Solomon Islands

Over two years of civil unrest have left Solomon Island’s economy in devastation and governmental services to decline. It has a population just over 554,000 people, but recent data has not been collected about the exact population under poverty level. The country does remain one of the world’s poorest countries, despite limited data.

*If anyone has further information regarding Solomon Island’s poverty, please contact us. It would be of great help.

Solomon Islands is a multiparty parliamentary democracy and executive authority is vested in the prime minister. The majority vote of Parliament elects the prime minister for the country. According to the U.S Department of State, the Solomon Islands government generally respects its citizens human rights, but a number of problems have occured in areas such as: lengthy pretrial detention, government corruption, and violence and discrimination against women.

Current and former government officials have been charged of corruption- related offenses, but denied all accusations.

Women are the backbone in creating and maintaining community peace, but this male-dominated country have prevented women from attaining full equality. They are affected by the conflict through displacement, vulnerability to rape and harassment, and economic hardship. Despite discrimination against the women of Solomon Islands, women negotiators have become the traditional go-between role, a method of conflict resolution on the country.

Ethnic violence also remains a problem in the islands. Years of civil war have continued between the different ethnic groups in the country and the government has remained passive towards this issue.

Although there have only been six detected cases of the AIDS epidemic in Solomon Islands, there is a great possibility that others have been infected. The country has a high sexually active and mobile population, which may potentially surface more transmitted disease cases. Due to years of civil conflict and poverty levels, many children are being prostituted by their families, which have become the dependent source of income.

Malaria is the nation’s highest cause of death. Although there are anti-malarial pills, they are not available to the locals. They also do not have long clothing to wear or bed nets to prevent from being bitten by the mosquitoes. Also, the health services needed are too costly for the country to afford.

Tuberculosis is another prominent problem in Soloman Islands. The government lacks the ability to maintain health services for the country which is why many minor health problems become so severe. For every 1,000 live births, 67 of those babies will die before their first birthday. Diarrhea, malaria, pre-natal complications, and acute respiratory infections are the leading causes of death for children under five years old.

Solomon Islands is one of the countries part of the environmental vulnerability index, which is an indicator-based method for estimating the vulnerability of the environment to hazards. Due to limited data, the country was ranked 162 to be environmentally hazardous, out of the 235 countries.

But deforestation and soil erosion are becoming a huge threat the Solomon Islands tropical climate and water-life. Drastic increase in logging is a great risk which could decimate the country’s forests within the next decade. Also, much of the coral reefs surrounding the islands either dead or on the verge of dying due to the pressures of rapid economic and social growth. Because the country lacks stability, these exploitations are leaving severe local environmental problems affecting their traditional livelihood sources.

Among other things, Solomon Islands increasing growth rates and migration to urban areas are building pressure on the country’s infrastructure and swelling the demand for water, sanitation, housing, education, and health services.

Not only is Solomon Islands one of the poorest countries, but even basic education is hard to attain. The education and literacy rate in Solomon Island remain low because access to primary and secondary schooling is limited. Some communities in the islands have absolutely no access to education. Only 20 percent of the children in the country have retained primary education- the lowest rate in the Pacific. Most students are released from educational services after 6 years, while only 4 percent make it to year 12. Education services and facilities are in great deficiency. About 20 percent of teachers are untrained and school buildings are run-down and deteriorating.

The country’s functional adult literacy is lower than 25 percent. Because of low education and literacy rates, fishing and agriculture continue to remain their prime source of living, but this is also a defect for the country because it prevents economic growth and investment.

The New Zealand government’s international aid and development agency, NZAID, is funding $11 million to help Solomon Islands increase their educational program in addition to the Solomon Island government’s contribution of 22 percent of the country’s total budget. The funding will go towards paying teacher salaries, providing basic teaching materials, and updating the educational curriculum.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies- Red Cross Red Crescent promotes individual and community humanitarian values which encourage respect for other human beings and a willingness to work together to find solutions to problems. From the seven fundamental principles to the "power of humanity" slogan, the aim is to influence the behavior of the people we work with.

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