NEWS & EVENTS

Presenter: Jemima GarrettSpeaker: Emele Duitutraga, Executive Director of the Pacific Islands Association of Non-government OrganisationsGARRETT: The Forum Secretariat's failure to consult the peak bodies representing grassroots organisations has been a bone of...

A team of Australian researchers is working with communities in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to monitor exactly how the billions of development dollars that flow into the Pacific directly and indirectly impact women.Professor Katherine Gibson from the Centre for...

PACER Plus is the most important trade negotiation Pacific countries are going to undertake this decade. However, Pacific civil society organisations have not been adequately consulted about the type of development and trade relationship the...

Vanuatu’s Malvatumauri (National Council of Chiefs) has called on Pacific leaders to protect custom land, endorsing a regional declaration on indigenous land tenure in Melanesia.Chief Selwyn Garu, Secretary General of the Malvatumauri announced that the council...

MILDA called upon the Forum leaders, and particularly the leaders of the Melanesian states, to reject all policies which require that customary land be registered as a precondition for business or development activities, and to cease all pressures for customary land...

At the Cairns Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting last year negotiations for PACER-Plus were launched “forthwith”. For Kevin Rudd, as (then) Chair of the Forum, this was both an important public relations coup to deliver to the media and also a key...

Aid sceptics, such as William Easterly and Dambisa Moyo, have made a powerful case against not only the waste and perverse impacts of many misguided projects, but also the patronising and disempowering assumptions of 'northerners' seeking to shoulder a new 'white...

“This agreement has the potential to liberalise tobacco, alcohol and increase access to cheap processed foods. Elected governments will have their hands tied if they try and introduce policies to protect their people’s health’, Patricia Morton from...

A firm belief in community is helping medical experts in Timor-Leste develop strategies for fighting a chronic shortage of healthcare professions.'The healthcare system is still grossly under-utilised. And where we really fall down is we're not doing enough to address...

The PACER plus free trade agreement is being strongly supported by the two biggest political players in the region, Australia and New Zealand.This week, Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister, Misa Telefoni Retzlaff, told Pacific Beat that his government support the trade...

This weekend, as G8 and G20 leaders gather in Canada to discuss the most pressing global issues, discussions surrounding food security must focus on the need for collaboration, coordination and coherence around food security initiatives. Most importantly, as the...

Political whining about the failed insulation program, alleged rorting of the Building Education Revolution and the taxpayer-funded mining tax '(mis)information' campaign suggests that both sides of the political divide are concerned about taxpayers' brass. The order...

The forum in Sydney is part of the conference organised by Australia's Lowy Institute this week on reaching the development goals by the 2015 deadline. The Millennium Development Goals were launched a decade ago with the aim of lifting billions of people out of...

Rich countries will raid existing aid budgets, double-count promises and convert grants to loans to avoid paying the $30bn (£21bn) they pledged last year to poor countries to help them adapt immediately to the climate change they did not cause, a leading...

The story last week that more than half of Australia’s $400 million in aid to PNG was spent on consultants has had the unusual effect of actually putting the issue of our foreign aid on the agenda.Following those reports came a call from the federal Deputy...