Tag Archives: Pacific

Position at Massey University

The School of People, Environment and Planning is seeking to appoint a lecturer/senior lecturer in Social Anthropology to be located on the Albany Campus in Auckland. Social Anthropology is a key social science programme within the School of People, Environment … Continue reading

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Dennis O’Rourke’s films at the NFSA

The National Film and Sound Archive is featuring acclaimed documentary filmmaker Dennis O’Rourke all this month. Details of the Dennis O’Rourke’s work and the schedule can be found here.

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ANU Archives launches new database

The Australian National University has launched a new archive database which makes national treasures of business, unions and the University available online for the first time. National Archives of Australia Director-General David Fricker launched the new ANU Archives database, which … Continue reading

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UQ ePress Pacific Studies series, Australians in Papua New Guinea 1960-1975.

Edited by Ceridwen Spark (ANU), Seumas Spark (Monash) and Christina Twomey (Monash), Australians in Papua New Guinea, provides a history of the late Australian years in Papua New Guinea through the eyes of thirteen Australian and four Papua New Guineans.  … Continue reading

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Good and bad aid: The rise and fall of two South Pacific universities

by Dr Scott MacWilliam  Since the early 1990s at least, it has been commonplace to assess the consequences of international multilateral and bilateral aid in such terms as meeting `good’ governance criteria, providing for accountability, transparency and openness (Larmour 1998, pp. … Continue reading

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Strengthening health information: a pressing need for the Pacific

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

A research article just published by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease reiterates the pressing need to strengthen health information in the Pacific, particularly in relation to data analysis, use and sharing.

The article focused on the findings and implications for the Pacific Islands of the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study.

The Pacific estimates in this important study show that lower respiratory infections, diabetes, and diarrhoea cause the greatest overall burden and mortality, and depression, low back pain, and anaemia cause the greatest disability in the region.

These results are likely to be a useful tool for assessing health priorities and informing policy and programming in the Pacific, but lead author, Dr Damian Hoy from SPC, states that ‘they need to be interpreted with some caution given that the estimates for the Pacific are derived from models built with very limited data’.

The authors explain in their paper that the greatest challenge in making the Pacific estimates is the paucity of data in the region ‘that have been analysed, synthesised and made publicly available’.

Pacific health ministers are aware of the need to strengthen data analysis and use in the region. In 2011, they recommended the ‘development of comprehensive training programmes to develop core competencies in ‘data techs’, ‘epi techs’ and epidemiologists’.

The article presents and discusses the work currently carried out by several networks and partners in the region to address this issue: the Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network (PPHSN) Data for Decision Making training course, various operational research courses and initiatives, the Brisbane Accord Group initiative to strengthen vital statistics systems and the Pacific Health Information Network training activities.

Another PPHSN training programme led by SPC, not listed in the article because it is still under development, focuses on Strengthening Health Interventions in the Pacific (SHIP). This new initiative received the support of Directors of Health at the end of April and it will be presented to Pacific Ministers of Health in July.

Altogether, the article stresses that all these initiatives have great potential to contribute to rapidly strengthening data analysis and ensuring that good quality health data are available in the region.

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Pacific partnerships to strengthen gender, climate change response and sustainable development

Monday, 19 May 2014

An innovative Pacific regional meeting to be held from 9 to 13 June in Nadi, Fiji, aims to advance the region’s interests in global United Nations bodies in key areas such as gender equality and climate change.

The meeting will bring together representatives of national, regional and global women-led civil society organisations (CSOs) and networks, national women’s machineries (NWMs) and high-level state representatives from New York missions and capitals to discuss, strategise and agree on priorities and political partnerships to advance gender, climate change and disaster risk reduction positions in the global sustainable development, post-2015 development and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change multilateral agendas. The high-level meeting on 13 June will be chaired by the Honourable Enele Sopoaga, Prime Minister of Tuvalu.

This initiative is co-convened by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and Diverse Voices and Action for Equality and the Pacific Youth Council. Other partners include Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office, the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, The Women’s Major Group on Sustainable Development, the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, the Global Fund for Women, the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF) and the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA), with many others providing expertise, and financial and other resources.

With the Pacific Plan review underway as well as global processes such as preparation for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States, Beijing+20 (the upcoming review of progress made in the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, and discussions on the post-2015 development agenda, this is a timely opportunity to strengthen partnerships and engagement for implementation of regional and global priorities on gender, climate change and sustainable development, with the aim of demonstrating concrete policy results, and also increasing support for women-led civil society groups and national women’s machineries in the Pacific region.

The process adopted in the meeting aims to accomplish the following objectives. Firstly, to strategise and agree on urgent and long-term Pacific priorities and state and civil society partnerships to advance transformative gender, climate change and DRR positions into the global sustainable development agenda. Secondly, participants will also identify how CSOs and NWMs can support negotiators from Pacific missions and capital as they position Pacific priorities in global advocacy tracks. Thirdly, participants will discuss how to strengthen mechanisms to monitor implementation of policies, promote transparency, accountability and dialogue throughout the global gender, sustainable development and climate change agendas.

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Reflections on how the Manus Island detention centre promotes gender-based violence

The violence in February this year at the Australian offshore asylum seeker detention centre on Manus Island resulted in the death of asylum seeker Reza… Continue reading

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Australia Network axing: what will happen to coverage of the region?

Today’s budget teaser in the papers is that the Australia Network will be scrapped. This is unsurprising, considering it not only came under fire from the… Continue reading

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Floods of information, drought of listening – communications in Honiara’s floods

The recent floods in Honiara, capital of Solomon Islands, provided an illuminating example of how media can be used to communicate with the people most… Continue reading

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Death and development in the Pacific

In any Pacific country it doesn’t take long before you meet people who are caring for dying loved ones at home, with very little support…. Continue reading

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Journal of Pacific History

The Journal of Pacific History is a leading refereed journal dedicated to the study of the Pacific Islands, their peoples and their pasts. In conjunction with the Pacific History Association at the Biennial Pacific History Association Conference, JPH awards the … Continue reading

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Gunson Essay Prize in Pacific History

A prize of AUD$1,000 will be awarded at the 21st Biennial Pacific History Association Conference, in Taipei and Taitung, Taiwan, 3-6th December 2014, for the winner of the Gunson Essay Prize Competition. Postgraduate or senior students from any country are … Continue reading

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The Emerging Pacific Leaders’ Dialogue (EPLD) 2014

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN The third Emerging Pacific Leaders’ Dialogue (EPLD) is an intensive development program for future leaders scheduled to take place across the Pacific region over a continuous two-week period from 16 October 2014. This follows the … Continue reading

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Nauru rule of law case and the implication for the Pacific

by Bal Kama Australia’s blind eye while rule of law under siege in the Pacific The resignation of the Australian born Nauru Supreme Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Eames last week will go down as one of the most disappointing moments in … Continue reading

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