Food Price Increases in the Pacific Islands - Unicef

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Annex: Voices of the Vulnerable Interviews with vulnerable communities are a cornerstone of the Sentinel Monitoring system. Gathered here are some of the “Voices of the Vulnerable” women, men, girls and boys. Urban Poor Tonga Mele is a 15 year old girl who lives in Patangata, an urban settlement on the main island of Tonga. Many residents are migrants from outer-islands. Mele recently had to leave school in order to start supporting her family. “Only reason why I stayed away from school is that we cannot afford to pay the school fees and related expenses for schooling. I was thinking of going back to school. My mother told me to stay home, but I knew it wouldn‟t help me. But right now I got a job (making ice blocks). The work I am going to do is basically to help my family with meeting basic needs. I feel that assistance should be given by the government to pay my fees so that I can go back to school.” Fiji Jale is a leader of the Solomon Islander community within the Namara Settlement. Only 54 years old and in crutches, his poor health is attributed to a diet lacking in nutrition and little money available for health care. “There is hardly anyone in the formal workforce because we lack proper education. We are finding it very hard to cope this time as prices are going high.” Many families find the price of meat and imported staples too high. They are now planting food and vegetables around their homes to help feed their families. Many are becoming vegetarians and eat a lot of breadfruit as there is an abundance of breadfruit trees in the area. Sometimes they drink tea instead of having a normal meal and ration food amongst the family. “We cannot buy bread now for breakfast so my wife makes pancakes and roti. Previously we just eat as much as we like but now we get our food dished out to us. I usually check out my other neighbours and relatives for left-over food to fill up my stomach” Rural Poor Fiji -Western Division The sentinel site settlement in Western Division is made up of both Fijian and Indo-Fijian members, many of which have been displaced from cane farming areas. The settlement is established on mataqali land and each family rents a block of around 500 sq metres. There was frustration at not being able to own their own land since leases had expired. The lack of electricity and water to some homes was also detrimental to their daily lives: school children were unable to study when it was dark and kerosene lamps were expensive to run. Sometimes neighbours paid to use power from an adjoining homes but this was not ideal. Cooking methods had changed with the increased price of fuel. “We always use kerosene for cooking before, now using firewood as kerosene price has increased.” 21
The men said that diets had changed to reflect a lack of income and rising prices of some food items. Home grown vegetables and root crops formed the basis of the dietary intake, whilst meat was purchased less often than before. Dhal had become a staple food for many. “My family‟s diet consists mainly of vegetables. We cannot afford high food prices.” “We are having tea with cassava/breadfruits for most meals as we cannot afford the high price of rice & flour.” Reduced incomes and increased price of food had changed to a diet predominantly made up of home grown vegetables and cheaper staples such as dhal, noodles and tinned meat and fish. Food was rationed to ensure children had three meals a day, whilst parents often went without. “Food price is too high and we have to eat much cheaper foods like noodles and most of the time tea and bread/roti/pancake.” Fiji - Northern Division The Nasarawaqa and Dreketi in Northern Division are rural and fairly remote from major conurbations with the few transport links limited to a daily bus service to Labasa and Nabouwalu. The road infrastructure in this area is poor and the bus service is often cancelled. There was some frustration in the group about the lack of other work opportunities in the area. “…need development here so we can find jobs apart from farming.” The women also mentioned the problems arising from a lack of a regular water supply such as livestock suffering from thirst and contaminated well water, and that they hoped government funds for a water system would ease the problems. However it was noted that a recently implemented Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation system had not encompassed their farms. “...we„ve never had a regular tap water supply and please can someone help us with our problem; our well water supply is not that healthy because we sharing it with livestock.” Men and women thought their food intake are nutritious and secure as they harvested most themselves. “…we have no problems when dealing with food because we have our own livestock (meat & milk), home gardens (vegetables, rice, fruits) and the sea (fish, crab & other sea food).” Fewer students from the community were able to enrol in secondary school due to its distance from the settlement and the cost of fees and travel ($1.15 bus fare), although the Government did contribute the cost of transport but reportedly only one-way. The small number of children who reached Year 7 were either based in Labasa or Suva. Whilst parents made financial sacrifices to ensure funds were available to send the children to school, there were still cases where students were unable to continue with their schooling due to prohibitive costs. “…as our children reach secondary level and try to further their education we find it difficult to meet the educational cost required due to financial hardship.” Vanuatu “Government should accept payment in kind. We do not have enough cash to pay for school for all of our three children” - Fanafo, Santo 22
Page 2 and 3: © United Nations Children's Fund (
Page 4 and 5: Summary Food Price Increases in the
Page 6 and 7: This is the second report on the fo
Page 8 and 9: Figure 1: GDP growth and Inflation
Page 10 and 11: At the heart of the system are the
Page 12 and 13: In Fiji, increased food prices are
Page 14 and 15: A$ per student per day send them to
Page 16 and 17: In February CPI monitoring also rec
Page 18 and 19: Priority Areas for Policy Action Mi
Page 20 and 21: another avenue to children who drop
Page 24: References ADB, (2010), Weaving Soc

Food Price Increases in the Pacific Islands - Unicef

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