PINA

Moana Pasifika have continued their spending spree in the lead-up to their debut Super Rugby Pacific campaign by announcing the signings of three Manu Samoa internationals. Nine-test midfielder Henry Taefu and two-test utility backs Neria Foma’i and Tomasi Alosio have all signed for the new expansion franchise ahead of the 2022 season. Taefu provides the most experience of the trio after...

The Oceania Football Confederation is proud to announce the launch of its new online learning platform OFC Learn, which will revolutionise the way people learn across Oceania and in other regions around the world. Funded by UEFA Assist - UEFA's programme to support other Confederations and their Member Associations - OFC Learn aims to create a community of learners. OFC Learn...

The head of the Pacific Islands Forum says New Zealand's climate aid boost augurs well heading into COP26, and is pushing all developed countries to meet climate funding commitments made in Paris in 2015. New Zealand announced today that it is committing NZ$1.3 billion(US$920,000) over four years to support countries most vulnerable to climate change. Over half of the money...

When it comes to surviving disaster, the United Nations’ Pacific Resident Coordinator of Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu Sanaka Samarasinha says everyone must step up and be counted. “State institutions have a particular role to play,” he said. “For instance, pre-positioning supplies before a disaster to make sure you are...

The Covid-19 death toll continues to rise around Papua New Guinea,with the biggest hospital recording 35 in three weeks, officials say. Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi said the deaths at the hospital were from Sept 27 in the Covid-19 wards and in the emergency department. At the Mt Hagen Hospital, the 30 people who had...

By Lotte Schou-Zibell, Regional Director of the Asian Development Bank’s Pacific Liaison and Coordination Office in Australia. The risk of "de-risking" – the process of international banks disassociating from financial partners, such as small remittance providers and local banks – is that it could push people out of the financial system completely. In the Pacific, where many countries are just...

New Zealand has carved off a sizeable chunk of its foreign aid budget towards combating climate change, committing NZ$1.3 billion(US$920,000) to support vulnerable communities. The pledge, over four years, is being made in the run-up to November's climate change conference in Glasgow, known as COP26. Half of the commitment will go towards Pacific nations. New Zealand’s previous commitment was $300 million (US$212...

Papua New Guinea will join hands with its Pacific neighbours to strengthen and amplify the voices calling for global action to address climate change leading up to the COP 26 Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, next month. Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change Wera Mori, said this in Parliament while presenting the Climate Change (Management) (Amendment) Bill 2021 which was...

By Kalolaine Fainu Francis Tony is buried on an island that is shrinking. The sea breaks on a shoreline that is now less than five metres away from his simple gravesite on Toruar Island in the Solomon Sea. But his son Christopher Sese says the family have no plans to move Tony’s bones to a new gravesite. “My father will be...

Projected sea level rise would mean 40 percent of the buildings in the Marshall Islands’ capital of Majuro would be permanently flooded and entire islands would disappear, potentially costing the Pacific country its status as a nation, according to a devastating new report from the World Bank. The report, Mapping the Marshall Islands, containing grim visualisations of the impact of...