas of customary land, which often requires substantial funds. The research in this book contributes greatly to our understanding of how people are living on land in Melanesia in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Many of the chapters in this book describe the various forms of transactions that take place over land, from customary agreements to formal leasing. Policy makers from the Melanesian region need to learn from applied case studies of land issues in their own countries, and more broadly from across the region. Research findings must always be condensed into a form that policy makers can read and learn from. Access to land is central to sustainable development. Maintaining adequate land access is a major social justice issue. Land is essential to the maintenance of kastom, kinship structures and language. The title of this book encapsulates the way in which people across Melanesia today find themselves at a crossroads, caught between the idea of land as property and the concept of land as life, which is central to kastom.
Working Document -Not to be referenced or cited
This Pacific Perspectives publication is informe... more Working Document -Not to be referenced or cited This Pacific Perspectives publication is informed by the 2030 Agenda and the SAMOA Pathway, both of which contain a commitment to leave no-one behind. The study profiles the policy landscape and identifies opportunities for working with the informal systems in the Pacific in the pursuit of sustainable development. In particular, this analysis focuses on existing points of intersection between formal and informal ways of working to identify how these linkages can be enhanced. It unpacks the constraints faced by Pacific island governments in working with multiple, informal systems and explores the potential for enhanced policy hybridity that translates into more effective development programming for Pacific island contexts.
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Papers by Anna Naupa
increasingly dynamic geopolitical environment must
balance the agreed rhetoric of Blue Pacific stewardship
that drives a regional ethos, with the realpolitik of
governments looking at shorter-term timeframes potentially
at the expense of these stated values of custodianship.
Maintaining Pacific agency and regional resolve will become
increasingly tested in 2024.
This paper explores Pacific island countries’ prospects in
advancing sustainable development objectives in 2024.
It considers what will be necessary to regain and sustain
Pacific development gains while navigating a challenging
economic and climate outlook amidst increasingly dynamic
geopolitics.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 (the ‘peace goal’) is a key policy opportunity to safeguard development gains in the Pacific. Fostering peaceful sustainable development in the Pacific will require a re-thinking of the development approaches taken, particularly where pervasive exclusion and inequality are linked to potential drivers of conflict. This paper highlights four areas for attention: resource scarcity, migration and displacement, urbanization, and exclusion and inequality. As a threat multiplier, climate change exacerbates all of these development challenges, and the policy urgency is immediate. Future conflict can, however, be avoided. The paper offers that for Pacific island countries, policy emphasis on strengthening institutions – both formal and informal – combined with conflict-sensitive programming will go a long way to mitigating drivers of conflict and realizing the intent of SDG 16 as ‘the peace goal’. Acknowledging limitations in the reach of and access to Pacific island state institutions, many such solutions will necessarily be through informal structures. At a regional level, a revisiting of the Pacific Human Security Framework 2012-2015 in the context of the 2030 Agenda and SDG 16 may also offer new ways to guide and monitor peaceful development.
external and internal factors that are acting to reshape the region
and which call for a rethinking of Pacific regionalism. Within this
context a range of new and in some cases reinvigorated groupings
of political actors have emerged, seeking to influence and shape the
region. Interpretations of this plurality of political groupings differ,
with some authors seeing it as a direct challenge to the previously
existing regional order, while others argue it signals a return to a
foundational Pacific voice in regional politics. This article suggests
that the present plurality is more than resituating a ‘Pacific voice’ and
is not necessarily a challenge to the existing order. Rather, the Pacific’s
experience mirrors global trends in the evolution of regionalism as
a practice, in which network diplomacy or coalition-building across
the plethora of actors will become a predominant feature of new
regionalism. Further, the authors argue that the Framework for Pacific
Regionalism provides the platform for effectively navigating this new
context through facilitating the politics of networks and coalitions
to drive the shared interests of the region, and presents a shared
platform to test paradigm-shifting ideas.
(1980) to meet the pressing need for a legally recognised body to make
decisions on behalf of customary owners whose alienated lands were
being returned. In the decades since, although the use of village land trusts
has not spread around Vanuatu, the two main ones established—Ifira
Trustees Limited and Mele Trustees Limited—have enjoyed relative success,
albeit with mixed experiences. They have enabled leases to be negotiated
over former alienated lands, revenues to be collected, investments to
be made in businesses, and a wide range of services to be provided
to the villages involved. The trusts have also been a symbol of village
solidarity—a ‘common basket’ from which everyone can eat.
The experiences of the village land trusts provide some important lessons.
» Land trusts can be an effective vehicle for representing
group ownership in the formal economy.
» The incorporation of land trusts requires a regulatory
regime to ensure accountability and transparency.
» Governments can play a supportive role when
land trusts are being set up.
» Land trusts can have the flexibility to incorporate
traditional decision-making structures.
» Business and investment activities are best kept separate
from the land management activities of land trusts.
» Land trusts would benefit from an intermediary advisory body.
increasingly dynamic geopolitical environment must
balance the agreed rhetoric of Blue Pacific stewardship
that drives a regional ethos, with the realpolitik of
governments looking at shorter-term timeframes potentially
at the expense of these stated values of custodianship.
Maintaining Pacific agency and regional resolve will become
increasingly tested in 2024.
This paper explores Pacific island countries’ prospects in
advancing sustainable development objectives in 2024.
It considers what will be necessary to regain and sustain
Pacific development gains while navigating a challenging
economic and climate outlook amidst increasingly dynamic
geopolitics.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 (the ‘peace goal’) is a key policy opportunity to safeguard development gains in the Pacific. Fostering peaceful sustainable development in the Pacific will require a re-thinking of the development approaches taken, particularly where pervasive exclusion and inequality are linked to potential drivers of conflict. This paper highlights four areas for attention: resource scarcity, migration and displacement, urbanization, and exclusion and inequality. As a threat multiplier, climate change exacerbates all of these development challenges, and the policy urgency is immediate. Future conflict can, however, be avoided. The paper offers that for Pacific island countries, policy emphasis on strengthening institutions – both formal and informal – combined with conflict-sensitive programming will go a long way to mitigating drivers of conflict and realizing the intent of SDG 16 as ‘the peace goal’. Acknowledging limitations in the reach of and access to Pacific island state institutions, many such solutions will necessarily be through informal structures. At a regional level, a revisiting of the Pacific Human Security Framework 2012-2015 in the context of the 2030 Agenda and SDG 16 may also offer new ways to guide and monitor peaceful development.
external and internal factors that are acting to reshape the region
and which call for a rethinking of Pacific regionalism. Within this
context a range of new and in some cases reinvigorated groupings
of political actors have emerged, seeking to influence and shape the
region. Interpretations of this plurality of political groupings differ,
with some authors seeing it as a direct challenge to the previously
existing regional order, while others argue it signals a return to a
foundational Pacific voice in regional politics. This article suggests
that the present plurality is more than resituating a ‘Pacific voice’ and
is not necessarily a challenge to the existing order. Rather, the Pacific’s
experience mirrors global trends in the evolution of regionalism as
a practice, in which network diplomacy or coalition-building across
the plethora of actors will become a predominant feature of new
regionalism. Further, the authors argue that the Framework for Pacific
Regionalism provides the platform for effectively navigating this new
context through facilitating the politics of networks and coalitions
to drive the shared interests of the region, and presents a shared
platform to test paradigm-shifting ideas.
(1980) to meet the pressing need for a legally recognised body to make
decisions on behalf of customary owners whose alienated lands were
being returned. In the decades since, although the use of village land trusts
has not spread around Vanuatu, the two main ones established—Ifira
Trustees Limited and Mele Trustees Limited—have enjoyed relative success,
albeit with mixed experiences. They have enabled leases to be negotiated
over former alienated lands, revenues to be collected, investments to
be made in businesses, and a wide range of services to be provided
to the villages involved. The trusts have also been a symbol of village
solidarity—a ‘common basket’ from which everyone can eat.
The experiences of the village land trusts provide some important lessons.
» Land trusts can be an effective vehicle for representing
group ownership in the formal economy.
» The incorporation of land trusts requires a regulatory
regime to ensure accountability and transparency.
» Governments can play a supportive role when
land trusts are being set up.
» Land trusts can have the flexibility to incorporate
traditional decision-making structures.
» Business and investment activities are best kept separate
from the land management activities of land trusts.
» Land trusts would benefit from an intermediary advisory body.
galvanised by the demand to return alienated land to the indigenous
populations. The constitutions of Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and
Solomon Islands reflect this aspiration by retaining customary control
over most land. In Vanuatu, for example, the Constitution has specifically
maintained the jurisdiction of customary institutions over land. Since
Independence, however, customary land has again been parcelled,
commodified and leased. The recent land rush in Papua New Guinea
and in Vanuatu demonstrate the potential impacts of land leasing on the
customary system. These land transformations are discussed at length in
this publication, and as such the volume offers important insights into
understanding land issues in Melanesia.
A number of chapters in this volume deal with the implications of
increasing urbanisation across Melanesia. While the problems associated
with urbanisation look different across the region, all countries have faced
challenges in trying to provide suitable land for the expanding populations
around urban centres. These are difficult issues, but Melanesian policy
makers must recognise that not everyone living in urban areas has an island
or village to which they can return. The state has an obligation to try and
provide its population with access to urban services, and necessarily this
will involve the creation of new state land through the acquisition of new
areas of customary land, which often requires substantial funds.
The research in this book contributes greatly to our understanding of
how people are living on land in Melanesia in urban, peri-urban and
rural areas. Many of the chapters in this book describe the various forms
of transactions that take place over land, from customary agreements to
formal leasing.
Policy makers from the Melanesian region need to learn from applied case
studies of land issues in their own countries, and more broadly from across
the region. Research findings must always be condensed into a form that
policy makers can read and learn from.
Access to land is central to
sustainable development. Maintaining adequate land access is a major
social justice issue. Land is essential to the maintenance of kastom, kinship
structures and language. The title of this book encapsulates the way in
which people across Melanesia today find themselves at a crossroads,
caught between the idea of land as property and the concept of land
as life, which is central to kastom.
This Pacific Perspectives publication is informed by the 2030 Agenda and the SAMOA Pathway, both of which contain a commitment to leave no-one behind. The study profiles the policy landscape and identifies opportunities for working with the informal systems in the Pacific in the pursuit of sustainable development. In particular, this analysis focuses on existing points of intersection between formal and informal ways of working to identify how these linkages can be enhanced. It unpacks the constraints faced by Pacific island governments in working with multiple, informal systems and explores the potential for enhanced policy hybridity that translates into more effective development programming for Pacific island contexts.