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    Development in a world of disorder : tourism, COVID-19 and the adaptivity of South Pacific people
    (Institute of Development Studies, Massey University, 2020) Scheyvens, Regina; Movono, Apisalome; Strickland, Danita; Bibi, Patricia; Tasere, Apakuki; Hills, Georgie; Rihai, Norah; Teama, Fiona
    This research about the impacts of economic slowdown caused by COVID-19 on the wellbeing of tourism-dependent communities in the Pacific emerged from concerns shared by Dr Apisalome Movono and Professor Regina Scheyvens – tourism and development researchers in the Institute of Development Studies at Massey University. Both scholars had previously researched how tourism could contribute to sustainable development of communities in the Pacific and they felt compelled to now examine COVID-19’s effects on people who were highly reliant on tourism income. By Easter 2020, most international flights to the region had ceased and tens of thousands of tourism sector jobs were threatened. Anecdotally, the researchers had heard that some people were adapting quite well to life without international tourists by growing their own food and bartering, for example, but they were also aware of others who were really struggling. They thus started to design a research project that would allow them to understand the complex realities of the impacts of the pandemic on those people whose livelihoods were largely based on tourism, and how they were adapting. The focus was on communities in tourism-dependent areas, as other entities in the region were already running separate surveys on businesses impacted by the slowdown.
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    Participation in practice: Participation, consensus and cooperation in the achievement of economic reform in the Cook Islands
    (2009-07-16T22:17:43Z) Barcham, Manuhuia
    Like many other South Pacific countries the Cook Islands underwent a period of enforced restructuring in the mid-1990s. Yet, unlike many other South Pacific countries, the Cook Islands achieved a considerable degree of success. Field research shows that the success of the reform program in the Cook Islands depended not so much on the actual reform program itself as it did on the way in which reform process unfolded. Given the recent movement by the World Bank towards more participatory approaches to country-level development planning and reform, it seems an opportune time to explore how participatory approaches can actually lead to successful reform outcomes at the country-level. The key to the success of the economic reform program in the Cook Islands can be traced back to three inter-related factors: participation, consensus and cooperation. Combined, all three factors help create a virtuous circle which acted to positively reinforce the ongoing planning and implementation of a reform program. The paper ends by arguing that the key to the success of the Cook Islands reform program was its ongoing participatory nature in both the planning and implementation stage. The World Bank and other multi-lateral institutions would do well to take this lesson onboard.