ACFID, CID AND PIANGO JOINT STATEMENT TO MARK THE START OF THE OCEANIA CONNECT REGIONAL CONFERENCE 2020 - COVID-19 and its implications for the region

ACFID, CID AND PIANGO JOINT STATEMENT TO MARK THE START OF THE OCEANIA CONNECT REGIONAL CONFERENCE 2020 Today, we mark the start of the first pan-Oceania conference between the international development civil society platforms of the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia. [...] Standing with the most vulnerable, we must strive to be the watchdogs, the defenders, the advocates, the ideas-generators, and the service providers to enable the world to build back better. [...] Development assistance in the form of grants must increase to the neighboring nations who are suffering the worst of the economic strife. [...] It falls very short of the commitment to the SDGs and the target of Goal 17 for developed nations to reach 0.7% of Official Development Assistance/Gross National Income. [...] Across the Asia-Pacific the pandemic has emboldened Governments in the suppression of civil society, free press, and the freedoms and human rights of all people.