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Over 50,000 people across the Pacific will fall into poverty if Pacific Island governments fail to provide sound policies to counter the global economic crisis.
Dr Will Parks, UNICEF’s Chief of Policy, Advocacy, Planning and Evaluation made the comment while responding to media questions during the Pacific journalists briefing for the Vanuatu Global Economic Crisis conference in Suva.
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.
The conference which is expected to have 220 delegates will include several Heads of States, Minister for Finance, Ministers for Social Sectors, civil society organizations, private sector representatives and children, will be held in Vanuatu.
It is being organized by the Vanuatu government, United Nations, Asian Development Bank, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, University of the South Pacific and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
According to Dr Parks, the conference will mainly be on learning how best to protect the most vulnerable in the Pacific from the current and future economic crises.
Among others, one of the expected outcomes is strengthened understanding of the impact of the crisis at macro and community levels, including identification of vulnerable groups and types of vulnerabilities.
