Comments

Thanks for sharing

Our life, story and destiny is God's hands. we can have many critics about James Marape whether it be positive or negative, God knows who James Marape is and the other leaders of parliament.. God himself will have the final say whether to retain James Marape as the prime minister or elect another member of parliament. God searches the mind and heart of man to reward him, Jeremiah 17:10

Improve on Public Servants efficiency in administration, quit cronies appointments and recruit on merits. To maintain national unity and transparency, people holding top Public Servants management positions must not serve in their own districts or provinces. Do improvement on public servants employment conditions including pay them high salaries and terminate corrupted ones, must jail them for stealing even less than K50.00. No need to increase Ministries in the Government. We need good public servants as our machinery to run the affairs of the people, government and the nation. Politicians are just policy and law makers and are not implementors.

1. Dissolution of parliament within the last 12 months will only be triggered if there is a ‘successful’ vote of no confidence (VONC). There has been no attempt at VONC within this time frame since independence. Attempts for a VONC ceases when the last 12 months is reached. 2. A caretaker government manages the affairs in the event there is a successful VONC within 12 months. 3. The country goes for a general election after parliament is dissolved. As stated in the article, a no confidence vote as never been moved within the last 12 months of the parliamentary term. The high incumbency turnover rate means politicians don’t want an early election. It also demonstrates that vote of no confidence is never about good governance, or replacing an irresponsible (corrupt) government. If that were so, there would be push for a VONC even within the last 12 months - politicians don’t become corrupt-free within last 12 months. VONC is nothing but an attempt by those who don’t have access to state resources (opposition) to replace those who do (government). VONC within last 12 months doesn’t benefit either even the opposition.

Excellent points raised in this article. thank you for sharing and for highlighting the issues that impact on Solomon Islands public.

So insightful. Thank you for putting things into perspective. I have a question I would like to ask. If an election is triggered by a vote of no confidence before the 5th anniversary of Parliament, does the constitutional requirement for an election on the fifth anniversary of Parliament still hold?

Ruth, thank you for a sobering piece that flags the dark reality of big money aid. It takes a degree of fortitude to point out the elephants in the room and you have done it. Big money project support is about erecting visual edifices for the public to admire and buy influence. In your role you would be aware of how the system works and what’s at stake for the players. You speak for the ninety five percent who live a largely traditional lifestyle and hope that opportunity for their children improves. Influence peddlers only need buy off one percent to gain access to your natural resources. A little to the north west this has become an artform. Your comment that development partners need to familiarise themselves with social needs through the lens of your citizens and do things with, rather than for you, is obvious but ignored. I would suggest that government as bequeathed at independence is not fit for purpose in social settings like yours. Untethered from grass roots control, it has become the scaffold upon which the issues you are tasked to expose are built and exploited. Sadly, your governments, the creation of another culture, have evolved into institutions that do not represent the interests of your communities and you know why. Given the social context, those who wait patiently for “government” to deliver services and economic opportunity are destined to remain disappointed. Unless a new course is set your burgeoning youth bubble will become increasingly dissatisfied until something breaks. For the same reason, cracks in the façade of social order to the north west of you have recently visibly widened. I do not hold out hope for the future wellness of your people under status quo. I am a great believer in returning power to the base where it always belonged. I think there are ways to do it within the existing structures but like you the path to development you have flagged is not one of them.

Thank you Ceridwen!

Thanks Terence for this work! Very interesting and helpful.

Thank you Ian, That's an excellent comment. The findings of the evaluation sound very sensible and nuanced. They ought to be very useful to the aid program. The evaluation also sounds like a very helpful resource for scholars and other aid practitioners. If the evaluation is available online could you please post a link to it? Thanks again. Terence

Hi Rohan, Good point. To clarify my point: If you compare 2019 with 2022, Australia and New Zealand's relative rankings have not changed much. (i.e., compared to most other donors, they drew on budget support more pre-Covid too.) Similarly, relative to other recipients most PICs received comparatively large shares of budget support both before and during Covid. It is true though that, as you say, absolute %s have increased in both cases. And this is a good point, in terms of absolutes both Australia and NZ use budget support more than they did once, so should be thinking about how to deliver it well more. The same is true for Pacific recipients. As an aside, 2021 was a really big year for budget support in Australia and NZ. In an absolute sense it now seems to be on the wane. Thanks again for your comment. Terence

Thank you Aulola for a good comment. I agree, New Zealand and Australia have tried budget support in the Pacific. It would be interesting to learn more about the circumstances associated with its success and failure. I also agree that, in practice, no donor will ever abandon all their projects in favour of an entirely budget support focused approach. In reality, (good donors) will adopt a mix. Thanks again Terence