“A Transformative & Resilient Pasifiki: Build Better Now”

“With our unique vulnerabilities – we must build resilience into everything that we do: how we address the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, how we build our economies, how we build the capacity of our people through innovation and technology, and in how we address our continued health challenges by working together.”

Hon. Hu’akavameiliku, Prime Minister of Tonga, 10 April 2024 

The Pacific region continue to face unprecedented challenges – from climate change impacts, to ocean and environmental degradation, to transnational crime, to slow economic growth, to global inflation, to growing poverty and lagging development indicators, including in the key sectors of education and health – all of which take place amidst continued geopolitical competition in the region.  

Having experienced COVID-19 followed by the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai volcanic eruption on top of the many development challenges faced by the region, Tonga understands first-hand the importance of building resilience at all levels – community, national and regional.

In this context, Tonga has prioritised resilient design in all its planning and work – placing the marginalised and vulnerable communities at the centre.

Leaders have endorsed the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and its Implementation Plan which is underpinned by our collective commitment to a resilient Pacific.

These transformational documents articulate the region’s approach to working together to build resilience – particularly, through the Resilience and Wellbeing Strategic Pathway of the 2050 Strategy, which ‘underlines the importance of continuing to strengthen the capacity of the Pacific, her peoples, communities and nations to respond effectively in times of adversity, including in relation to the environment, while building and sustaining free, healthy and productive livelihoods’.