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Priorities of the People: Hardship in the Fiji Islands

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Is Hardship Really a Problem in the Fiji Islands?

All ethnic communities (Fijians, Indo-Fijians, non-Fijian Melanesians, and mixed) involved in the assessment perceived that hardship exists in the country and is characterized by lack of or limited access to basic services such as education, health, good roads, and safe water supply. Hardship, rather than poverty, was the term that most people involved in the assessment used to describe their difficulties.Poverty was said not to exist in Fiji by most people living in the rural areas and some urban residents. However, a majority of the people in the urban areas said that poverty is already occurring in Fiji as evidenced by the number of people begging in the streets of Suva (both Fijians and Indo-Fijians) and depending on others for survival.

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