Compliance of regulations in tuna fisheries in the Solomon Islands

A resource that Pacific island Countries have in abundant supply is tuna. The Ocean surrounding Island States supply one third of the world’s tuna and between 40 to 50% of raw materials for the global canneries. The high concentration of tuna stock in the Western Central Pacific Ocean and the depletion of this resource in the other oceans have attracted increased fishing activities in the Region. This emanates with high illegally unreported and unregulated fishing activities. Despite formulations of fisheries rules to control harvesting of tuna resources, illegal fishing continues to exist. This paper examines this problem in the Solomon Islands’ fisheries by addressing three basic questions: (1) Why fishers break rules? (2) the circumstances in which fishers break them? and (3) the objective of complying with rules. A qualitative methodological approach using in-depth interviews with former and current fishers of various ranks and other key stakeholders was conducted. This included about thirty three personal interviews and two focus group interviews. The study shows most fishers resolved to Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities for economic gain. They thrive to maximise their profits which makes deterring such activities difficult. The study also reveals that Solomon Islands has weak enforcement and stumpy penalties. Additionally, politicians often compromise their decisions in favour of violators. All these factors have compounded to the difficulty of countering IUU activities difficult. Theoretically, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’ by Hardin (Colebatch and Larmour 1993) clearly explains that if fishers continue to serve their interest, every fisher will become worse off in the long run. Solomon Islands tuna fisheries are lowly moving in that direction if enforcement continues to be weak and fishers are not aware of this threat

Electrical and Electronic Waste Management–A Case Study in University of Duhok, Iraq

The aim of this paper is to estimate the perception, knowledge and attitude of the households towards electrical and electronic equipment waste (e-waste) management in Duhok city, Iraq. It also tried to identify current e-waste management practiced by households in Duhok. It has been found in this study that much of the electrical and electronic equipment was updated within two thirds of their designed lifetime. Most of the respondents informed that they just threw their e-waste to the waste bin. It can be concluded that all stakeholders of e-waste management, from the government and nongovernmental sectors should consider shifting the management options towards the top of the waste management hierarchy (prevention and waste minimization) by substituting the hazardous materials in e-waste and encouraging redesign of equipment for a better control of the negative impacts of e-waste. Keywords: e-waste management, awareness and attitude, product life time, updating time, deposit and disposa

Factors influencing Consumer Perception (CP) towards TV and newspaper advertising

This study identifies three factors namely: advertising media; economic and social factors and personal characteristics; that impact customer perception (CP) towards TV and newspaper advertising. While the extent of impact tends to vary, it is not possible to single out the factors. Needless to say, of all the factors identified to have influenced Fiji consumers’ perception towards TV and newspaper advertising, only education of consumers stands out as a predominant variable

Fixing Fiji's civil service

Fiji's 'overweight' civil service was the centre of attention of previous regimes, yet not much action was taken to resolve the problem. The attempt by the interim regime to address this problem by implementing a 30 per cent reduction of the civil workforce by 2011 is a bold decision, considering the economic and political uncertainties facing the country. The retirement age and redundancy policies are central measures of the reforms. While the earlier retirement age policy might have an immediate impact, redundancy is expected to be instrumental in the later stage of the process. The interplay between Fiji's institutional setting and the country's civil service culture presents a major test for the policy

Citizens’ Perceptions of Corruption and E - Governance in Jordan, Ethiopia, and Fiji — the Need for a Marketing Approach

The purpose of this research is to assess citizen’s perceptions of corruption and e-governance in Jordan, Ethiopia, and Fiji. The research is based on surveys using structured questionnaires and focus group interviews. Conclusions are derived from a mix of descriptive and inferential analysis. The survey covers a total of 1212 respondents using stratified sampling. Findings reveal that public sector corruption and demands for bribes are increasing in each country. Only a few people are aware of e-governance and feel that it can help in curbing corruption. The study proposes that in order to mitigate negative forces in the implementation of e-governance such as corruption, digital divide, and urban bias, developing countries need to apply a marketing approach to e-governance services

Fixing Fiji's civil service overweight problem: a challenge

Fiji's ‘overweight’ civil service was the centre of attention of previous regimes, yet not much action was taken to resolve the problem. The attempt by the interim regime to address this problem by implementing a 30 per cent reduction of the civil workforce by 2011 is a bold decision, considering the economic and political uncertainties facing the country. The retirement age and redundancy policies are central measures of the reforms. While the earlier retirement age policy might have an immediate impact, redundancy is expected to be instrumental in the later stage of the process. The interplay between Fiji's institutional setting and the country's civil service culture presents a major test for the policy

Sex education in Fiji

In recent decades one of the greatest challenges facing educators around the globe has been providing education programs to assist young people to optimise their sexual health. The increasing influence from the western world has created tensions between the traditional values of the Pacific society and the desire for modernity from the western world; as a result young people are swayed by new ideas, and misunderstandings between the generations have increased. In Fiji, there is a major reluctance and hesitance about breaking perceived taboos and addressing adolescent problems directly and openly. It is not surprising that proposing to address adolescent reproductive health openly in Fiji was viewed as sensitive and potentially controversial. The aim of the study is to highlight the constraints towards teaching sex/sexual education in Fiji schools. An exploratory approach was taken to achieve this objective based on secondary reviews. The findings of the study highlight that cultural barriers as well as barriers of inadequate provision of sex education via the curriculum coupled with lack of support from religious groups/clergy man escalate the risk factors faced by the people of Fiji, particularly students, and hampers their ability to make good decisions about sexual and reproductive health matters. This research will be useful to school and the education practitioners seeking to introduce sex education in schools in Fiji because it covers major constraints to teaching the subject matter that need to be addressed

E-governance for improved public service delivery in Fiji

Using ICT in the form of e-governance could yield great benefits in the reform and modernization of the public sector. The experience of e-governance in a number of developed and developing countries has shown that ICT can be a tool for greater service delivery with the goal of improving service quality. E-governance can also promote ‘good govern-ance’, that is, greater civic engagement can increase opportunities for direct representation and voice, and support for increased democracy. This paper discusses and presents the survey findings that seek to test the role of e-governance in improving service delivery by altering the principal-agent relationship. It further seeks to elucidate the quality aspects of public service. Policy recommendations to achieve the benefits of e-governance in Fiji are presented. Strong leadership is required to implement e-governance to capture and internalize the benefits of quality services and satisfied customers

Public service delivery dilemma: achieving quality of service in Fiji

Today customers (or citizens of any nation) want effective, efficient and equitable services. The global problem is one where public service delivery is in a state of dilemma and service quality appears to be deteriorating. The dilemma is that the performance of the public service is not businesslike, and this has impacted the quality of service delivery. With this, customers/citizens are demanding an answer. In Fiji the area of public service delivery and service quality in particular appears to have received fairly modest attention. The main objectives of this paper are to get deeper understanding of the public service dilemma and understand the relationships between quality of services and customer satisfaction