Pacific

The Festival, which runs from Friday 21 October to Monday 24 October, will feature ukulele workshops, concerts and instructional (“tips and tricks”) sessions by panels of leading ukulele exponents including:

• Paul Jonson from New Zealand

• Hawaiians’ Jody Kamisato and rising superstars Honoka and Azita

And these countries have poor social and economic system, high rates of poverty, under-resourced judiciary and government agencies, and inadequate laws, among others.

This was part of the presentation by the acting Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Dialogue Limited Ms Patricia Kailola, when speaking on The Hidden Crime of Human Trafficking in the Pacific Islands Region, at the 2016 Pacific Update Conference at The University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva on Tuesday.

Advance copies of Finding Balance 2016, the latest edition of ADB’s landmark assessment of Pacific SOEs’ performance, were shared at the Pacific Update Conference at the University of South Pacific, Fiji.

The report finds SOE portfolios in the eight Pacific countries examined contributed only 1.8% to 12% to gross domestic product, despite their very large asset base, ongoing government cash transfers, and monopoly market positions. It also finds productivity levels of the SOEs tend to be well below developed country benchmarks.                                             

RNZI reports the Pacific Community will train 20 youth from Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu to act as leaders to help unemployed youth in their home countries.

The SPC's Melanesia director, Mia Rimon, said 20 percent of the Pacific's 11 million people are 15 to 24 years old, and approximately half are unemployed.

Pesticides require careful handling as many pose an unacceptable risk to human health, animal health or the environment. In fact, according to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), nine of the twelve most dangerous and persistent chemicals on the planet are types of pesticides.

34 commercial fishing vessels were boarded and 36 breaches were detected during the inspections in the south-west Pacific since the operation began in June.

The operation, sponsored by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, saw boarding teams – comprised of crew from the Royal New Zealand Navy’s offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Otago and compliance officers from MPI and Pacific Islands countries – conducting 34 inspections during patrols in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Fiji, Niue, Tokelau and Tuvalu.

The mission is being coordinated by Bioversity International and The International Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT) in partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC) through its Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees.                   

Getting under way now, the three-year project, Upgrading and broadening the new South-Pacific International Coconut Genebank, aims to conserve Pacific coconut genetic resources for current and future generations.

The project is funded by the Darwin Initiative, a UK government grants scheme which helps to protect biodiversity worldwide.

RNZI reports New Zealand's Parliamentarians' Group on Population and Development made the call on World Population Day yesterday, which has the theme 'Investing in Teenage Girls.'

The chair of the cross party body, National MP Barbara Kuriger, said parts of the Pacific have some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the world.

That is a key message in a landmark book released today by the Pacific Community (SPC), with the funding support from Australia, in the presence of representatives of more than 20 Pacific Island countries and territories at SPC headquarters in Noumea, New Caledonia. 

They are the latest information resources developed for stakeholders interested in this emerging sector through the European Union-supported Deep Sea Minerals Project, implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC).