When President Obama declared in his Cairo speech last year “Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments, community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life,” a new sense of optimism charged those dedicated to building bridges between the two communities.

In direct response to President Obama’s call for greater engagement and his Global Engagement Initiative in which the United States has committed to work with Muslim-majority countries to advance democracy and development, USAID and The Asia Foundation convened a regional conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 21-24 that attracted nearly 70 religious and traditional leaders from 14 countries to candidly exchange views and ideas on the critical role that “leaders of influence” play in promoting positive change in their communities and the power they have to affect national development.
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The Pacific Islands each have a unique culture but share a common uniting factor – geography has dictated the islands as one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. According to a U.S. Department of State Travel Alert, the South Pacific region experiences approximately nine tropical cyclones each season, about half of which reach Category 3 intensity or above and have the potential to cause severe destruction. Such fate leaves the region’s inhabitants vulnerable to cyclones, tsunamis, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions each season, including economic losses which in the 1990s alone cost the Pacific region $2.8 billion in real 2004 value.

To help build regional government capacity to prepare and mitigate the lasting effects of such disasters, The Asia Foundation, with support from the USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, has been implementing disaster trainings in the Pacific since 1995. Recently, USAID published two success stories highlighting the effectiveness of the programs. Read the full stories here and here.

By Kathryn Hawley

Its clear blue waters, lush greenery, and sunny skies provide a tranquil setting for daily life in the many islands of the South Pacific. However, this natural beauty can be deceiving – the Pacific Island Nations are prone to some of the world’s worst natural hazards – cyclones, tsunamis, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

I first received reports that a magnitude 8.3 earthquake had struck the region of the Samoa Islands on the morning of Tuesday, September 29, when I got  an early call from a colleague in Washington, D.C. For this small island nation with an estimated population of 158,000, the earthquake had triggered a tsunami that killed 142 people, with others still missing. The Samoan Red Cross estimates that 3,500 people are under temporary shelter, with many others staying with relatives. The Samoan government’s current estimate of damage to infrastructure, public, and private properties is around $142 million.
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By Rosita MacDonald

Rosita MacDonald is a Program Officer in the The Asia Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment Program. She can be reached at rmacdonald@asiafound-dc.org.

Some may be surprised to discover that Pacific Island nations are leading the way in the international movement to recruit more female police officers in hopes of redressing  violence against women, improving women’s access to justice, and enhancing general safety and security for the entire population.

According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2007 study of Law Enforcement Employees in the United States, women represent just 11.4 percent of the police force in America. At the same time, 35 percent of Fiji’s police force are women, according to the International Labour Organization. Other Pacific Island nations are also recruiting greater numbers of women into their forces. Lautoa Faletau, Assistant Police Commander of the Tonga Police Force, reported that women comprise 14 percent of the Solomon Islands force, 15 percent of Samoa’s force, and over 20 percent of the force in Tonga.
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