Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
When you think about Pacific Island countries such as Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands often
the first thing that comes to mind is of a tropical island paradise, palm trees swaying
in the breeze, fertile soils, plentiful reefs.
And with strong extended networks of family on hand to share all of nature’s gifts it’s
easy to appreciate why Vanuatu was recently voted the Happiest Place on Earth.
However the reality for many Islanders clashes with this romanticised view. Poverty in the
Pacific is on the rise, and along with Sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific is the only region not
on target to meet its millennium development goals.
As small and trade-dependent countries in the tropics, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands
are regularly ranked amongst the world’s most vulnerable countries when it comes to
international economic shocks as well as natural disasters.
But what is little known is how much this vulnerability is transmitted to the individual
household level. My research aims fill this gap by looking at different shocks, including
the recent rises in food and fuel prices leading into the 2008 global financial crisis and
the GFC itself.
My results indicate that vulnerability is on the rise. While subsistence agriculture
and strong family networks remain important, rapid rates of urbanisation and monetisation
are increasingly reorienting households away from the traditional economy and towards formal
market systems.
The analogy of a palm tree in a cyclone is useful at this point. Just as only the strongest
trees, or those that are lucky enough to have shelter, are likely to be resilient to the
effects of a tropical cyclone so too only the most financially secure households and
those with limited links to the formal economy are likely to be resilient to the effect of
an international economic shock.
Therefore, as households increasingly turn to the formal economy they’re also heightening
their exposure to rises in fuel and food prices as well as the GFC. With no social welfare
net to speak of, this increased exposure, is increasing in the number of households
that are vulnerable to falling into poverty.
Using a unique household survey I’ve collected data from a thousand households in Vanuatu
and the Solomon Islands as well as captured information from focus groups and key informant
interviews.
My research is identifying those households that are most vulnerable to these shocks and
why. In addition I’m also able to evaluate the effectiveness of different coping mechanisms
that households employ when dealing with these shocks. For example we’ve found some households
have reduced the amount of food that they’ve consumed. Other households have stopped using
health services while others still have withdrawn their children from school.
By shedding important light on these key local drivers of vulnerability and resilience my
research is therefore making a contribution to the broader policy debate how we can insulate
households in developing countries to actually ensure the best possible chance of avoiding
poverty when shocks like these occur.