Pacific

Thirty-thousand kits have been distributed in 11 countries, replacing the need for people to travel long distances to testing facilities.

The UNDP's Anna Chernyshova said the rapid diagnostic kits had also revolutionised the process of testing people in remote areas.

"Especially at the outer islands this procedure was really complicated because they had to send a nurse with all the equipment and she had to collect the blood from the people and then carry it back to the laboratory in the central hospital in one of the other islands," Ms Chernyshova said.

They are New Caledonia, northern Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tokelau, the northern Cook Islands and the Marquesas.

The forecasters said above normal rainfall for Solomon Islands was also expected.

They also said there was a significant chance of an El Nino weather system developing over the next few months.

El Nino means a warming of the tropical ocean which can lead to more intense storms.

Photo file UNDP. Caption: Drought in Marshall Islands 

Yu Lei of the Beijing Foreign Studies University told the Global Times South Pacific nations were "bewitched" by Western countries including Australia and the US, who sought to gain political leverage in the region.

Western countries were trying to sow discord between China and South Pacific nations by inciting them to come up with the idea of writing off loans, the academic said.

Tonga's prime minister 'Akilisi Pohiva has suggested Pacific countries push for China to forgive their debts, although he has since backtracked on the idea.

One of the aims of the Pacific Commonwealth Equality Project is to support MPs and community leaders champion human rights in their communities.

The project will receive about $US2 million in funding over two years from the UK government's Commonwealth Fund.

Senior human rights advisor for the Pacific Community Jayshree Mangubhai said she was confident the work would help create meaningful social change.

The meeting discussed actions the private sector needs to take in the Pacific region to challenge climate change, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) and other relevant issues. 

The preparatory meeting is held annually ahead of the annual Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting, where Pacific Island leaders consider the recommendations from the preparatory meeting. This year, the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting will be held in Nauru on September 4.

Fiji continues to be the top destination in the region.

Arrivals to the organisation's member countries provisionally reached over 460,000 in the March quarter of 2018.

The latest quarterly review reports visitors to the Asia and Pacific region were up 8.2 percent from 7.3 percent in the December quarter.

The latest figures outperformed last March's quarter by about 6 percent.

CEO Chris Cocker said Fiji continues to be the top destination with 36.7 percent of visitors followed by French Polynesia at 9.7 percent, Palau on 7.3 and PNG 7.2.

The children, who are aged 12 years. returned to their home countries after attending the 2018 Gazprom International Children's Social Programme, Football For Friendship (F4F) in Moscow.   

Samoan player, Peniata Soul Maiava said: “I made so many friends, learned different languages, skills and techniques in football, different countries and their cultures, different flags that belong to certain countries. And we also shared Samoa’s culture among other countries.

When the coalition government came to power last year, it announced a so-called Pacific reset to New Zealand's foreign policy, and this year's budget saw a surge in funds for the foreign ministry.

In a speech on Friday, Winston Peters announced what he called the next steps in that reset, saying his eyes were wide open to "New Zealand's decreasing influence" in the Pacific.

Mr Peters said New Zealand is looking to redefine its spending by partnering with others in projects which last for 50 years or longer, pointing to support for a Kiribati land reclamation project.

The Team Coordinator, Health Security and Communicable Diseases, Angela Merianos, says outbreaks were reported from American Samoa, Fiji, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu in 2017.

She said Wallis and Futuna has had an outbreak of dengue type 1, with French Polynesia and New Caledonia having both serotypes 1 and 2 of the illness.

Dr Merianos said Niue has had types 2 and 4, with Kiribati recently reporting type 2 dengue fever.

SPREP'S climate change adaptation advisor said training being held this week in Fiji aimed to improve planning and decision making to boost resilience.

Filomena Nelson said skills such as cost benefit analysis were being taught so that limited resources can be spent wisely and with a long term view in mind.

"Adaptation has to be done as part of development planning as well.