Five Out of Ten: A Performance Report on RAMSI

Five Out of Ten: A Performance Report on RAMSI

The Solomon Islands is stagnating despite thirty years of aid flows of hundreds of millions of dollars, innumerable consultants’ reports and development pledges.

This year will mark the fifth anniversary since RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands) forces landed in the Solomon Islands. Australian Defence Forces efforts have been successful in returning civil stability. But these security gains will not last if the underlying economic stagnation that caused unrest in the Solomon Islands is not addressed.

In a report being released by the Centre for Independent Studies today, Policy Analyst Gaurav Sodhi asks whether RAMSI’s task has been achieved and what is left to be done to prevent the Solomon Islands from becoming the Pacific’s first failed state.

Sodhi says “the Solomon Islands is better off with the involvement of RAMSI, but it must address the real constraints to development. RAMSI has no exit strategy; its mission is only half complete.”

“Over 85% of the Solomon Islands population is dependent on subsistence agriculture. The public service makes up most of the formal economy.  Over the past thirty years since independence, no development progress has occurred in the areas of land tenure, infrastructure and education” says Sodhi.

Under RAMSI’s watch, the Solomon Islands government has been resurrected, not reformed.

“The Solomon Islands is among the highest per capita aid recipients in the world. Yet despite the high volume of aid flows, and perhaps even because of them, the economy of the Solomon Islands has stagnated.”

“Aid has not improved governance.  It has not empowered villagers nor built roads, schools or hospitals. Recommendations for ‘capacity building’ and ‘empowerment’ have been futile.”

If words were a substitute for action, the Solomon Islands would be rich.

“Unemployment and underemployment threaten the sustainability of improved peace and security. The streets of Honiara are filled with unemployed youth with nothing to do. It is only a matter of time before frustrations from joblessness and boredom break out in another spurt of violence.”

Gaurav Sodhi is a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Independent Studies.
He is available for interview.

The report Five Out of Ten: A Performance Report on RAMSI is available online at https://www.cis.org.au/issue_analysis/IA92/ia92.pdf

All media enquiries:

Leonie Phillips

Ph: 02 9438 4377
Mob: 0403 063 852
Email: