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Conference to help Pacific Islands face challenges through research and policies [1]

Suva, Fiji

Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - 18:30.  Updated on Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - 18:20.

Professor Richard Coll, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Learning, Teaching and Student Services), Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy, Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts and National Archives of Fiji, Dame Meg Taylor, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and Dr Neelesh Gounder, Senior Lecturer at USP’s School of Economics.

A conference designed to raise awareness of opportunities and challenges affecting Pacific Island Countries saw policy makers, academics, researchers, private sector and public sector partners, business people and other development practitioners gather over two days at the University of the South Pacific on 20 - 21 June 2017.

The 2017 Pacific Update Conference focused on three areas including promoting blue-green economy, enhancing connectivity and creating accessible jobs, and was organised by The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) School of Economics in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Australian National University’s (ANU) Development Policy Centre.

Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy, Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts and National Archives of Fiji at the opening, stressed how vital the Pacific Update Conference is for discussing important issues of public policy in the region.

Despite having some of the world’s most unique environments, he said the Pacific region’s capita income growth rates have not kept up with population growth rates contributing to increasing inequality and hardship.

“Therefore, Conference of this nature which seeks to evaluate policies and research aimed at countering Pacific Island issues is highly instrumental.”

Hon. Dr Reddy noted that the Pacific’s growing economies need to tap into new and transitioned job skills set of Pacific people continuously to be able to meet the growing demands of the varied types of labour. 

He said that the Blue-Green growth “must be a mandatory priority for every nation and every global citizen.” 

“Pacific Island nations have been in the global limelight recently through our sustained calls for sustainable development and this conference could not have come at a better time.”

Dame Meg Taylor, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat who also spoke at the opening, stressed the importance of evidence and rigorous analysis to inform policy responses especially now that the challenges facing the Pacific region are increasingly existential in nature.

“Such factors spur us to re-think the form that Pacific regionalism needs to take in order to address our complex contemporary challenges, including poverty, non-communicable diseases, social inequities, gender issues and our unique vulnerabilities and dependencies,” she added.

She added that Pacific leaders have recognised the need for a new inclusive and game changing approach to Pacific regionalism.

“At the heart of this new approach is an emphasis on inclusive and robust policy development and implementation, as well as recognition of the political dimension for ensuring development outcomes for the Pacific,” Dame Taylor highlighted.

Professor Richard Coll, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Learning, Teaching and Student Services) said the presenters at the conference included a “good mix of academics and policymakers, which is important for research dissemination and how such research impacts policy making”.

2017 Pacific Update Conference [2]
University of the South Pacific (USP) [3]
USP [4]
Dame Meg Taylor [5]
Pacific [6]
Asian Development Bank (ADB) [7]
Australian National University (ANU) [8]
Pacific Islands [9]

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[1] https://matangitonga.to/2017/06/21/conference-help-pacific-islands-face-challenges-through-research-and-policies [2] https://matangitonga.to/tag/2017-pacific-update-conference?page=1 [3] https://matangitonga.to/tag/university-south-pacific-usp-0?page=1 [4] https://matangitonga.to/tag/usp?page=1 [5] https://matangitonga.to/tag/dame-meg-taylor?page=1 [6] https://matangitonga.to/tag/pacific?page=1 [7] https://matangitonga.to/tag/asian-development-bank-adb?page=1 [8] https://matangitonga.to/tag/australian-national-university-anu?page=1 [9] https://matangitonga.to/topic/pacific-islands?page=1