rp21 situational analysis - Pacific Health Voices

Health and development
In the most recent estimation based on
2007 data, Vanuatu had a Human Development
Index ranking of 126 and was listed
as a medium-range developing country. 943
The Action Agenda for 2006–2015 outlines
Vanuatu’s development priorities, including:
increasing the productive sector, especially
agriculture and tourism; maintaining
a macro economic balance; raising public
service performance; cutting costs associated
with transport and utilities; and improving
access to basic services, such as health
and education. 944 In February 2009, Vanuatu
sent a delegation to the United Nations
headquarters in New York to argue against
its graduation from least developed country
status. 945 Vanuatu claimed the decision
was based on faulty data; graduation would
likely have a significant impact on the receipt
of overseas development assistance.
Meanwhile, AusAID reports that poverty levels
in Vanuatu are among the highest in
the Pacific and improving the delivery of
basic services remains a priority, particularly
in rural areas. 946 Around 20 per cent of the
Vanuatu population do not have access to
health services and almost 25 per cent of
children aged under five years are underweight.
947 These data need to be considered
in the context of Vanuatu’s ‘subsistence affluence’
and ‘poverty of opportunity’. 948 This
is reflected in the strong culture of community
obligation in Vanuatu supported by a
large rural population of subsistence farmers
and low rates of formal employment and
opportunities. Fertile land creates adequate
crop yields for rural families, but increasing
monetisation of the economy is making it
more difficult for families to access education
and other services. In this context there
have been reported increases in numbers of
farmers producing cannabis as a cash crop to
cover routine household expenditures. These
features influence both the affluence and
poverty of Vanuatu.
193
943 UNDP, Human Development Report 2008, available at: (accessed January 2009); (accessed October 2009). This is a
decline in ranking — 182 countries were listed for this period.
944 AusAID above, fn.941; Vanuatu Ministry of Finance and Economic Management (2006),
Priorities and Action Agenda 2006–2015: ‘An Educated, Healthy and Wealthy Vanuatu’. Port Vila:
Government of Vanuatu. Available at: .
945 Vanuatu worried about interest rates if it loses LDC status at UN. Radio New Zealand
International, 5 February 2009. Available at: (accessed February 2009).
946 AusAID above, fn.941.
947 Ibid.
948 Above, fn.938.
Vanuatu