PINA

By Prianka Srinivasan It was beneath the thatched roof of a traditional meeting house in Pango village, Vanuatu, where many residents first learned about blockchain — the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. A team from Melbourne start-up Sempo, along with members of NGO Oxfam, were training villagers and vendors how to use Unblocked Cash, a pilot project funded in part...

Lakapi Samoa has announced that its two elite teams, the Manu Samoa and Manu Samoa 7s have withdrawn from its scheduled Northern hemisphere tour in November and the two HSBC Sevens World series legs in Dubai in November and early December 2021. The decision by the Lakapi Samoa Board was taken in line with the relevant Samoa Government’s Health Special...

The Solomon Islands is in its transition phase of graduating from the Least Developing Countries (LDC) category and is scheduled to graduate by 2024. That’s according to Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare during his remarks at the 76th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session on the weekend. “Solomon Islands is in its transition phase of graduating from the Least Developing Countries category...

The Green Climate Fund(GCF) board has been advised to re-accredit the UN development agency, despite unresolved corruption claims against projects in Samoa and Armenia. The UN Development Programme is seeking to renew its partnership with the UN’s flagship climate fund under the shadow of unresolved corruption allegations at two of its projects. The Green Climate Fund was created to help poor...

The first seasonal workers in New Zealand's one-way travel bubble with three Pacific countries have arrived in Christchurch from Vanuatu. The workers, 154 of them, would help industries like horticulture, who are reliant on seasonal workers from the Pacific. Vanuatu consul general to New Zealand, McKenzie Kalotiti, said the charter flight landed at Christchurch Airport from Port Villa at 6am Monday. They...

The Pacific is making a desperate plea to the world's wealthy nations: Step up and deliver on your promises to fight the global climate crisis. The call comes as climate ministers hold final talks before a key UN conference in Glasgow next month. One of the biggest issues holding up progress is the question of money, a pre-COP26 summit was told...

Outgoing United Nations Resident Coordinator for the Pacific Sanaka Samarasinha said the agency is expanding the agency’s presence in the North Pacific. In an interview during his visit to Palau last week, Samarasinha said the UN will open a brand new office in the North Pacific, which will cover the five Micronesian countries of Nauru, Palau, Kiribati, FSM, and the...

Fiji has recorded 34 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday, increasing the total number of cases to 51,132 and 631 deaths since the outbreak in April. Permanent secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said there have been 80 new recoveries to report since the last update, which means that there are now 12,828 active cases. “There have been 51,132 cases during the...

Outgoing UN Resident Coordinator for the Pacific Sanaka Samarasinha lauded Palau’s high vaccination rate adding that it is “among the best in the world.” Samarasinha was in Palau last week for a country mission where he also met key government representatives, national UN staff, and civil society groups, and the private sector to discuss, current work the UN is doing...

The biggest threat to Fiji’s recovery plan will be to control our ongoing epidemic through our ongoing COVID-safe discipline. This, according to Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong. “Of particular importance is the need for good ventilation in all social and workplace indoor gatherings, ensuring that all age-eligible individuals in these gatherings are vaccinated, and proper mask-wearing,” he said. Dr Fong...