Book review: Oloketa tingting fo apem education long Solomon Islands: Issues in Solomon Islands Education.

Book review: Oloketa tingting fo apem education long Solomon Islands: Issues in Solomon Islands Education

Models for an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries

This document is one outcome from a workshop held in Gizo in October 2010 attended by 82 representatives from government, NGO's private sector, and communities. The target audience for the document is primarily organizations planning to work with coastal communities of Solomon Islands to implement Community-Based Resource Management (CBRM). It is however also envisaged that the document will serve as a reference for communities to better understand what to expect from their partners and also for donors, to be informed about agreed approaches amongst Solomon Islands stakeholders. This document does not attempt to summarize all the outcomes of the workshop; rather it focuses on the Solomon Islands Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) National Plan of Action (NPoA): Theme 1: Support and implementation of CBRM and specifically, the scaling up of CBRM in Solomon Islands. Most of the principles given in this document are derived from experiences in coastal communities and ecosystems as, until relatively recently, these have received most attention in Solomon Islands resource management. It is recognized however that the majority of these principles will be applicable to both coastal and terrestrial initiatives. This document synthesizes information provided by stakeholders at the October 2010 workshop and covers some basic principles of engagement and implementation that have been learned over more than twenty years of activities by the stakeholder partners in Solomon Islands. The document updates and expands on a summary of guiding principles for CBRM which was originally prepared by the Solomon Islands Locally Managed Marine Area Network (SILMMA) in 2007

Funds of knowledge: Developing a Diploma in Teaching in Early Childhood Education in the Solomon Islands.

This article discusses how three early childhood teacher educators, from the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education School of Education and the University of Waikato Faculty of Education, worked in partnership together and with others to develop a new Diploma in Teaching Early Childhood Education (ECE) for the Solomon Islands. We argue that the knowledge and understandings that we shared about New Zealand early childhood education and its bicultural curriculum Te Whāriki made our task easier from the outset. So too did our shared "funds of knowledge" and expertise, particularly the Solomon Islands women's indigenous knowledge and abilities to reflect on teaching and learning in their nation and New Zealand, two contexts they understood well. As we worked through a range of issues related to the development and delivery of courses, the primacy of relationships and historical, cultural and social contexts for learning were reinforced. Broad understandings of relevant education pedagogy for adults and young children were incorporated through the diploma development process. The result was a new Diploma in Teaching Early Childhood Education and new ways of teaching and learning embedded in Solomon Islands contexts, blending the best of local and imported knowledge. This article adds to a small body of literature related to ECE in the Solomon Islands and the Pacific region

Making sense of health education in the Solomon Islands.

This article explores both the process and outcomes of a working Partnership between Solomon Islands College for Higher Education and the University of Waikato that explored the development of the initial teacher education health education courses. Through a process of co-construction and inquiry, teacher educators from the Solomon Islands and New Zealand developed a metaphorical context-specific model to represent understandings of health education in the Solomon Islands. The model and what this has meant for teaching and learning in health education at both SOE and in schools is examined

Food and nutrition security in Solomon Islands

This report is a literature review on Food and Nutrition Security in Solomon Islands, based on data from surveys conducted by Solomon Islands National Statistical Office, as well as from national and international organizations working in Solomon Islands. The purpose of the report is to present information outlining the current food and nutrition situation in Solomon Islands before implementation of the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS), led by WorldFish. The aim of the AAS program is to enhance production in natural freshwater and/or coastal ecosystems to improve household livelihood, including income and food security. This report summarizes national statistics and also focuses in more detail on a subset of provinces: Guadalcanal, Malaita and Western. In 2012, the AAS program was rolled out in Guadalcanal, Central and Malaita Provinces, designated the Central Hub. In 2013, roll out is beginning in the Western Hub (Western and Isabel Provinces). The priority province for the Central Hub has been identified as Malaita

Translating transitional justice: the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission

This paper contends that although the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission replicated the structure and operation of a truth commission based on a globalised and placeless theory of best practice in transitional justice, it was not adequately contextualised or integrated with local approaches to reconciliation and peacebuilding and therefore fell short of its ambitious mandate. Introduction The Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was the first truth commission in the Pacific, established under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act 2008  (TRC Act) in an effort to ‘promote national unity and reconciliation’ following the civil conflict which troubled the country between 1998 and 2003. The commission was publicly launched in 2008 by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Chair of the South African TRC, and officially began operations in 2010 for two years. The commission presented its five-volume final report to Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo in February 2012; however, the report has yet to be publicly released or presented to parliament, despite requirements in the Act to do so. The ongoing silence of the government led to the editor of the final report, long-term Solomon Islands resident Bishop Terry Brown, unofficially releasing the report electronically in early 2013. The TRC conducted exhumations, research, closed hearings and statement taking across six of the nine provinces,  overcoming financial constraints, logistical challenges and difficult terrain. Several regional and thematic public hearings were also held and broadcast on the radio. The final report was handed over to the prime minister within the allocated two-year time frame. In light of these achievements, the Solomon Islands TRC could be considered a ‘success’ insomuch as it fulfilled its mandated duties and produced a final report — a challenging and remarkable achievement itself. This success, however, was arguably superficial, a performance of reconciliation in the theatre of post-conflict peacebuilding. A wider perspective of post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation in the Solomon Islands shows the TRC was a minor player on a crowded stage. Many Solomon Islanders were unaware of the TRC, and those familiar with its acronym or name were often unaware of its role or mandate. This paper contends that although the Solomon Islands TRC replicated the structure and operation of a truth commission based on a globalised and placeless theory of best practice in transitional justice, the TRC was not adequately contextualised or integrated with local approaches to reconciliation and peacebuilding and therefore fell short of its ambitious mandate. The commission did, however, produce a final report which in and of itself may serve as a positive outcome of the commission’s work. The experience of the Solomon Islands TRC demonstrates not only the conceptual and practical challenges faced and friction experienced of implementing a truth commission, but also the potential that truth commissions offer for promoting reconciliation and peacebuilding in post- conflict contexts in Melanesia. This paper is divided into six parts. First, a brief background of the Solomon Islands conflict is outlined. Second, the recent evolution of the peacebuilding and transitional justice fields are discussed to offer a background for the Solomon Islands TRC. Third, the various conflict management and reconciliation practices in Solomon Islands are outlined, leading to the fourth part which introduces and describes the background of the Solomon Islands TRC. The challenges of and failures to adapt the TRC to the local context are illustrated in the fifth part, with a discussion focused on the mistranslation of the meaning and value of both ‘truth’ and ‘reconciliation’ in post- conflict Solomon Islands. Finally, the sixth part argues that despite being initially championed by civil society actors, rather than becoming a ‘hybridised’ institution, the commission had a veneer of adaptation, and was ‘replicated’ according to normative transitional justice discourse

Trade and Growth in the Pacific Islands - Empirical Evidence from the Bounds Test to Level Relationships and Granger Causality Tests

Although the relationship between international trade and economic growth has found a wide application area in the literature over the years, further attention is needed for small island economies. This study employs the bounds test for Level Relationships and Granger causality tests to investigate a long-run equilibrium relationship between international trade and real income growth, and the direction of causality among themselves in three selected Pacific Islands: Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Results reveal that a long run equilibrium relationship can be inferred between international trade and economic growth in the case of Fiji and Solomon Islands whereas economic growth is cointegrated only with exports of goods and services in Papua New Guinea. Granger causality test results show that there are bidirectional causality between exports and economic growth, and between exports and imports in Fiji Islands. Economic growth in Solomon Islands stimulates a growth in exports of goods and services, and exports stimulates a growth in imports of goods and services. No causal relationship has been obtained between international trade (both exports and imports) and economic growth in the case of Solomon Islands. The major finding of this study is that trade-led growth hypothesis cannot be inferred for the Pacific Islands.economic growth, long-run equilibrium relationship, Granger causality test

Labour mobility and diaspora: An overview of Solomon Islands’ historical regulatory experience, 1850s-2013

With less than 4,500 of its population of around 600,000 living overseas in 2013, the Solomon Islands ranks 138th in the world for diaspora formation. At these levels the scale of the diaspora as a proportion of population (0.8 percent) remains lower than it was in the early 20th century, when more than 5,000 Solomon islanders were compulsorily repatriated from Queensland under early Australian Commonwealth legislation. This working paper retraces and reframes the history of Solomon Islands labour mobility and diaspora formation since the 1850s, considering it in relation to the wider institutional and macro-regulatory machineries of three phases or regimes of economic, trade and mobility regulation. These regimes are referred to in this paper as: 1.liberal imperial, 2. national territorial and 3. International neoliberal. We argue that Solomon Islanders’ participation in labour mobility has been substantial under all three phases, but that international mobility and diaspora formation only developed significantly under the liberal imperial regime. Even then, however, its development proved precarious. The ways regional actors and governments acting within the different regimes have framed and segmented labour markets continue to powerfully shape mobility and diaspora outcomes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the situation to date for future economic development and security in Solomon Islands

The Funding of Adventist Schools in the Solomon Islands

This chapter explores the history of schooling in the Solomon Islands, the current state of education in the Solomon Islands, the place of Adventist education in the history and current practice of schooling in the Solomon Islands, the introduction of Adventist schools’ use of government funding in the Solomon Islands education system

Solomon Islands forest life: information on biology and management of forest resources

Solomon Islands Forest Life is a collaborative effort drawing on the experience and knowledge of many individuals. The book was compiled as part of a project funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund with support from John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation and will be distributed for free among secondary schools throughout Solomon Islands. Solomon Islands Forest Life gives an overview of the terrestrial environments of the Solomon Islands, their ecology, important species, and some of the key threats they face. The Solomon Islands are one of the most biologically rich archipelagos on earth. Huge proportions of the animals and plants found there are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else on earth. These species are closely linked to the culture, livelihoods and well being of people. Commercial logging, mining and a fast rate of population growth threaten the forests of Solomon Islands and are placing increasing pressure on natural resources. This book aims to complement the already deep understanding of the terrestrial environment by Solomon Islanders, allowing them to learn more and assist them in understanding how to manage new threats