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© 2025 Island Innovation. All rights reserved.

    News

    Curated stories and analysis from islands and sustainability leaders worldwide.

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    Showing 9 of 258 news items in Policy & Governance
    Partnerships between midwives from Australia and Papua New Guinea help to improve infant and maternal outcomes
    Policy & GovernanceJuly 1, 2025

    Partnerships between midwives from Australia and Papua New Guinea help to improve infant and maternal outcomes

    Image source: [International Confederation of Midwives](https://internationalmidwives.org/wp-content/uploads/20250408_PG_015-750x500.jpg) Although they are close neighbours, the experience of pregnancy and birth for women in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is vastly different from Australia.  In PNG there are numerous barriers to accessing quality maternity care and this results in a high rate of preventable maternal and neonatal deaths. In April this year, seven Australian midwives visited PNG to collaborate with local midwives as part of the PNG Midwifery Leadership Buddy Program (Buddy Program). The aim of the program is to build leadership skills so that midwives have the confidence to drive initiatives that will result in better health outcomes. The Buddy Program is funded and managed by the Rotary Club of Morialta (South Australia) and The Rotary Club of Port Moresby (PNG), in partnership with PNG Midwifery Society and the Australian College of Midwives.

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    Who will finance global climate solutions? Not the West
    Policy & GovernanceJune 24, 2025

    Who will finance global climate solutions? Not the West

    Image credit: Wagner Meier / Getty Images via [Grist](https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/GettyImages-2185449733.jpg?quality=75&strip=all) International climate action has long rested on the consequential distinction between the Global North and the Global South. Wealthier, earlier-to-industrialize nations contributed the most to a warming planet while developing countries bear the brunt of the climate crisis. As a result, developed countries have been called on to help developing nations reduce their carbon emissions and adapt to climate change by providing financial assistance, technology, and other resources. This essential premise has been embedded in various climate agreements signed since the 1990s, including the most recent pact inked at the 29th Conference of Parties, or COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, late last year. There, wealthy countries agreed to provide $300 billion per year to developing nations by 2035.

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    Reframing the French Indo-Pacific: The French Southern and Antarctic Lands
    Policy & GovernanceJune 24, 2025

    Reframing the French Indo-Pacific: The French Southern and Antarctic Lands

    As Emmanuel Macron wrapped up his visits to Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore – where he delivered the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue at the end of May – the French president reaffirmed the Indo-Pacific’s strategic importance for both France and Europe. In a context of growing geopolitical uncertainty and renewed unilateralism, Macron emphasized France’s commitment to a stable, multipolar order grounded in international law, freedom of navigation, and inclusive multilateralism – an international posture shared with key partners such as India, Japan, and ASEAN. Building on this common strategic vision, and as the only remaining European Union (EU) member state with sovereign territories in the Indo-Pacific, France seeks to position its diplomacy not only as a national actor but also as a standard-bearer for European engagement in the region. The exercise of sovereignty is precisely what underpins France’s specificity and credibility as a resident power. The French Indo-Pacific overseas collectivities (FIPOCs) – La Réunion, Mayotte, les TAAF (or South Antarctic Lands), New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, French Polynesia, and Clipperton – which together have a population of 1.65 million inhabitants, play a central role in the construction and elaboration of a [credible strategy.](https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/en_dcp_a4_indopacifique_022022_v1-4_web_cle878143.pdf)

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    UN experts say Mauritius-UK deal fails to guarantee rights of Chagossians
    Policy & GovernanceJune 16, 2025

    UN experts say Mauritius-UK deal fails to guarantee rights of Chagossians

    UN experts on Tuesday called for the suspension of a recently signed agreement between the UK and Mauritius, warning that it fails to safeguard the rights of the displaced Chagossian people. The bilateral deal, signed on May 22, transfers sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia, to Mauritius, marking a formal step toward completing the country’s decolonization. But UN experts said the agreement lacks guarantees for the Chagossians’ right to return, effective remedy, and cultural protections. “By maintaining a foreign military presence of the United Kingdom and the United States on Diego Garcia and preventing the Chagossian people from returning… the agreement appears to be at variance with the Chagossians’ right to return,” the experts said in a statement. They also questioned whether the proposed £40 million (over $54 million) Trust Fund would meet standards for “effective remedy and adequate, effective, and prompt reparation,” as the agreement currently omits restitution, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition. The experts criticized the absence of provisions enabling access to cultural sites or safeguarding the Chagossians’ heritage. They urged both governments to renegotiate the deal, saying: “We call for the ratification of the agreement to be suspended and for a new agreement to be negotiated that fully guarantees the rights of the Chagossian people.”

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    Tyler Oroanu is set to amplify young voices in New Zealand Youth Parliament
    Policy & GovernanceJune 16, 2025

    Tyler Oroanu is set to amplify young voices in New Zealand Youth Parliament

    Photo: Supplied via PMN ([pmn.co.nz](https://pmn.co.nz)) In less than a month, over 150 young people from across New Zealand will gather in Wellington for Youth Parliament, and Tyler Oroanu will be among them. He will represent Labour MP Jenny Salesa at the two-day event in Parliament. Speaking on Pacific Mornings, Oroanu shares that his passion for politics developed during the Covid-19 lockdown. “I’ve always been like an eternal politics nerd,” Oroanu says. “There were quite a few people encouraging me to put my hand up when applications came around for Youth Parliament. I wasn’t convinced I was going to get it.” Oroanu is driven to represent the voices of young people, particularly Pacific youth from his home community of Panmure-Ōtāhuhu. “My opinion has always been that if I’m not going to do it, I don’t know who else will.”

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    French Senate to vote on post-cyclone ‘refoundation’ bill for Mayotte
    Policy & GovernanceJune 3, 2025

    French Senate to vote on post-cyclone ‘refoundation’ bill for Mayotte

    The French Senate is poised to approve a landmark bill aimed at revitalising the overseas department of Mayotte, signalling a renewed commitment to a region grappling with multiple crises. The draft programme bill, which sets out nearly €4 billion in state investment over the next seven years, marks what the government calls an “historic step” in the reconstruction and future development of the Indian Ocean archipelago. More than five months after Cyclone Chido [wreaked havoc on Mayotte](https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20241223-day-of-mourning-in-france-for-mayotte-destroyed-by-cyclone), the government is seeking to rebuild not just infrastructure, but trust and hope. Located between the Comoros and Madagascar, Mayotte is France’s 101st department and its poorest. The bill being discussed tackles [wide-ranging issues](https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20241231-french-pm-bayrou-unveils-mayotte-standing-reconstruction-plan) from healthcare and education to housing, security, and migration.

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    Changing legal obligations on climate action
    Policy & GovernanceJune 3, 2025

    Changing legal obligations on climate action

    **Photo Source:** Image via [Islands Business](https://islandsbusiness.com/news-break/changing-legal-obligations-on-climate-action/) – all rights and credits belong to the original publisher. Pacific Small Island Developing States and other developing nations are mobilising to call for new international legal norms, to ensure that industrialised nations meet their obligations on climate, development and oceans protection. As governments gather in France for this month’s [UN Conference on the Ocean](https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/ocean2025), Vanuatu and other PSIDS have been seeking international court rulings on the responsibility of states for climate action. From 2021, Vanuatu led an international campaign calling on the UN General Assembly to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on climate change and human rights. In March 2023, the General Assembly formally asked the ICJ – the world’s highest court in The Hague, Netherlands – to clarify states’ obligations around climate change and the consequences of breaching these obligations. Laat year, the court received submissions from nearly 100 governments and international organisations, then held hearings and arguments over two weeks in December. The ICJ judges are now considering their ruling, which will be released this year – possibly in coming months.

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    African islands under threat: what to do about Trump’s withdrawal from climate change agreement
    Policy & GovernanceMay 26, 2025

    African islands under threat: what to do about Trump’s withdrawal from climate change agreement

    President Donald Trump’s [executive order withdrawing](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/putting-america-first-in-international-environmental-agreements/) the US from the [Paris Agreement](https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreement) raises the question of the implications for small African Indian Ocean island states. The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It entered into [force](https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:%7E:text=The%20Paris%20Agreement%20is%20a,force%20on%204%20November%202016.) in November 2016 and aims to limit global temperature rises below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. The executive order, “[Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/putting-america-first-in-international-environmental-agreements/)”, signifies the intention of the US to withdraw from this agreement.

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    UN court backs Equatorial Guinea in Gabon dispute over islands in oil-rich waters
    Policy & GovernanceMay 26, 2025

    UN court backs Equatorial Guinea in Gabon dispute over islands in oil-rich waters

    The United Nation’s top court has sided with Equatorial Guinea in a row with Gabon over three islands in potentially oil-rich waters. The two Central African countries have been arguing over the isles – Conga, Mbanié and Cocoteros – since the early 1970s. The islands are virtually uninhabited but are in a maritime zone thought to contain significant oil deposits. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Equatorial Guinea’s claim – based on a 1900 treaty dividing up French and Spanish colonial assets – should be honoured. The court dismissed Gabon’s central argument – that a more recent treaty, the 1974 Bata convention, had switched the islands’ sovereignty in its favour. In a final and binding ruling, the ICJ said Conga, Mbanié and Cocoteros were held by Spain, and then passed to its former colony Equatorial Guinea at independence in 1968.

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