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One of the main factors preventing Tuvaluans from using the PAC visa is the cost- of the various medical and X-ray examinations, the entry fee for the ballot ($150 for the first try, and $50 thereafter), and the cost of travel from Tuvalu to NZ to secure a firm job offer. This means that only the fairly affluent Tuvaluans can afford to migrate, and with their better (presumably?) education levels, these might be the very people that Tuvalu needs to keep to help in future development? At the very least, NZ could abolish the entry fee for the ballot?

Hi Carolyn, You're absolutely spot on in regards to flights from HK as well as the overall accessibility issues. My company is presently working on various flight routes into Dili. You mentioned the Governance for Development program. I would like to know more about it in the hope that we can tap into their efforts and resources. Would you be in the know and be of help? Thanks. RJ

Thanks for the comments and clarification Saamah Abdallah. Great to hear from you. Yes, very much agree with your last point - it's the work, not the rankings, that really matter!

Actual topic. In general, I agree with you. I believe that it is necessary to create an electronic government. Information and communications technology networks improve public services, making dissemination of information about the structure and activities of government and the provision of basic public services more efficient. E-government also contributes to greater activation of the institutions of society, improves the process of strategic decision-making and the implementation of national development programs. Good luck!

Great article Luke. It's great to hear that the excellent work in Vanuatu and the Pacific Islands is continuing and having policy traction. As one of the developers of the Happy Planet Index, I just wanted to note that it's not exactly true that we dropped Vanuatu from the Index for 2009 and 2012 because 'of lobbying from other nations'. We just felt uncomfortable in 2006 making what was at the time a very controversial and counter-intuitive claim based on data which had been estimated. We were very happy in 2016 when we were able to include Vanuatu again, using subjective wellbeing from the national initiative. There are of course comparability issues when using data from different sources (when all the rest of our subjective wellbeing data come from the Gallup World Poll), but we felt it was worth it in the case of Vanuatu. And we were vindicated when we saw that Vanuatu still ranked very high! Of course, the rankings aren't that important - the important thing is the national initiatives taking place in Vanuatu, New Zealand and other countries, to really embed wellbeing into policy.

A very inspiring article about the road maintenance and its growing economy needs. Thanks for sharing such informative article.

Thank you Jeremy for the comment containing your useful insights and a link to a recent report. Thank you David for your comment. While we have not undertaken detailed research in Australia, we do know that penetration is over 100% (in other words, there are more active mobile phone numbers than there are people in Australia). This situation is similar to Korea. According to World Bank 2017 data for mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) (see https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.CEL.SETS.P2?view=chart), Korea has 125 mobile phones in use per 100 people and Australia has 113. Please note that the Papua New Guinea figure in this dataset is too high. For more accurate information and recent figures for PNG, see https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/digital-transformation-the-role-of-mobile-technology-in-papua-new-guinea/ Yes, the algorithms are calculating what advertisements to send to you, based on your previous searches. And yes, your location is generally known if you are using a smartphone, although this depends on your settings. Amanda and Kyung

It is really good to see health staff in the Solomon Islands pinpointing the issues which are caused by mismatches between donor priorities and national priorities, also the clash between planning and doing. Implementation is where most strategies go wrong and unspent budget is a common indicator of too much planning and not enough doing. Congratulations on speaking out. I am a PhD student researching children's environmental health and hope to make the Solomon Islands my focus. I am now wary of taking up your time as 'yet another' researcher. Do you have any suggestions? Claire

Thanks Amanda and Kyung. To add to the discussion of PNG, in Bougainville - an autonomous region preparing for a referendum on complete independence - the population of 300,000+ has just 35,000 active mobile phone users. While recent research* suggests people have far higher ownership of (2G/3G) handsets, the Digicel network (the sole provider across much of the region), does not meet the demand. The deteriorating network is due to a mix of factors of rugged geography and atolls, maintenance, and land/payment issues where community members sometimes destroy towers/equipment due to disputes of differing beliefs about the benefit of access to a mobile network . This, in a region without radio coverage outside urban areas, is perhaps another live example of a: "...lack of connectivity and a paucity of accurate, recent information are threatening the social and economic development of rural areas. Another view is that capabilities to communicate and to access information are fundamental rights in and of themselves, denied to people in places or situations where such services are unavailable or unattainable." More can be found on the ICT divide in the Bougainville Audience Study - phase 2, http://www.abg.gov.pg/reports

Thanks Amanda. I agree, the session at the PNG update was excellent.

Thanks for that, Amanda. I wonder where Australia sits. I have a cheap Nokia, and it seems to do a good smartphone job as long as I knock out unused apps and files. Seems like its storage capacity is its chief shortcoming. Other than that, I keep being amazed by its ability to give me information wherever I am. I go for a walk and listen to a podcast, or Spotify, or whatever. I reckon we are spoiled. But there's a downside: I reckon 'they' target me for ads based on my searches, and 'they' always seem to know where I am. Is this so? Your thoughts please.

Thank you for this very interesting and clearly written blog post. As was emphasised at the PNG Update conference held at UPNG last week in a session chaired by Professor Stephen Howes and featuring several speakers including Mr Chris Hoy, randomised control trials are very valuable. It is great to learn here of another example of how this method can be applied in the Pacific. Thanks again, Amanda 🙂