The 6th Pacific Urban Forum, held in Suva, Fiji, in 2023, saw the endorsement of the Suva Statement for a Sustainable Urban Pacific. Facilitated by the hosts, the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat and the Government of Fiji, and the Pacific Urban Partnership, the Suva Statement charted a path to accelerate action for inclusive, safe, and climate resilient cities, towns and communities in Pacific Island Countries in support of the implementation of the 2050 Blue Pacific Strategy. Over the subsequent two years a range of national focal points and partner organisations across the region have worked towards developing a collective Oceanic vision for sustainable urbanisation in the Blue Pacific, highlighting implementation pathways towards the 7th Pacific Urban Forum, to be hosted by the PNG Government in Port Moresby in late 2025.
The State of Urbanization in the Blue Pacific Report, commissioned by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), funded by the United Nations Development Account- through the Strengthened Capacities of African, Caribbean and Pacific SIDS for Green, Resilient and Pro-poor Pandemic Recovery project – and supported by the Pacific Urban Partnership, is the first such effort to comprehensively review the state of urbanization across the Blue Pacific in nearly a decade. It culminates a nearly two-year journey of planning, stakeholder input, and support by a wide range of partners from across the Blue Pacific, including global development partners, national and local governments, CROP agencies, and civil society.
Some of the initial analysis that underpins this report was presented at the 6th Pacific Urban Forum in September 2023. There, stakeholders agreed that an in-depth analysis of urbanization trends, challenges, and opportunities was critically needed, given how much the world and the Blue Pacific had changed since the previous Pacific Urban Forum was held in Nadi (in July 2019).
The continuing acceleration of climate-related disasters, paired with underlying shifts in climatic and associated environmental norms, was for a time overshadowed and compounded by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Whilst COVID-19 has by no means gone away, we now face a concurrence of multiple shocks and stresses with often unexpected outcomes. Armed conflicts and global economic disruptions – often far from the Pacific – are driving fluctuations in inflation, fuel shortages, and shifting patterns of migration in a post-lockdown world continue to wreak havoc on labor supplies and associated economic opportunities.
Amongst this milieu of drivers of change is rapid urbanization. This global phenomenon is continuing or resuming post-Pandemic, including within the Pacific, with associated development challenges continuing to call for global attention. The housing crisis being faced globally is compounded within the Pacific, where affordability of housing continues to decrease while poverty thresholds in the region’s cities and towns increase in line with inflationary pressures on food and fuel.
Climate shocks such as cyclones, flooding, and even wildfires are increasingly being shown to be locking Pacific Island Countries and Territories in a loop of GDP loss and recovery as governments and households alike repeatedly rebuild infrastructure and livelihoods. The pressures to rural livelihoods – such as saline ingress into crop areas, and coastal inundation of low-lying settlements – is at the same time beginning to be observed in rural-to-urban migration patterns, with cities and towns offering crucial adaptation pathways.
The communities of the urban Blue Pacific are remarkably resilient. The challenge remains one of how best to leverage these distinctly Oceanic urban systems, strengths, and structures in the face of global pressures and change.
