Results for Development

Twenty-two houses are now standing at Masilamea (Atata Si’i) in the new settlement built for the displaced families of Atata. It’s been a year, two weeks and one day since the catastrophic tsunami destroyed their island village life on of January 15 2022. However, more than five houses are yet to have electricity and/or water supplies connected.

Tonga was among delegates from 110 member countries, attending the Fifth Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in New Delhi, India on 17-20 October, to discuss solutions to enable universal access to affordable solar power.

Tonga's critical shortage of sand for construction purposes has motivated a local man to find an alternative source of fine aggregate. Viliami Lolohea is currently building a small house at Fangaloto, trialling bricks made with imported Ferronickel slag. Last Friday, 10 December, King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau'u visited the building site to view the foundations of what will be the first house to be constructed locally with cement and slag

Tonga Skills is raising awareness about people with disability and showing how inclusive programmes can impact their lives and improve livelihoods. Their stories were published in a booklet called ‘Stories of Change for Inclusive Economic Growth’ launched in Nuku'alofa on June 21.

New York Times reporting: How does a country deal with climate disasters when it is drowning in debt? Not very well, it turns out. Especially not when a global pandemic clobbers its economy. Take Belize, Fiji and Mozambique. Vastly different countries, they are among dozens of nations at the crossroads of two mounting global crises that are drawing the attention of international financial institutions: climate change and debt.

Tongatapu 5 Youth Council want to tackle water and coastal issues to ensure a better future for Hihifo communities, after electing a working committee last week. They have support from the Tonga IW Ridge to Reef (R2R) project and local MP.

CoViD-19’s effects on health, jobs and economies are simply an acute version of what climate change is predicted to bring – and in places already has. Unless we aspire to a better normal with recovery, we are treating the symptom, not the disease. We must build back better than before. For example, it may be tempting to scale up funds for infrastructure like roads, but that funding can go to improved and greener public transport systems to service more people. More public transit capacity will reduce the load on roads and reduce air pollution and emissions. Investment in IT can decentralize business operations, reducing time lost and carbon produced in commutes and travel. By Armida Alisjahbana and Inger Andersen.

The big development issues facing the Pacific region will be debated in a new discussion series called ‘Future Pasifika’, with the first panel on healthy oceans set for July 15, broadcast worldwide from the University of the South Pacific Suva campus in partnership with the World Bank Group.

With a dire warning that, “If we do not act now, by 2050, 90% of the region’s coral reefs will be dead, and there will be no commercially exploitable wild fish stocks left,” the President of the Asian Development Bank, Mr Takehiko Nakao, launched an ‘Action Plan for Healthy Oceans and Sustainable Blue Economies for Asia and the Pacific’ yesterday, 3 May in Fiji. By Pesi Fonua.