2012 Update Committing to Reform to achieve a “Just, Educated, Healthy and Wealthy Vanuatu”

This update of the Priorities and Action Agenda 2006 – 2015 (PAA 2006) is based on a thorough review of progress in implementing the PAA policies since 2006. The review took place during 2010 and 2012 and was conducted by Government officials in consultation with stakeholders and with assistance from the United Nations. Progress since 2006 has been solid in many areas, but in some areas we are falling behind and have lost the momentum for reform. The review found that service delivery had not improved in some areas and that it has only been slowly improving in many areas. More effort will be needed to secure political stability and to improve public sector performance. As also identified in the recently concluded Pacific Forum Cairns Compact Peer Review of Vanuatu’s planning, budgeting and aid management processes, there are many improvements that can be made to better focus our efforts on key priorities. Since 2006 when implementation of the PAA commenced, there have been new developments and challenges. Our environment is getting more vulnerable as the impacts of climate change increase. Our population is steadily rising and nearly 60 percent are under 26 and many are currently unemployed in our growing urban centres. Gender equality has had minimum progressed. We also need to focus more attention on the issues of Governance which when resolved will pave way for the delivery of services in the other sectors. As such the National Vision has been revised to include ‘Just’ so that it will read “A Just, Educated, Healthy and Wealthy Vanuatu. Many of the new challenges were identified in the ‘Planning Long Acting Short’ (PLAS) document which outlined Government’s key policy priorities for the 2009 to 2012 period. Government is committed to achieving the amended national vision of ‘a just, educated, healthy and wealthy Vanuatu’ and for this, we need to sustain and broaden economic growth. We also need to closely monitor policy implementation to make sure we are on track. The main section of this PAA review is a PAA Action Plan for 2013 to 2015 which states the policy objectives and strategies for each policy area. This Action Plan will be used to monitor progress in implementing the PAA Strategies for the next three years.