Region Needs Sound Policies to Save its People from Poverty

Pacific Island governments need to provide sound policies to counter against the global economic crisis in order to save its people from poverty.

According to Fijilive, Dr Will Parks, UNICEF's Chief of Policy, Advocacy, Planning and Evaluation, stated that over '50,000 people will fall into poverty if Pacific Island governments fail to provide sound policies to counter the global economic crisis' during the Pacific journalists briefing for the Vanuatu Global Economic Crisis conference in Suva, Fiji.

Right now he said, 20-30 per cent of people are living below the poverty line in each island country in the Pacific.

And if Governments fail to respond positively, more people will suffer.

"These are statistics that we very much want to avoid. We want to prevent such a scenario from occurring," Dr Parks said.

He added that behind the statistics are people facing significant hardship trying to put food on the table, send their children to school paying for electricity and water bills.

"All of these are basic necessities," he said.

According to the report, the briefing is for the Crisis conference to be held in Vanuatu which, according to Dr. Parks, 'will mainly be on learning how best to protect the most vulnerable in the Pacific from the current and future economic crises'.