Social Equity in the Pacific Islands

Abstract

This chapter 1 presents a broad overview of the concept and practice of social equity in Pacific Island countries. Although the region contains considerable diversity of peoples and cultures, and histories and socioeconomic contexts, there are nonetheless some common features, including their status as small island developing states, of which approximately half are now independent following a period in which most were colonized for greater or lesser periods between the sixteenth and twenty-first centuries. Although the chapter focuses on social equity issues in the independent Pacific Island states in their post-independence years, the colonial experience-together with the cultural patterns that have shaped their systems of government both in the past and the present-is the essential background to understanding contemporary approaches to social equity. Colonized societies lacked control over government and control over decisions about production of public goods associated with public authority. Personal rights and freedoms were assigned on the basis of race, and colonial authorities gave minimal attention to human development, such that these countries came to independence with few educated citizens.