Client: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)

Background:

In Pacific Island nations, high levels of interpersonal violence, homicide rates, and violence against women pose considerable challenges. Political instability and state fragility in the region can lead to armed conflict, setting back development outcomes. However, there is a lack of clear and accurate data to measure progress on Goal 16 indicators. The project aims to address this gap by capturing data on peace in Pacific Island nations, enhancing internal capacity to measure and track progress in Goal 16. The focus on capacity building aims to establish locally owned ability, fostering domestic awareness of the SDGs and supporting broader policy efforts for their achievement. The ultimate goal is to ensure that Pacific Island nations have adequate measures of Goal 16 and other SDGs by 2030.

Solution:

• Develop baseline data and empirical findings on progress in peace and Goal 16 for Pacific Island nations by the end of 2018.
• Understand the typologies and key forms of violence in the Pacific and how they increase fragility and interrupt progress in other development outcomes.  
• Inform evidence-based policy on addressing key forms of violence in the region, including and not limited to, political violence, violence against women and organised criminal violence.   
• Identify priorities for data collection among Pacific Island nations.  
• Build the local statistical capacity to measure Goal 16 on an ongoing basis and the capacity to communicate the meaning of the data.  

Outcomes:

Collected data in several Pacific Island countries. Travelled throughout the region to advocate and build capacity for measuring peace. Developed statistical measures of peace, understand its economic costs, and conduct descriptive analysis. Created a report examining why SDG16 has particular importance across the Pacific with current and emerging challenges to human security. Discussed opportunities for the Pacific on how the region can continue being proactive in contextualising international measures for the Pacific context, as well as engage in innovative data collections. Also, discusses applications of SDG16 Data in the Pacific.