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Priorities of the People: Hardship in the Marshall Islands

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What is Hardship?

Teenage pregnancy was cited as a problem

The primary goal of the assessment was to identify the people’s perceptions of poverty and hardship by talking to key community leaders (chiefs, elders, church leaders), women, youth, and people who were identified as suffering from poverty and hardship. Most people consulted defined poverty and hardship as ben mour (not having enough money to meet one’s daily needs or not having enough resources to get by) and jerata (in need or not having one’s basic needs met).

In an increasingly cash-based economy, many families without enough income from the sale of goods such as copra or jobs are facing hardship. There was general agreement that they face hardship if they lack reliable utilities such as power and water, and services such as health and education.

There was a consensus among the communities consulted that hardship has worsened over the last 5 years. Although there have been some improvements, people felt that these improvements had probably not reached the more disadvantaged members of society. So, for example, while more children are going to college and university, they are mostly the children of the middle classes and the elite, and not the majority. During one group discussion, people agreed that health indicators had improved, but identified the following negative trends:

Hardship has worsened over the last 5 years

• An increase in the number of school dropouts, and increasing numbers of children in urban areas who have never been to school;
• More teenage pregnancies (despite the increased availability of family planning advice),
• An increase in the number of attempted suicides;
• More alcohol abuse; and
• Parents face increasing difficulty in dealing with the conflicting financial demands of church, school, and their children’s other needs.

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