Comments

Hi Joe, Thank you for your comment. Indeed, Timor-Leste is, and will continue to be susceptible to the effects of climate change. I have yet to explore from this angle, and suspect there are few in-depth studies on this topic. Australian-funded Seeds of Life program has Climate Change Research and they predict Timor-Leste will experience an increase in temperature of 1.5 degree Celsius and up to 10% increase in rainfall in the coming 50 years (have a look at the resources on their website). This will invariably affect local livelihoods, and presumably have varying impacts across the six agro-climatic zones that characterise the country.

Hello Sandra Hope all well with you. I am a researcher based in the UK doing some research on the youth sector in the Solomon Islands for a new programme/fund - Queens Young Leaders - that is about to launch there. It would be great to know if you are experienced in this area and would be willing to have a chat with me. Looking forward to hearing from you. Sally

An interesting speech by Minister Bishop at the 'celebration' of 40 years of aid tonight. On the upside, there was genuine recognition of the achievements of Australian aid over time, and of the people who have contributed to it. On the downside was the graceless lack of acknowledgement of anyone from the other side of politics from the last 40 years - Spender, Hasluck, Howard got a mention but no Whitlam, Evans, Bilney, Rudd ... Downer was mentioned for his opening of the bridge in Vietnam which he had vowed to stop when in opposition. The opening of the Thai-Lao bridge was mentioned though no mention of Keating. There were Ministerial quotes on the wall in large letters about the need for the aid program to be more entrepreneurial, echoing the piece in The Canberra Times last week with the Minister simultaneously urging aid staff to be less risk averse, while noting that she had shut down AusAID because it had lost (small amounts of) money from fraud. Mixed signals?

Thanks for sharing Carmen. Enjoy your time in POM.

Terence, a great post, thanks! I can only comment on the article as written, having no separate information/experience of The Solomons. I really liked the juxtaposition of your taxi-driver's experience in its exasperated, gritty, 'reality'-of-life there, with the 'statistical and dispassionate'! If you haven't read/seen the data-driven investigative Journalism circulating around the names of Alberto Cairo and I was struck by the parallels between the situation of this Pacific Nation State (SI) and the micro-political situation that goes on in larger states' lowest levels of political organisation. Without being specific (because the politics of the 'local' really matter) about the insider knowledge I have of this, suffice to say that, your description of the reach of 'representatives' and who they can benefit (within one election cycle) is really serious. In affluent, democratic-based, information-rich societies, the level of interest in a notionally-democratic organisations designed to lift the 'development' of its constituents, is subject to the same multi-faceted forms of 'self-interest' you describe in that 'lower' (according to the scale of 'Governance' graph) ranking society. What I'm interested in, is how the insights of Development practitioners/analysts, would appear if they took their own nation-states' worst examples of 'democratic' (non)participation and subjected these to similar analyses? Interested to read your stuff & will go to look at the results of the election shortly. Best wishes to you and yours 😉 G P.S. Some links to data visualisation/infographics and critical discussions thereof (not comprehensive) http://www.thefunctionalart.com https://eagereyes.org/criticism/review-alberto-cairo-functional-art https://eagereyes.org/criticism/criticism-visualization-criticism-criticism http://projects.flowingdata.com http://www.visualisingdata.com

Assumption is that aid donor projects drive the economy. Challenges highlighted here are common for small low income countries. The quality of the institutional and regulatory environment is the main challenge: political stability, poor accounting and disclosure standards,weak property rights, limited government accountability, weak regulatory environment, a poorly functioning legal system (however, Vanuatu has a strong legal and independant system), prevalance of corruption. We have no solutions? To conserve a constant growth, private sector must be strong. Banks and financial intermediation is very small. With no capital, there can be no indigenous engagement in the private sector.

Thank you Beth, Just a quick response in case Paul is no longer checking the thread: the central facebook forum, FSII, has covered a lot of non-election-related political stuff as well. And they have, in my opinion, done a very good job of staying neutral and not being captured, which would have been challenging. However, around the periphery of FSII other social media based groups have, I think, been involved in more partisan ways - which is perhaps (but not inevitably) more problematic. Terence

Thanks for your article Pyone. It would be interesting to add a climate change lens to your 'hungry season' analysis. What are Timor-Leste's climate projections for say, 2050, and what challenges will they present at the local level for rural livelihoods? Could you list any related studies?

In December 2012, before his party won government, Environment Minister Greg Hunt had already written off the Green Climate Fund: "This is not a fund which we support. We have no control over where the money goes, no control over how it's used, no control over how much we pay and this is something which we clearly, simply, categorically reject.” At the time, international observers were astounded by the chutzpah of this statement. Australia had been central in the process to create the fund, with AusAID’s then Deputy Director-General Ewen McDonald appointed co-chair of the Green Climate Fund Board for the first year of its operations. Australian officials had played a crucial role in determining the Fund’s mandate, operations and policies. Climate finance will be a central pillar of any deal in Paris in 2015, so there's a need for real transparency from DFAT about what climate funding it currently contributes, and what adaptation outcomes have been achieved by Australian investments in the World Bank Climate Investment Funds and a bilateral "climate" infrastructure projects (such as road building in Vanuatu). .

Hi Paul, Can I ask about the role of Facebook or other social media more generally... are these also popular for use outside election time to discuss ongoing political issues and controversial decisions? Are they particularly captured by specific groups or campaign interests or are there useful forums that engage more independently that are worth watching? Thanks for the above to everyone - really interesting comments. Cheers Beth

Thanks to all, this has been an interesting exchange. Jon, Could you clarify your last point in your most recent comment? If the Solomon Islands have typically had a high turnover of incumbents in the past, why is it strange that the media is reporting a low turnover rate this time around? Seems like it would be quite newsworthy and possibly an interesting change in political dynamics (particularly, as you say, low incumbency turnover is often the norm elsewhere). Regards, Stephen

This is a very well-written piece highlighting an issue of global significance. It is heartening that important data is being collected to bring to attention to, and reduce the number of deaths due to drowning.