Pacific islands need to do their homework — in the form of studies and surveys — so government decision makers have relevant information on which to base decisions, particularly as the cost of emergency responses rises, writes Giff Johnson.

The critical issue facing Tonga is that while King George I gave the nobles he appointed large estates to be redistributed to the people, the nobles are leasing out large quantities of their land for millions of dollars, while a lot of their people are without land, writes Kalafi Moala.

A state owned enterprise in the Marshall Islands, the government’s national utility company, offers an example of how a government agency can improve performance, offering a roadmap for other SOEs and government policymakers, writes Giff Johnson.