Comments

Bula Steve. Thanks for more food for thought in the so called "Pacific Paradox'. The Pacific Community (SPC) is investing deeply in its own capacity for monitoring, evaluation and learning to play a key role in strengthening MEL across the region: in the Pacific, for the Pacific, by the Pacific. Last year, we sought to better understand how, for whom and in what contexts our scientific and technical capacity development efforts are achieving outcomes in member countries. The report and an interactive map can be found in the links below. We all need to invest not only in capacity building and strengthening, but also in contextually and culturally responsive systems and processes, good quality accessible reports /tools that are useful and used in the development policy and practice cycles. https://www.spc.int/updates/blog/2020/05/robust-evaluation-shows-value-of-spc-capacity-building-in-the-pacific https://capacitybuilding.spc.int/

Excellent blog, Steve, thank you. You identify many factors that I have also found in my work in Indonesian education over many years. Two of these, the political and cultural, are beginning to be addressed in more thoughtful ways. Yet, when I observe the work of donors, I continue to wonder whether there is more interest in just remaining on the development merry-go-round rather than achieving truly sustainable benefits for our development partners.

In contrast to ADB’s self assessments, DFAT is reporting that 85+% of its investments in the Pacific are effective.

Thank you Mr Sakai for this interesting blog post. Thank you for explaining that the repayment timing and requirements have not been made public. It is worrying that students are applying for loans without being given a clear picture regarding when or how they will be required to re-pay the loans. Thank you again, Dr Amanda H A Watson

Interesting article, thank you, Stephen, and quite alarming. It did make me wonder how much of the second spike (2019) was related to PNG's hosting of APEC 2018, for which I believe PNG did receive some external funding assistance.

Thankyou for the thorough analyis on the Vanuatu's honorary citizen programs. As a local Economist i totally concur with all developments in this analysis since the inception of these programs until recent most importantly its contribution to the fiscal surpluses of the Vanuatu government.

Fiji flight has arrived first: https://www.facebook.com/tuvalugovernmentmedia/videos/1301681166841081

Bula Vinaka Michael. And the AEC and your PIANZEA/BRIDGE legacy lives on across the Pacific with many a Pacific Islander taking charge of election administration and electioneering in their home country's. Unfortunately, not so in Fiji. The dictatorship, as we locals perceive and experience it, still rules, despite the successive post coup election technical assistance received from well meaning NZ and Australian Advisors. Your poor name sake experienced the wrath of electorate/candidate/Party frustration at the Elections he tried to help administer. And my, he was oh so diplomatic about it! Your combined experience's will sure be worth a blog or book or two on shared learnings, not to mention the laughs. I sure would love to read more. Warmest of regards Sadhana

Thanks David, Steve. Yes, a reassessment of domestic value added is warranted. I started in development in MoF in Vanuatu in 1985, supporting business licence and foreign investment proposals, just in time to see the 'import substitution' mantra give way to the free trade export orientation and dogma, under considerable pressure from the Bretton-Woods institutions and the bi-laterals. Its been interesting to watch how many industries disappeared while a few thrived. But the fallout from COVID-19 should encourage PICT governments to re-evaluate their frameworks for trade, taxation, incentives and licencing. The growing dominance of on-line consumerism which shifts the tax base overseas should also cause some PICTs to re-consider whether turnover taxes or cash flow taxes (which also largely died in the 1980s) might have a role in protecting if not broadening their tax base. Finally the current USA-China trade war and development of separate supply chains may provide PICTs with new opportunities, but maybe also threats.

Thank you Wiltshire et al. CDF in the Solomons while still unregulated, it is also very politically sensitive and selective in its disbursements to the “Communities”. With the never-ending regularised reporting requirements both from the Ministry concerned and the Auditor-General’s Office (OAG), CDF had always been speculative when it comes to transparency and accountability. Some sectors of the “Communities” have included beneficiaries of Honiara dwellers for purposes of paying off loans, acquiring personal lands, tax payers themselves and other whispers in the community that politicians have diverted CDF projects outside of the CDF boundaries for personal housing and abroad for real estates. There are alot of speculations where politics have taken this CDF to new heights which never before occurred to 1990s politicians. But regularised reporting by an independent body such as the OAG or through outsourcing will help to bring about new attitudes to voters’s perceptions and educating of the mass. With these and the gigantic share CDF has in a budget of a nation that is struggling economically to deliver service is just irrational and unsustainable.

Did the repatriation flight from NZ push through?

Actually, towards the end of my career I sought whenever possible to configure projects cheaply, and with the smallest possible foreign footprint. Partly that was to try to keep the cost under the AusAID threshold which took one from relatively un-bureaucratic work into the world of grandiose designs, reviews, reports, M&E matrices etc. But I also wanted to avoid the situation in which a large international team becomes a structure within a structure, talking among themselves rather than working with those they are supposed to be helping.