AID TALKS

AID/WATCH has a long history of working with civil society organisations in the Pacific to promote sustainable development. In the past few years, we have worked with local partners in places like Vanuatu to defend customary land, which is a crucial element of the cultural and economic systems in the region. As a result of the combined efforts of AID/WATCH and tenacious advocates in Vanuatu, AusAID dismantled its Mama Graon program in 2013, and replaced this with the Vanuatu Land Program, which is in line with current priorities of the Vanuatu Minister of Lands. Mama Graon was a surreptitious attempt to privatise land in Vanuatu, contrary to the country's constitution. This privatisation was exposing local people to profiteering and exploitation by foreign investors from Australia, New Zealand and other wealthy countries. Its discontinuation will strengthen sovereignty and autonomy for the people of Vanuatu and provide a possibility for them to determine their own course to better..