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A balancing act in Tuvalu > Rebekah Prole
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A balancing act
in Tuvalu
As drought hampers Tuvalu and the government of this Pacifi c Island nation rebuilds,
PACTAM deployees negotiate the balancing act of responding to the long and short
term needs of the country’s fi nancial and legal institutions. AVI PACTAM Administrator,
Rebekah Prole, reports on the fi ndings from the recent assignment evaluations from
two PACTAM deployees working in Tuvalu.
The state of the nation
Home to over 10,500 people living on a
physical land size of 26 square kilometres
spread over nine coral atolls, Tuvalu is the
fourth smallest country in the world.
Based in the South Pacifi c, the Government
of Tuvalu has worked closely with the
Australian and New Zealand Governments to
address the ongoing issues the country faces
around high unemployment, governance,
scarce resources and the environment.
Since 2007 the Tuvaluan Government has
accessed technical assistance through
PACTAM to strengthen the countries’
fi nancial, legal and governance processes.
PACTAM is an AusAID initiative, managed by
AVI. This mechanism provides technical
assistance from Pacifi c governments and
agencies by recruiting professionals from
Australia and other countries for assignments
that cannot be fi lled locally.
About PACTAM
The Pacifi c Technical Assistance
Mechanism (PACTAM) is an Australian
Government, AusAID initiative
managed by AVI. This program
responds to emerging or urgent
technical assistance needs of Pacifi c
Island governments, statutory
authorities and regional organisations.
PACTAM program participants extend
from specialist medical and surgical
roles in Vanuatu to infrastructure
advisers in Solomon Islands or
biomedical engineers in Nauru.
While current PACTAM deployees in Tuvalu are
taking steps to implement long-term
strategies in the fi nancial and legal sectors,
they are currently facing a balancing act of
addressing a number of short-term challenges
facing Tuvalu. In December 2010, there was a
vote of ‘no confi dence’ in the Tuvaluan
government; this resulted in the election of a
new government on 24 December 2010. This
change brought a three to six month standstill
on all Acts passed through the government.
Following this the Tuvaluan Government
declared a state of emergency in the nation
on 28 September 2011 due to the impact of
the drought. Tuvaluans were limited to two
buckets of water per day and communicable
diseases have risen. International response to
the crisis include the Australian, New Zealand
and United States militaries delivering a
desalination plant to Tuvalu, which is capable
of turning 50,000 litres of sea water into
clean drinking water.
“... a high for me has
been the assistance in
decision-making
surrounding the
strategic goals and
directions of the Tuvalu
Audit Offi ce, and then
witnessing the results of
the decisions.”