Matangi Tonga, Vol. 18, No. 3

Tongan communities realise they need new skills and more income.

Extreme Poverty does not exist in Tonga, according to an Asian Development Bank report, released in Nuku'alofa at the end of October.

David Abbott, a development economist and one of the authors of the report, said that the established perception that poverty is starvation, malnutrition, destitution, and millions of people living in slums, does not exist in Tonga or small Pacific Island countries.

...“In the Pacific poverty has never been a big issue and many governments have been reluctant to acknowledge that poverty exists. There is some real poverty in Papua New Guinea, and there are pockets of poverty in Fiji, and probably in the Solomons, but in the small Pacific Islands, poverty in that extreme sense does not exist."

Poverty reduction

David said that the need to assess the state of poverty in Tonga and other Pacific Island countries came about after the Asian Development Bank in 1999 decided to focus all its activities toward ...‘Poverty Reduction...’.

"“In many Asian countries that is very easy, because you can see the poverty, millions of people are living in the slums and are suffering from extreme poverty. In the Pacific poverty is not a big issue, but in order for the bank to be able to understand the poverty reduction focus in the Pacific island countries, they decided to embark on this program of poverty assessment.

"They are doing two things: one is the participatory assessment, and the other is quantitative analysis to try and develop a better understanding of what hardship and poverty mean in the smaller Pacific Island countries. Does poverty exist? How much of it exists? Where does it exist? Why it exists? And how the people who are experiencing these hardships are dealing with it."

David said that they went out to communities throughout the kingdom to find out what kind of hardships the people were experiencing, and what sort of support and assistance they would like to receive, so that they could help themselves. ""We look at those with easy access to basic services, those that might have moderate access, and those with least access. In Tonga'’s case, with regard to those with least access, we look at villages in '‘Eua, Ha'’apai and the Niuas, and Tafahi. We look at how well they have been served by government with regards to services, transport, communications etc., and what the communities see as the main hindrance for them to access these services."

Changing world

David said that the program started in 2001and Papua New Guinea was the first country in the region where poverty assessment was conducted, and Tonga was the seventh country to be assessed. David joined the program in 2002 and last year they worked in Kiribasi, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands, and this year Tuvalu, Fiji, Tonga and the Federated States of Micronesia.

"One thing that comes out in almost every country that we have been to so far is that there is a realisation that the world is changing and there is a need for more transparency and accountability."

Opportunities

David said that the prime need of the Tongan communities they visited was for them to be able to increase their income. ...“They have identified that they can alleviate their hardship if they have the income, but to increase their income they must have the skills and the know-how to exploit their talents in order to increase their income".”

David believed that in Tonga's case there was a need for people, particularly young people, to have the technical skills in order to exploit the opportunities, whether in agriculture, fisheries, information technology or mechanical areas.