Oxfam’s Barry Coates … better climate change planning and accessible funding needed. Image: Oxfam/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
By Henry Yamo on Rarotonga

Oxfam has called for a “fair and binding” international agreement to boost strategic funding for climate change adaptation for all Pacific countries.

“Much more needs to be done to access climate change finance – a core message is that response to climate change depends heavily on building in-country capacity,” executive director of Oxfam New Zealand Barry Coates said today at the launch of a new Oxfam report on climate change in the Cook Islands.

“And for such capacity to be fully effective, it requires collaboration between all actors at all levels of society.” Read more »

French Polynesian leader Oscar Temaru … keen to see Fiji back in the Pacific Islands Forum. Image: Cook Islands News

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Henry Yamo on Rarotonga

French Polynesian President Oscar Temaru backs Fiji’s return to the Pacific Islands Forum in any discussion about its suspension by regional leaders in the near future.

“The Pacific leaders are hopeful that in the very close future Fiji will be back again because all countries in the Pacific are linked and no one should be expelled from this ocean,” he said.

Temaru said the suspended status of Fiji from the Forum and other organisations was a problem that would not last forever. Solutions would be found to include the country again. Read more »

Good funding news for Pacific women … Akaiti Puna, wife of Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna, hosting visiting spouses of Pacific leaders. Image: Cook Islands News

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Rachel Reeves on Rarotonga

The Australian government has made what the UN Women’s Director called an “unprecedented investment” in the women of the Pacific Islands.

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced yesterday at the Forum Leaders Meeting – before she flew back to Canberra – that her government would be earmarking $320 million to achieve gender equality in the Pacific, under the “Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development” scheme to be rolled out over the next decade.

Her announcement met with enthusiastic applause, and praise from Prime Minister Henry Puna, Forum Secretariat Secretary-General Tuiloma Neroni Slade, and UN Women’s director Michelle Bachelet. Read more »

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By the Pacific Media Centre news desk

A leading United States digital technology strategist has heralded the positive impact that a “Pacific century” could have on democracy and development in the region.

In an interview with Pacific Scoop’s Suze Metherell, Alec Ross, Senior Adviser on Innovation to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said governments in the region could benefit from the “connectedness of their citizens”

“There are two approaches governments can take,” he said.

Read more »

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard with PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill at the Pacific Islands Forum before Gillard returned to Australia. Image: Henry Yamo/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Perrottet of Pacific Media Watch, with Henry Yamo on Rarotonga

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the media ban on foreign journalists entering Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, as reports emerge that Australian Fairfax journalists have been denied visas.

Reports first emerged last week that the Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Rimbink Pato had banned journalists from the island while preparations were in place for the centres that will house asylum-seekers under the new arrangement with the Australian government.

The minister released a statement on Wednesday saying: “As the minister responsible, I have instructed all the PNG Heads of Overseas Missions, that all foreign media personnel are not to be granted visas to travel to Manus to cover the issue.” Read more »

Tawaa Tebunang, 46, at Tanikabaai Village, Tabontebike, Abaiang, in Kiribati. This land was inundated with water following a king tide in 2004. Many crops
were lost as a result including pawpaw, pandanus, banana, taro and figs amongst others; the soil is now too saline to grow food. Image: Rodney Dekker/Oxfam Australia

A NEW report on the way climate change funding is managed in the Pacific is calling for a coordinated and “inclusive” approach in fighting the multiple threats of climate change. A special Pacific Scoop backgrounder.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Cassandra Mason

Oxfam has proposed a strategic “big picture” approach to regional coordinated funding for Pacific climate change in a new report launched at the Pacific Islands Forum today with the issue being a “core item” on the agenda.

The report, Owning Adaptation in the Pacific: Strengthening governance of climate adaptation finance, gives a detailed look at how climate finance is being managed in Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu and makes recommendations for improvements – and also across the Pacific.

Funded by the British High Commission and launched by Oxfam and Richard Benyon, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries in DEFRA, the report acknowledges good work that is already being undertaken by governments, donors and civil society. Read more »

Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna greets Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the Forum opening ceremony – but she flew home tonight. Image: Cook Islands News

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Rachel Reeves on Rarotonga and the Pacific Media Centre news desk

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard made an emergency exit from Rarotonga tonight, amid news that five Australian soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan.

Gillard gave a speech in the afternoon at the National Auditorium, announcing her government’s commitment to provide $320 million over the next decade to Pacific women, aimed at achieving gender equality in the region.

Shortly thereafter, she was on board her RAAF Boeing 737 returning to Canberra, describing the deaths of the three soldiers as “the most awful news”. Read more »

Kiribati President Anote Tong (from left), Nauru President Sprent Dabwido and President Christopher Loeak of the Marshall Islands sign the trilateral boundary treaty today. Image: Henry Yamo/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Henry Yamo on Rarotonga

In what is described as a historical moment, seven small island states sharing maritime boundaries signed bilateral treaty agreements at the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum in the Cook Islands today.

“The maritime boundaries treaties formalised today signify tremendous steps in our regional corporative efforts and further strengthens our ocean management frameworks,” said Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna.

The signing included seven bilateral and one trilateral agreement between the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Kiribati. Read more »

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (left) with Papua New Guinea’s Peter O’Neill at the Pacific Islands Forum today. Image: Henry Yamo/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Henry Yamo on Rarotonga

Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Peter O’Neill met his Australian and New Zealand counterparts today in a move to strengthen bilateral relations between all three countries.

O’Neill met NZ Prime Minister John Key this morning for discussions which included progress on the LNG project in the Southern Highlands, the Sovereign Wealth Fund and the government’s five-year development priorities – health, education, law and order and infrastructure development.

O’Neill later met with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to discuss Forum perspectives, bilateral relations and asylum seekers. Read more »

Former President of Chile and current head of UN Women Michelle Bachelet. Image: Cook Islands News

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Calida Smylie on Rarotonga

Gender equality in the Pacific will be discussed as a Forum side event today, with a number of high-profile female United Nations members attending.

Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Michele Bachelet, will take part in the panel discussions on gender equality.

The head of the UN Delegation to the Pacific Island Forum was also the first female president of Chile, serving 2006 to 2010. Read more »