PINA

Vulnerable communities will now be able to access affordable climate and disaster risk insurance following the launch of Fiji’s first-ever Parametric Microinsurance Product. For $2 (US$1) a week, low-income Fijians will be able to access up to $1,000 (US$500) after a flood of cyclone. Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said climate emergency is here and the government saw climate and disaster...

Papua New Guinea COVID-19 National Pandemic Response Controller and Police Commissioner David Manning has expressed anger and disappointment at the way in which India’s High Commission in Port Moresby deliberately participated in the deception that resulted in unauthorised passengers, including four infected with COVID-19, arriving in PNG. Manning said the behaviour of those involved in the dishonest process compromises the...

Fiji has recorded 302 new cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths Tuesday, increasing the total number of cases to 44,420 and 451 deaths since the outbreak in April. Ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr James Fong said 148 cases were from the Western division and 154 cases from the Central division, in Vitilevu, Fiji’s main island. Dr Fong also reported...

Two children have died of whooping cough in Mbabanakira, Guadalcanal Province in Solomon Islands as the province’s health sector declares whooping cough an outbreak. Dr Joel Denty, provincial health director to Guadalcanal, confirmed this report to Island Sun. “I have confirmed this report with the nurse in charge at Mbabanakira clinic. One died in the village while the other died at...

Opposition to the proposed amendment of the Papua New Guinea electoral voting system is mounting. The proposed amendment notice is before Parliament as a Private Member’s Bill sponsored by Gumine MP Nick Kuman. It proposes to change the voting system from the current limited preferential voting to first past the post. The Opposition moved as a bloc and dealt the proposal a...

Samoa's Assistant Attorney General, Fuimaono Sefo Ainu’u is now acting for the Attorney General, Savalenoa Mareva Betham-Annandale while she is suspended until 03 September. The Attorney General was suspend by the Prime Minister last Friday and offered an opportunity to respond by Monday 30 August. “The Attorney General has been suspended from her post, on the basis that I have formed...

The issue of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) is an ugly legacy of World War II, Solomon Islands is still experiencing its effects to this day. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare highlighted during the launching of the UXO package support from the Australian Government last week. Sogavare said Solomon Islands like all other Pacific Island countries which have had this war fought on their...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is threatening Asia and the Pacific's progress toward critical targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The pandemic pushed an estimated 75 million to 80 million more people in developing Asia1 into extreme poverty as of last year, compared with what would have happened...

New Caledonia's pro and anti-independence camps have launched their campaigns for the third and final referendum on independence from France. In 2018 and 2020, a majority voted against independence, but the winning margin shrank from 56.7 percent to 53.3 percent. A senior member of the pro-independence FLNKS Aloisio Sako has told its weekend meeting in Noumea that a victory in December...

By Catherine Wilson The urgency of finding solutions to the most pressing development challenges of our times has increased as the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the global momentum in recent years toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And small island developing states (SIDS), with their physical remoteness, restricted land and resources and dependence on trade and tourism,...