Results for Pacific

Poor data collection in several Pacific Island countries is obstructing UNICEF’s first assessment to measure progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for children. Children are at risk of being left behind in terms of improving health, sanitation, education, protection from violence, abuse and exploitation says a UNICEF report.

Tonga’s Parliament is up and running this week thanks to support from parliaments throughout the Pacific region, including Australia, New Zealand and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), after Tropical Cyclone Gita destroyed its century old building and technical equipment last month.

NASA will launch a powerful and advanced weather satellite named GOES-S on Thursday 1 March from Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, enabling more accurate and reliable weather forecasts and severe weather outlooks over most of the Western Hemisphere, including the Pacific.

UNICEF is calling for urgent action to protect children from a host of risks and harms online around the world including the Pacific, as part of its Safer Internet Day message this week. Tonga is playing its part with cyber safety programmes being delivered in the kingdom in partnership with UNICEF, who reports that that one in three internet users worldwide is a child.

Five Pacific Islands are included in the European Union’s first blacklist, which names 17 tax havens, including American Samoa, Guam, Marshall Islands, Palau and Samoa as "non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes".

Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu will be able to access $15 million to strengthen resilience to disasters after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on 18 December it would provide policy-based loans and grants under its Pacific Disaster Resilience Program.

Tonga has stepped up its efforts to curb domestic violence with a new ‘Access to Justice Project’ legal centre launched last Friday, 8 December, that will provide free legal advice and support to survivors, as complaints of domestic violence continue to rise. It is the first in the Pacific Islands.

Children as young as 12 months old around the world are experiencing violence in their homes by those entrusted to take care of them, reveals a new UNICEF report released on 1 November. Six out of every 10 one year olds in 30 countries are subjected to violent discipline on a regular basis and nearly a quarter are physically shaken as punishment. One in 10 are hit or slapped on the face, head or ears.

Fiji will receive a $31 million grant from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and a $42 million ADB loan for climate resilience projects and improving water and sanitation services.