Urban populations in Solomon Islands: women, markets and in/security

Dr Anita LaceyDepartment of Political StudiesUniversity of Aucklanda.lacey@auckland.ac.nz

UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum 5UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum 5Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 22-26 March 2010Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 22-26 March 2010

Locating Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands context• Currently ranked 129 in HDI• Linked to own positioning as researcher

in Pacific• Apt example of a global

security/development nexus (Duffield) and the contemporary governance of security and aid

• Apt example of danger of loss of development initiatives to geo-strategic security and market agendas

Honiara as an urban site

• massive growth in the last fifteen years

• growth + concurrent and interlinked livelihood, resource, security, access and sustainability challenges

• linked to a violent and turbulent civil conflict – known locally as ‘the tensions’ – between 1998-2003

Globally small but key features of urban vulnerabilities

– access to clean water; – a lack of access to

adequate shelter; – food insecurity; – personal insecurity,

particularly for women facing gender-based violence;

– a lack of access to healthcare; poor nutrition standards;

– unsustainable urban growth patterns.

The development gaze and urban populations

• +88% live rural subsistence livelihood

• What does this rural/urban divide mean?

• Does the increasingly international development community and regional security community recognise these dual and coexisting populations?

Honiara Central Market

• Honiara’s urban issues in context:– Informal livelihoods

and food security– Rural-urban population

shifts– Sanitation– Shelter– Women’s spaces and

violence against women

Potential for change?

• Potential for development aid actors:– City of Honiara Council

improvement project– Market improvement

project– New Violence Against

Women Office at national government level

• Need for recognition of intersecting vulnerabilities

• Need for dialogue

WHERE TO FIND OUT MORE:• Dr Anita Lacey, Senior Lecturer,

International Relations, Department of Political Studies,University of Auckland, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, Tel: + 64 9 373 7599 extn. 87241; Fax: 64 9 373 7449Email: a.lacey@auckland.ac.nz; Web: http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/staff/index.cfm?S=STAFF_alac003