Features Archive April 2021

Anthropologists have long written about the role of serendipity in their work. Days can go by in which nothing very interesting seems to happen, and then something occurs that is not just compelling but brings the whole dull stretch before it into focus.

In the previous two articles in this series published originally at devpolicy.org, I talked about how migration has become critical to modern Australian agriculture, and sketched a day in the life of one small corner of this huge industry as observed by myself.

Battling COVID-19 in the last year has put into perspective the challenge of battling an infectious disease that kills so many across the world every day.

In his recent book The third pillar: How markets and the state leave the community behind, leading economist Raghuram Rajan uses an extensive historical account to show that society is based on the evolution of three key social functions: markets, the state and community.

The Australian Government through its initiative, Strongim Bisnis, launched a new partnership with two Solomon Islands fertiliser producers, Zai Na Tina Organic Farms and Prosperity Farm Supplies on 16 April.

Pacific Trade Invest (PTI) Australia’s 2020 Pacific Islands Export Survey revealed that freight costs are one of the top three barriers to export faced by Pacific businesses, which was further exacerbated when COVID-19 drastically affected shipping routes and thus inflated costs.

The fracturing of Pacific regionalism after the withdrawal of five Micronesian states from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) will not only affect cooperation within the Pacific region, but also the collaboration of the Pacific island countries (PICs) in international politics.

Nearly 60 years since independence, and 39 years after the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) took over the reins as government, a new dawn is on the horizon in Samoa.

Several factors are threatening the viability of the Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP). These include the call for illegal workers in horticulture to be given the right to work via an amnesty, and the effect of the requirement for growers to pay workers overtime.

Across the Global South, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of socioeconomic progress, disproportionally harming poor people. Low- and lower-middle-income countries in particular are struggling more than ever to find the resources to support their citizens’ health and wellbeing at this time of crisis.

“Don’t wait for others to drive the change: A lot of people have ideas, a lot of people will come up and give great advice or will criticize you for not doing enough on a certain issue, but not a lot of people are really prepared to do the actual work.”