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Farmers cultivate steep hillside plantations of taro and bananas. Fishing communities pull tuna and marlin from the blue depths of the Pacific Ocean. Households tend mile after mile of neatly trimmed roadside gardens. Samoa’s beautiful natural environment also offers a striking setting for a rich and complex culture. Communities headed by traditional leaders, the matai, meet regularly in fale, the open-sided houses, to reach communal decisions. And on Sundays the roads are flooded with families dressed in dazzling white clothes flocking to hundreds of churches.

The Pacific Strategy for the New Millennium1 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) focuses on the core objectives of (i) continuing support for economic growth, good governance, and public sector reform; (ii) promoting private sector development as the engine for growth; and (iii) supporting sustainable environmental management and equitable social development. A new regional strategy is being prepared for ADB operations in the Pacific, which will focus on the priority needs of the poor, as defined by an extensive program of qualitative and quantitative poverty assessment, based on listening to the voices of those in hardship or poverty. The new strategy will focus on improving access to basic services and creating employment opportunities. As the Government is beginning preparation of its Strategic Development Plan 8 (SDP8) for 2005-2007, it is timely to review ADB’s strategy and program for Tonga.

This document outlines the new programme-based approach that has been adopted for the SPREP Secretariat. This new approach to regional delivery is both more innovative and strategic than the project-based approach previously practiced. It provides clear, measurable indicators of the progress and impact of the Secretariat’s work in the region. This is an important element of the Secretariat’s efforts to encourage long-term collaboration with existing and new partners.

The purpose of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Pacific Strategy 2005-2009 is to provide a framework for ADB operations in its 14 Pacific developing member countries (PDMCs)1 and for ADB support to regional cooperation in the Pacific. This third ADB Pacific Strategy will allow ADB's Pacific Department (PARD) to better focus its activities, deepen its experience and expertise in key result areas (KRAs), and align resources to strategy objectives, in order to maximize the impact of ADB support to the development efforts of the PDMCs.

ADB's strategy for Tonga supports the Government's development goals. The focus of assistance in 2005-2006 will be (i) continuing assistance to the Government's reform program to enhance sound economic and public sector management; (ii) addressing the emerging deterioration in some social indicators through targeted interventions that promote inclusive social development; and (iii) improving the enabling environment for private sector development. The key projects for the period under consideration will be (i) assistance to develop a new strategic development plan for Tonga, linked to a multi-year fiscal framework and an annual resource allocation process; (ii) continued support for public enterprise reforms, especially the privatization of selected public enterprises; (iii) addressing youth unemployment and associated social problems; (iv) improving basic infrastructure for drainage and sanitation in selected areas in the capital, Nuku'alofa; and (v) agriculture sector development through an enhanced policy environment and development of small and medium agriculture-based enterprises.

In 2004, the Government of Tonga reaffirmed its commitment to achieving the development objective of improving living standards, set out in the Strategic Development Plan 7 (SDP7) for 2001-2003. Throughout that period, the Government focused on implementation of the Economic and Public Sector Reform Program (EPSRP), which aims at maintaining a stable macroeconomic environment and achieving sustainable economic growth, led by private sector development and supported by an efficient and effective public sector. Through SDP7, the Government plans to achieve social and economic objectives of individual fulfillment, gender equity, political stability, and a stable economic and financial environment.

The Pacific Strategy for the New Millennium1 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) focuses on the core objectives of (i) continuing support for economic growth, good governance, and public sector reform; (ii) promoting private sector development as the engine for growth; and (iii) supporting sustainable environmental management and equitable social development. A new regional strategy is being prepared for ADB operations in the Pacific, which will focus on the priority needs of the poor, as defined by an extensive program of qualitative and quantitative poverty assessment, based on listening to the voices of those in hardship or poverty. The new strategy will focus on improving access to basic services and creating employment opportunities. As the Government is beginning preparation of its Strategic Development Plan 8 (SDP8) for 2005-2007, it is timely to review ADB’s strategy and program for Tonga.

ADB's strategy for Tonga supports the Government's development goals. The focus of assistance in 2005-2006 will be (i) continuing assistance to the Government's reform program to enhance sound economic and public sector management; (ii) addressing the emerging deterioration in some social indicators through targeted interventions that promote inclusive social development; and (iii) improving the enabling environment for private sector development. The key projects for the period under consideration will be (i) assistance to develop a new strategic development plan for Tonga, linked to a multi-year fiscal framework and an annual resource allocation process; (ii) continued support for public enterprise reforms, especially the privatization of selected public enterprises; (iii) addressing youth unemployment and associated social problems; (iv) improving basic infrastructure for drainage and sanitation in selected areas in the capital, Nuku alofa; and (v) agriculture sector development through an enhanced policy environment and development of small and medium agriculture-based enterprises.

The economic and cultural patterns of Pacific countries have evolved in a manner that places a strong dependence upon the health of their natural environments. Most Pacific countries are characterized by small island masses dispersed over the world's largest ocean. Many of their diverse landscapes and seascapes are unique, but due to geographic isolation and often extremely limited land and freshwater resources they are naturally fragile and vulnerable to change. This is further complicated by the fact that the region is prone to a wide range of natural disasters such as volcanic activities and cyclones, and must face the potentially devastating consequences of an increased of frequency of extreme climatic events coupled with sea-level rise resulting from global climate change.

Conservation can best be achieved when conservation values are part of the mainstream of society, when they “become part of everyone’s decisions” including government, private enterprise and the community as a whole. This was recognized by the more than 320 participants from Pacific island governments, Pacific and international organizations and community groups when they met in Rarotonga, Cook Islands in July 2002 for the 7th Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas