Challenges for Sustainable Communities in Solomon Islands: Food Production, Market Sale and Livelihoods on Savo Island

Main Article Content

Nichole Georgeou
Charles Hawksley

Abstract

This article highlights the challenges of community sustainability in the emerging market economy of Solomon Islands as it grows increasingly reliant on imported foodstuffs. It examines the ways in which Solomon Islanders from neighbouring Savo Island engage with HCM and the opportunities it brings. Using Renzaho and Mellor’s (2010) conceptual framework for analysis of food security assessment we explore the symbiotic relationship that provides food security for those living in and around Honiara city, and income for the mostly subsistence farmers who supply Honiara’s growing population with fresh agricultural produce. Data from five focus groups from three villages on Savo Island reveals the critical importance of income from market sales at the HCM. The article demonstrates the mix of logistical and environmental challenges that confront people when trying to earn money through farming and sales of surplus food.

Article Details

Section
Communities Acting for Sustainability in the Pacific Special Issue July 2017 (Peer Reviewed)
Author Biographies

Nichole Georgeou, Western Sydney University

Dr Nichole Georgeou is Director of the Humanitarian and Development Research Initiative (HADRI) and Senior Lecturer, Humanitarian and Development Studies. She holds a PhD in Development Sociology, a Master of Social Change and Development (Research), and a Bachelor of Creative Arts from University of Wollongong (UOW), and has also completed a DipEd at University of Newcastle. Nichole has worked as an aid practitioner in Japan and in Vietnam with UNICEF and various civil society organisations. Her areas of research include: civil society and volunteering for development; Australian aid and development policy; Australian interventions in the Indo-Pacific; and Responsibility to Protect. Nichole is the author of the 2012 study Neoliberalism, Development and Aid Volunteering (Routledge). Her research has been published in Journal of Sociology, Australian Journal of History and Politics, Australian Journal of Political Science, and Voluntas. She is currently completing a book with Dr Charles Hawksley, University of Wollongong, on Police-building and the Responsibility to Protect in Oceania (Routledge), which explores policing assistance to enhance human rights protection within a framework of international development and aid and is based in research conducted in Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

Charles Hawksley, University of Wollongong

Dr. Charles Hawksley Discipline Leader, Politics and International Studies & Head of Postgraduate Studies School of Humanities and Social Inquiry Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts University of Wollongong