It’s not just about money, our Pacific mindset needs to change
More money is necessary to transform our relationship with the Pacific beyond aid, but resetting the relationship requires more than money.
We give a smaller proportion of our national economy in aid than most OECD countries provide – about 0.22 per cent of our GDP, well below Australia, most of Europe and the OECD average of 0.4 per cent.
But we have something that noone else has: a Pacific diaspora who identify as both New Zealanders and Pacific people.
These communities have already re-set the old aid relationships.
They are Pacific business groups based in New Zealand, health organisations, Pacific women’s groups, New Zealand NGOs, and iwi organisations.
They are devolving responsibility for development to the Pacific and waiting for governments to catch up.
A friend in Samoa told me, ‘‘New Zealand and Australian experts turn up and say, ‘We have a great idea for you’. The Chinese come along and say, ‘What do you want?’ Who do you think we’re going to choose?.’’
A friend in Tonga welcomed talk of a Pacific reset because, ‘‘It’s time to throw away the development theories and the bibles.’’
They want to move away from the old welfare model of aid to think about our role more in the way we think about regional development.
We want New Zealand regions like Northland or the East Coast of the North Island to be strong because stronger regions make a stronger New Zealand. Likewise, a stable, prosperous Pacific is good for New Zealand because, well, we’re the Pacific too.
About 2000 people live in Niue, while 24,000 Niueans live in New Zealand; 15,000 live in the Cook Islands and about 62,000 Cook Islanders live in New Zealand. Already one in five New Zealanders have Maori or Pasifika heritage, and the trend is growing.
The Pacific is not ‘foreign’ to us. It’s family.
Every government talks about aid to the Pacific as a ‘hand up not a hand out’. A ‘reset’ rejects that old welfare model entirely, and in the spirit of true partnership, asks what are we getting out of this?
Actually a lot. We’re all familiar with Pasifika All Blacks and
The Pacific is not 'foreign' to us. It's family.
Warriors, but our Pacific family is also soldiers who fought alongside the Maori Battalion, economists running our Reserve Bank (Governor Adrian Orr is a Cook Islander), business people, health sector leaders, church leaders and more.
In any week, New Zealand-born Pacific business people connect investors with opportunities across the Pacific. It’s a ‘win-win’ relationship.
Those who travel these ‘corridors’ of co-operation do not feel less Tongan if they are New Zealandborn Tongan. A Samoan-born New Zealander does not feel less Samoan. Both islands are home.
New Zealand NGOs are also modelling a different kind of relationship. Increasingly, our NGOs don’t see ourselves as ‘doing aid’ to others, but building up locals to run their own programmes.
For example, Trade Aid supports local producers globally in developing countries to scale up, meet bio-security standards and find buyers in New Zealand. They have plans for a ‘plant to the plate’ system in the Pacific, sourcing products from multiple small producers and connecting them to retail outlets in New Zealand.
We don’t give aid only for what New Zealand ‘gets out of it.’ We help because we are good global citizens, and we help in the Pacific especially because of our family ties.
It’s understandable that people think that our aid is just about the money. When the PM flies in and announces a grant for a new project, that gets the headlines.
But while the money is important, we need to make changes — to co-ordinate better, devolve more decisions and create mutual relationships.
Over 30 New Zealand government organisations are active in the Pacific, dozens of non-government organisations, and multiple New Zealand businesses in construction, engineering and much more.
Re-setting our relationship needs better mapping of what everyone is doing so that all these actors know more about each other.
Ultimately I wonder if we will see a Pacific Union, modelled on Europe, where labour and capital move more easily from country to country.
In the spirit of reciprocity, Pacific states could commit to standards, just as countries wanting to join the European Union have to prove their commitment to democracy.
China’s increased Pacific presence provides urgency. There is no better way to balance China’s influence than our ability to promote mutual accountability and an economically independent Pacific.
New Zealand NGOs recognise this growing independence. We are still needed, but we know our role is changing.
The old way of doing aid talked about the Pacific as victims, as if we were trying to save the Yellow-Eyed Penguin.
Pacific communities have moved on, and governments need to re-set the relationship to catch up.
❚ Josie Pagani is Director of Council for International Development (the umbrella organisation for New Zealand’s international NGOs). Josie was on the recent PM’s Pacific Mission to Niue, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands.