Private Sector contribution to Peace-building in the Solomon Islands

 

Commissioned by Kings College Humanitarian Futures Programme as part of a multi-country 12-month research project examining the role of the private sector in humanitarian action, the objective was to analyse and document the role of the private sector in the post-conflict recovery of the Solomon Islands.

 

Ten years following the arrival of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), the Australian-led mission transitioned to predominantly bilateral (Australia-Solomon Islands) partnerships in July 2013, thereby signalling the end to the most complex and lengthiest regional intervention and stabilisation mission in the Pacific.

 

The transition did not, however, reflect disengagement. Australian Government 2013 budget allocations of AU$320.88 million towards the transition and RAMSI’s successor bilateral programmes between 2013 and 2017 demonstrate significant continued external engagement.  Learning from the RAMSI experience is therefore both timely and appropriate as the Solomon Islands Government and its partners reflect on the sustainability of the hard-won peace and economic dividend.