A new Commonwealth initiative aims to strengthen national economies in the Pacific by pinpointing development challenges and identifying targeted solutions.
A new Commonwealth initiative aims to strengthen national economies in the Pacific by pinpointing development challenges and identifying targeted solutions.
The Commonwealth’s Resilience Profiling Programme will examine the factors that affect economic stability and growth in the region, and help governments to identify areas requiring improvement.
Dr Denny Lewis-Bynoe, Head of Climate Finance and Small States at the Commonwealth Secretariat, said: “The Pacific islands have shown real progress in social development in the past decades, but economic growth remains a big concern. Many of the islands in the region have limited resources and are far from major markets. These factors, along with the effects of climate change, conspire to increase their vulnerability.”
She added: “Our consultations will highlight the causes and symptoms of these vulnerabilities and enable us to work with governments and other development partners to tailor policies, technical assistance and other resilience-building support for Pacific countries.”
The findings will also be used to create a Commonwealth ‘Resilience Toolkit’ – a set of strategies to boost development, which can be adopted by policy makers to address their countries’ specific concerns.
The first round of resilience-profiling began this week, with experts surveying public and private sector representatives, as well as civil society, in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Samoa. Countries were selected based on their location, levels of vulnerability and resilience, and their economic status.
A similar initiative was successfully piloted in four Caribbean small states in February 2015.
“In the Caribbean, governments were able to get a clearer picture of their strengths and identify areas where they need to pay greater attention and get additional support,” Dr Lewis-Bynoe said.
“Ultimately the ability to measure vulnerability and identify resilience building measures will be invaluable for small island states across the Commonwealth, especially those who that are frequently impacted by economic and weather related shocks.”
