We believe it is important to have
concrete, large-scale targets that would
make a meaningful change in the lives
of Pacific children. In most instances,
our recommendations build on existing
programmes and call for them to be scaled
up. Many good policies are already in place,
but they are too small-scale to benefit a
meaningful number of our children. Without
ambitious targets, we will tend to have small,
piecemeal ‘solutions’.
We have purposely sought to identify existing
policies that can be expanded and improved
because we recognise that is a more realistic
and quickly implementable path than asking
government agencies and community
groups to jump into untested solutions. The
key is scale and ambition. Programmes now
are producing good results but only for the
small numbers of Pacific children and their
families who are accessing them. We need to
think bigger.
These targets and recommendations are not
about making a difference in some Pacific
children’s lives. They are about making a
difference in all Pacific children’s lives.
One criticism of reports like this is the
recommendations can be general and vague.
We want to lay out specific actions that
government, corporates, and community
organisations can undertake to deliver on
our targets and achieve meaningful change.
We are able to do this thanks to the excellent
work of previous reports that have examined
options, collected statistics, and created
strategies, as well as the political leaders,
agencies, and community providers who
have trailblazed to develop policy solutions.
Naturally, these targets cannot cover every
aspect of our children’s lives. We have
restricted them to material changes in
housing, incomes, health and education. (From the Executive summary). Record #8146