IB2014/25 Alternative Development Paradigms in Vanuatu and Beyond

Vanuatu held a week-long public forum in June 2014 as a step towards creating its National Sustainable Development Plan 20162030 (NSPD). The development of the NSPD reflects a shift in development thinking away from the heavy emphasis on economic growth that dominates the current development framework the Priorities and Action Agenda 20062015 (PAA). The PAA in turn follows the spirit of the economic restructuring initiated by the Asian Development Banksponsored Comprehensive Reform Program (CRP) of the late 1990s (Gay 2004). This In Brief discusses the ongoing development of the NSPD and positions it within a number of similar regional and global developments. It suggests that a number of Pacific islands seem poised to engage in some bold new experiments in building home-grown development frameworks rooted in their own unique cultural values and geographical context. This in turn should signal to development partners a real need to engage in conversations about alternative development pathways in the Pacific islands and take seriously the emerging critiques of the problems occasioned by a previous narrow neoliberal economic focus.