by Sir Frank Ofagioro Kabui First Attorney-General of Solomon Islands It was with sadness that I learned of the passing of my great friend, Ranjit Hewagama, at his home in Sri Lanka on Friday, 23 October 2026. I pay this tribute on my own behalf and on behalf of those…

by Lloyd Loji* Solomon Islands is scheduled to graduate from the UN list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on 13 December 2027. The prospect has prompted considerable discussion at home, much of it asking whether external assistance and preferential treatment will fall away once the country graduates. A closer look…

by Jack Salmon* Over the last decade, Chinese lending behaviour in the Pacific has shifted considerably. Increasingly, its financial assistance to the region is in the form of grants rather than the loans it had previously provided, with new lending now being concentrated in Melanesian countries. However, for countries such…

by Lloyd Loji* Journalists play an important role in every democracy, whether in the Pacific or abroad. They report on government decisions, elections, public spending, development projects and issues affecting ordinary people. They also give communities a voice and help people understand what is happening around them. For small Pacific…

by Jesse Doyle The oil price spike triggered by the ongoing Middle East crisis has proven to be the most disruptive economic shock facing the Pacific and the world since the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent Devpolicy posts have examined the gap between Pacific renewable energy targets and actual delivery, and how,…

by Baroness Winterton UK Minister for Pacific   Last month at the UN General Assembly, we reached a landmark moment. The international community adopted the Sea Level Rise Declaration, the first time all UN member states have decided on a shared approach towards sea level rise.   For many, sea…

by Mary-Louise O’Callahhan* The Albanese government has pulled no punches in its hard-nosed approach to how and why Australian aid should be deployed in the Pacific. But Canberra’s latest gambit to lock Solomon Islands into a “transformational ”security treaty is flying perilously close to the sun. The proposal – to…

Opinion Piece by Ambassador of the European Union to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert When nearly 80% of the world faces hunger, blocking one of the world’s major breadbaskets is neither an accident nor merely a military tactic; it is a direct assault on global stability.   Russia is systematically strangling…

By Charlotte Bedford At the end of July, New Zealand’s Immigration Minister Erica Stanford took the stage at the annual Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) conference to announce a series of scheme changes. The RSE scheme, launched in 2007, lets New Zealand horticulture and viticulture employers recruit workers from nine Pacific…