The World Bank In Pacific Islands

The World Bank’s Pacific Island member countries have a combined population of about 2.3 million people, spread over an area equivalent to 15% of the earth’s surface.

There is great diversity across the Pacific Islands region, from Fiji, which is the largest country of the group (excluding Papua New Guinea) with a population of over 900,000, to Tuvalu and Nauru, with estimated populations of approximately 12,000 each, making them the World Bank Group’s smallest members by population. Kiribati is one of the most remote and geographically dispersed countries in the world, consisting of 33 coral atolls spread over 3.5 million square kilometers of ocean – an area larger than India.

Pacific Island countries have substantial natural resources and extraordinary linguistic and cultural diversity. However, they are physically remote, have small populations spread across many islands, and are some of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters.

As the region recovers from the sharp economic contraction due to the pandemic, many Pacific countries are facing challenges in reinvigorating growth. They remain extremely vulnerable to climate, health, and economic shocks that are driving supply chain shortages and inflation impacts that are stifling growth and creating new development challenges.

Last Updated: Apr 09, 2024

Working in partnership across the region, the World Bank is currently supporting 94 active projects in 12 Pacific Island countries including  Papua New Guinea, totaling US$2.84 billion in commitments through a combination of IBRD and IDA financing, trust funds, and co-financing.

Download Our Work in the Pacific & PNG (2023-24) , the guide to the World Bank’s work across the Pacific. It includes a map of our work across the Pacific, as well as program break-downs by country. (888 kb PDF file)

The World Bank’s work in Fiji and Solomon Islands along with Papua New Guinea is guided by individual country strategies and supported by sub-regional hub offices in Suva for the South Pacific countries of Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu, and Pohnpei, for the North Pacific countries of Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau.

The World Bank’s support to the Pacific has rapidly increased over the past decade with a 50% increase in staff across the Pacific region and a seven-fold increase in World Bank-supported projects since 2014. This work has been driven by significant increases in support through both the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction & Development (IBRD).

The World Bank’s work in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea is also supported by the Australian and New Zealand governments, through the PNG and the Pacific Islands Umbrella Facility (PPIUF), which will be in place until at least 2031. It supports World Bank projects across the Pacific through a commitment of AUD109 million (approx. US$72m) from the Australian Government (DFAT) and NZ$33 million (approx. US$20m) from the New Zealand Government (MFAT). These commitments are expected to grow to a combined estimated US$200 million by 2031 as projects grow.

The 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, endorsed by Pacific Islands Forum Leaders, is a strong Pacific-led development strategy for the region, and the World Bank will be supporting the region in translating the Strategy into action. It informs the Bank’s actions in the Pacific, deepening the growing partnership between the World Bank and the Pacific, and leading to direct results for Pacific people.

Focus sectors

In Samoa, where almost 70% of the population are employed in agriculture, the World Bank is working with farmers and fishers to improve livestock, farming, and fishing practices.

Digital development is vital for connecting people, especially in geographically dispersed Pacific Island countries. Through the Pacific Regional Connectivity Program, the Pacific is being connected to faster, cheaper, and more reliable internet, including to outer islands. World Bank support is also strengthening the digital regulatory environment and helping governments deliver digital services.

Access to employment and jobs is critical in many Pacific countries due to high population growth and high unemployment. The Skills and Employment for Tongans Project is supporting the Tongan government to implement a cash transfer program to incentivize families to keep their children in secondary school. In Solomon Islands, the Community Access and Urban Services Enhancement Project is providing job training, employment opportunities, and short-term income for nearly 20,000 people, while building essential community infrastructure.

In the energy sector, the World Bank is working with the governments of the Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands to make electricity supplies more reliable and efficient, and to scale up renewable energy generation. This includes the major Tina River Hydro Development Project in Solomon Islands as well as investments in grid-connected solar.

The sustainable management of the environment and natural resources across the Pacific is vital to the region’s future. The Pacific Islands Regional Oceanscape Program is helping Pacific countries and the regional Forum Fisheries Agency to coordinate sustainable management of tuna fisheries, ensuring that they can sustainably manage their coastal fisheries and critical habitats while maximizing economic returns.

In health, the World Bank is supporting Pacific countries with improved systems for analysis, budgeting, management, and monitoring of health services, with a particular focus on strengthening primary health care. Support to Marshall Islands includes investments in maternal and child health, as well as early childhood stimulation and preschool services. The Samoa Health System Strengthening Program is improving access to health care in rural areas. And in Solomon Islands, World Bank support is improving medical transport systems to ensure there are more boats and vehicles to get people where they need. Similar support in Fiji is helping improve digital connectivity between doctors, nurses, and health centers.

Pacific Island countries are at the forefront of climate change and disasters, and projects across the region are helping to strengthen countries’ fiscal, social, and physical resilience. The Pacific Resilience Program, for example, is helping Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu to build early warning systems, strengthen disaster policies and community resilience, and obtain quick access to finance after a disaster.

Transport is essential to the Pacific Islands region to connect people to markets, schools, hospitals, and families, often over vast distances of ocean. Projects to build the resilience of key roads, bridges, ports and other transport infrastructure in the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu all aim to better connect communities, including those in remote and outer island communities, while protecting infrastructure against the impacts of climate change.

A dedicated aviation program has delivered major reconstruction works to airports and runways in Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu helping to make air travel safer and more efficient across the Pacific. In addition, the World Bank is also helping Fiji to boost tourism opportunities and infrastructure in Vanua Levu, the country’s second largest island, while boosting maritime transport in Fiji through the Fiji Transport Infrastructure Investment Project.

And through Budget Support and Development Policy Operations, Pacific countries are benefiting from global expertise in supporting their economic reform programs that have provided immediate cash disbursements in the event of an emergency, be it climate, health, or natural disaster, as well as helping to drive important reforms to support Pacific countries’ efforts to build more fiscal and economic resilience.

Finally, through analytical reports the World Bank is helping to lay the foundations for Pacific governments to make more informed policy decisions. These include Public Expenditure Reviews, Country Economic Memorandums, Country Private Sector Development Reports and Poverty Assessments, as well as the twice-yearly Pacific Economic Update.

Last Updated: Apr 09, 2024

In Agriculture, the Samoa Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Project has supported crop and livestock farmers to improve their productivity and take advantage of market opportunities. Important achievements of the Samoa project include the importation of new sheep and cattle breeds and the introduction of new fruit and vegetable varieties to boost yields and diversify local diets. The project’s success led to the Samoa Agriculture & Fisheries Productivity and Marketing Project, which also includes a focus on fisheries and other livestock.

To support regional disaster resilience, the World Bank, through the Pacific Resilience Program, has provided extensive disaster response training for government staff and supported the construction of two new Emergency Operations Centers in Tonga. These centers were critical to the immediate response to the January 2022 volcano and tsunami while keeping remote locations in contact with the government and communicating the most critical support needed.

Following this volcano – and subsequent tsunami, the World Bank provided an immediate US$8 million in funding to support Tonga’s most urgent response needs. And in recent years, similar disaster support has been delivered to Pacific countries, including Tuvalu (Cyclone Tino, 2020), Samoa (measles outbreak, 2019), Tonga (Cyclone Harold, 2020) and Vanuatu (Cyclone Harold, 2020 and Cyclones Judy and Kevin, 2023) to help support urgent response and recovery.

Longer-term World Bank support in Tonga has also helped upgrade and reconstruct critical infrastructure across the country, including more than 125 classrooms, two new Emergency Operation Centers and improved early warning systems, in addition to helping to reconstruct key transport infrastructure in Tongatapu and ‘Eua. In Kiribati, a program is working with communities to better prepare them for the impacts of climate change, including building rainwater tanks for remote communities as sea-level rise and drought have left many drinking wells contaminated.

In addition, recent World Bank programs have supported important reforms to help Pacific countries build greater economic and fiscal resilience. This includes important debt and financial management reforms in Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Tonga, as well as support for the establishment of a new Independent Commission Against Corruption in Solomon Islands and expansion of Marine Protected Areas in Fiji.

In Fiji, the World Bank supported the government to prepare a comprehensive assessment of the country’s vulnerability to climate change in 2017, and supported Fiji to issue the first ever Green Bond from a developing country, raising US$50 million for climate resilience in the process.

In Digital development, the Pacific Regional Connectivity Project is reducing the cost and increasing the availability of information and communication technology services needed to support social and economic development in the Pacific. Fiber-optic cables have been connected in Fiji, Samoa, Palau, Tonga and Tuvalu helping to deliver significant improvements in service quality and cost. In Tonga, for example, the first phase of this work increased broadband access from 2% of the population in 2010 to 64% in 2021 and reduced the average retail cost of broadband internet by 97%.

Energy projects are having a considerable impact in the Pacific with a renewable energy project in Solomon Islands delivering 2,400 new electricity connections to low-income families, as well as community infrastructure and microenterprises in both urban and rural areas. In addition, the Tina River Hydropower Project in Solomon Islands, will reduce the country’s near-total reliance on imported fuel. Solomon Islands has some of the highest electricity costs in the world, which is a major roadblock to growth and poverty reduction.

World Bank-funded transport infrastructure continues to improve life across the Pacific including in Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. In Vanuatu, work is underway on critical upgrades to 65 kilometers of road on the island of Espiritu Santo. In Samoa, work on the West Coast Road has connected the capital Apia with the international airport and inter-island port, delivered a new Mali’oli’o Bridge on Savai’i island and the new Moamoa Bridge on Upolu island.

In Solomon Islands, nearly 20,000 Solomon Islanders have undertaken over one million days of work and training through the Community Access and Urban Services Enhancement Project (CAUSE), and its predecessor, the Rapid Employment Project. CAUSE has expanded from the capital, Honiara to other major towns including Auki, Gizo, Noro, and Munda with participants supported through job training, employment opportunities, and short-term income for work to build essential community infrastructure.

Last Updated: Apr 09, 2024