NZ Prime Minister Ardern urges stronger Pacific voices

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (garland middle) with government representatives, and staff and students of USP. Picture: EPELI LALAGAVESI/WANSOLWARA

By IAN CHUTE

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has encouraged staff and students of The University of the South Pacific (USP) to use their Pacific values and voices to eliminate the injustices of society.

Ms Ardern made a four-day state visit to Fiji last week and used the occasion to deliver an awe-inspiring speech at USP’s Laucala campus on Wednesday February 26.

She took a strong stand against discrimination and bullying, echoed the need to empower youth voices on the issue of human rights and climate change, and urged those in attendance to design systems and strategies to address those issues.

“Too often we think about empowerment in our systems as being at the point where you can vote. It is almost the least of the options that we have to empower our people,” she said when answering a question on youth inclusive policies and mechanisms.

Highlighting a change in New Zealand’s Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy, Ms Ardern said they wanted New Zealand to be the best place in the world to be a child.

“In New Zealand, we would ask a child what would make a difference to them. When we prepared that strategy, we prepared postcards that we took out to schools around the country and we had young people fill them, what would you like to tell the Prime Minister that you think would make New Zealand better for you?” she said.

She said children and youth voices must be heard at all levels and commended Pacific youth voices that echoed strong sentiments at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders’ summit in Tuvalu last year.

“Your voice does come through quite strongly at a Pacific level. At the last Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting, two young people presented to leaders in Tuvalu, and they spoke so powerfully about the impact of climate change on the community that they were brought up in, and brought the then Prime Minister of Tonga to tears, and he ( ‘Akilisi Pohiva ) said he wished he had done more on the issue of climate change,” Ms Ardern said.

Responding to a question on by a USP social science student on strategies to ensure global funding was not just centered on climate change and neglecting human rights and social justice issues, the NZ Prime Minister said those could not be mutually exclusive issues.

“So I can’t say at global level we are seeing a reduction in some of the international donor support

But she noted that New Zealand continue its support focusing on climate adaptation and mitigation.

The trip was Ms Ardern’s first official visit to Fiji.

*Ian Chute is a second-year journalism student at The University of the South Pacific’s Laucala campus.