Comments

Thanks Jason for this and especially for your thoughts on the intersection between the Matai system and democracy in Samoa

Just a correction to the note on Baranay: "She had not planned to write about her experience, and from comments she makes early on in the book, she had not entirely planned to go to PNG as a volunteer." Inez approached me in the early 1990s indicating that she wanted to get to PNG, had applied to AVI as a way of getting there and that she had a very conscious plan to write about her experience there. Whether writing was her motivation to become an AVI is a matter that only Inez can clarify.

Thanks Tess and happy new year. Recent press from <a href="http://fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=333952" rel="nofollow">Fiji</a> and <a href="http://www.looppng.com/content/png-supports-fiji%E2%80%99s-stand-pacer-plus" rel="nofollow">PNG</a> certainly suggests a bleak outlook for PACER Plus.

Thanks for your feedback and contribution. Fiji plays a very significant role within the region and managed to maintain a degree of influence even when considered a 'pariah' state by some, including by establishing the PIDF and taking on a larger role within the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Since the elections in 2014 global powers have sought to re-establish ties with Suva including military ties. However, in the 8 years of military rule, new friendships have been established and so the landscape has changed quite a bit.

Note also Baranay's essay: 2003. "Fraught territory (The reception and impact of 'Rascal Rain, a Year in Papua New Guinea')." Meanjin, 62(3), 223-229. and for a comparable experience-, this recent book: Trish Nicholson 2015. Inside the Crocodile: The Papua New Guinea Journals, Troubador Publishing. "Inside the Crocodile is a ‘travel memoir’ and it provides a series of glimpses into the author’s experiences of working in human resources development for the provincial government of Sandaun Province (West Sepik). Nicholson arrived in Vanimo in 1987 and spent five years working on a World Bank-funded development project. The book is compiled from the journals she kept whilst living and working in one of the remotest parts of PNG, and it provides a fascinating and compelling blend of personal and professional interactions, mishaps and successes, and clear-sighted observations of the surrounding and changing natural, social, cultural and economic environments...." Tess Newton Cain, <a href="https://devpolicy.org/in-line-insights-five-years-in-vanimo-20150916/" rel="nofollow">In-line insights: five years in Vanimo</a>

Some of us above the Equator almost always hardly pay attention to the Pacific politics in the South Pacific region, thus I couldn't be sure whether it has to do with our closer ties with the United States or just that our media rarely cover or promote politics below the Equator. At any rate, I'd like to complement your views as expressed above and in addition question the issue of Fiji being once considered as a militant country due the coup few years back. Has it being relieved yet of the political rhetoric labeling which to me is part chaotic since Fiji has been served as a very contributive country in the Pacific. Also, Fiji is offering solution to the sinking Kiribati and perhaps other low lying Pacific countries. Yes, our FSM country and state of Pohnpei have just wrapped their election last year and hopefully we should be ready to launch our new administrations with strategic development goals which may addressed the three major areas in agriculture, tourism and fisheries, plus of course our anticipated termination of financial assistance in our Compact of Free Association with the USA in 2023. We once had the case of impeachment in Pohnpei, but fortunately the official in effect has resigned and thus giving our current and soon to become new administration all the political and economic leverages to push forth. Again, thank you for sharing your views above.

. . . "Further to the big global agreements of 2015 – the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change – this year will see the beginning of the huge tasks associated with the implementation of these agreements." Huge tasks, indeed. Translating global rhetoric into local realities, however, demands an almost equally huge investment, long, long over-due, in participatory mechanisms, starting with informing citizens. From the perspective of PFF, the Pacific Freedom Forum, that requires member governments to recognise the centrality of news media, especially in the delivery of our most fundamental human right, freedoms of expression, and, more especially these days with the open data revolution, access to information. We outline those centralities in our 2015 end of year review, and look ahead for 2016 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/pacific-freedom-forum/hapi-nu-nius-hapi-nu-yia/1104916866215178" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Completely separate from my role as PFF editor, is my own project as founder of JA2025, the Journalism Agenda 2025. JA2025 envisions an adaptation of #globalgoals under SDGs towards the 4th Estate. This would see 0.7% of all aid targets firewalled off into independent trusts for a global 4th Estate, over the next decade. Concurrently, JA2025 will campaign for that same formula to be applied throughout the public sector by NGOs, and, eventually, the private sector, as well. Still in the blue-sky-pie stage, or pre-alpha-draft-exploratory-concept-phase to use the jargon, JA2025 is already been followed globally by leading United Nations development experts. Those interested can get an overview of JA2025 at our participatory forum <a href="https://www.loomio.org/g/OD0dFCNI/journalismagenda" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Meantime, one comment on the above, relating to there being "some way to go before universal suffrage is achieved" within Samoa. As something of a ground breaker for the English-speaking parts of the Pacific (French territories already well ahead on this path), Samoa is treading carefully, wisely in my view. Such is the power of corruption, even the best intentioned initiatives, such as gender equality, can be subverted to interests other than those of the public general. Outside of this aspect, the matai system is an ancient form of democracy that needs to be seen as an enabler rather an obstacle to equality. Primarily, by serving as an almost impregnable barrier that has acted as an efficient block to exploitation by foreign sources, and their hand-picked lackeys, including some well-known rugby players, among others. In the matai, and other traditional leadership systems across the region, we have a form of chaos-theory guardianship that slows things down. Having seen what has happened at home in my adoptive Cook Islands, where traditional leadership is extremely weak, and tourism wipe out indigenous language use in little over a generation, I think other countries are wise to go slow, for development to be socially and environmentally sustainable, as well as economically sustained. Sorry for these long wordy sentences, just some off-the-cuff comments in response to another excellent overview from Tess, via DevPolicy. Super valuable for us all. . . .

Very useful and informative post, thank you.

Great insight, the Roman Empire was the greatest human administration the world had ever seen. Roman legislation was so effective that it is still the basis of the legal code of many countries. Despite Rome’s achievements, however, her legions were unable to conquer one insidious enemy: corruption. Finally, corruption hastened Rome’s downfall.

Thank you John, some very useful insights into one of the pressing issues - informal sector. The National Goals and Directive Principles envisaged a promising country. Many argued it was too idealistic at the time of its proposal but later reflections, one would argue, suggest otherwise. The onus continues to be on the implementers, including the judiciary. Bal

I think this is a very important piece of work. Of course I am particularly interested because I am President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, but it is interesting beyond that particular focus. First, it raises some important financing questions which I look forward to discussing at the Conference. But it also raises the cost effectiveness of prevention of disability, whether it is blindness or other forms of disability. This should not be seen as in competition with the fundamental issue of advancing the interests of people with disability in developing countries. This is a false dichotomy. They should be seen as two sides of the same coin.

Hi Patrick, We decided to operate on a 10 year time series as that's about as far back as a lot of NGOs publish their annual reports online. While it may be possible to get overall revenue figures from ACFID there's no escaping the need to access every individual NGO annual report for the expenditure side of the equation, and unfortunately the data just isn't readily available beyond 10 years. Picking the 'right' baseline may also be arbitrary if fundraising costs are indeed cyclical, but I think the stats Garth highlights below from the Asian tsunami onwards still illustrate an interesting, and somewhat worrying, trend. Regards, Jonathan