Oxfam New Zealand Comments on the NZAID Pacific Strategy ...

NZAID role in Pacific land tenure reform
<strong>Oxfam</strong> questions whether it is appropriate for NZAID to adopt a programme
aims such as ‘supporting appropriate land tenure’ (para 21). The question of
what is ‘appropriate’ is contentious, particularly when part of a foreign donor
strategy. The context is that the EU, the Australian government and others
have called for privatisation of land and fewer restrictions on ownership by
foreigners. For example, the EU has included a request for greater foreign
ownership of land in its requests of two Pacific nations under current WTO
GATS negotiations.
The inclusion of land tenure reform in the section that relates to economic
growth indicates that <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong>’s interests are also driven by economic
considerations. This is a dangerous approach, given that land is not only an
economic asset but is central to the identity of many Pacific peoples and
potentially a source of bitter conflict.
The solution is not just to shift land tenure into another section of the strategy,
but to question why NZAID should be involved. It is not enough to identify that
land tenure is an important issue for the Pacific. As is clear from the NZAID
Strategy, donor funds are a small part of the overall funding available to PIC
governments and there need to be good reasons why donors should be
involved. In this area, there are very good reasons why donors should not be
involved and a real question over <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong>’s value added.
<strong>Oxfam</strong> recommends that the Strategy does not include support for land
tenure.
The role of the Pacific Plan
The Pacific Plan was agreed by the Forum leaders in Port Moresby, but is by
no means a document that is widely supported or understood by Pacific
people. At last year’s Civil Society Forum in Port Moresby, organisations from
across the Pacific reported that few people were even aware of the Pacific
Plan’s existence.
The principles of good governance should require that civil society and the
public are involved in the preparation of a Plan that purports to provide a
roadmap for regional cooperation. This is by no means the case, and Pacific
society has made it clear on many occasions that the public information and
consultations processes in the process of preparing the Pacific Plan were
woefully inadequate.
Further, there are a number of provisions in the Pacific Plan that do not
accord with NZAID’s draft strategy. For example, the section of economic
growth lacks a framework that would prioritise pro-poor growth, and instead
merely talks about economic growth as an aim in itself. From <strong>Oxfam</strong>’s
analysis, the formulation of the Plan was strongly influenced by Australia and
<strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong>, and includes a rapid and deep trade liberalisation. The