Sustainable Development

In November 2021, the two Area Councils of North West and West Coast Santo officially launched the Western Santo Sustainable Development Plan 2030.

Vanuatu’s Decentralization Policy mandates that development planning and implementation should take place as close to people’s daily lives as possible, and not always at the national-level where contexts do not often match grassroots needs and realities. For this reason, Government is investing millions in strengthening its 70+ Area Councils by hiring qualified Area Administrators and Area Secretaries, building governance infrastructure, and expanding the capacities of Area Councils and Technical Advisory Committees.

Western Santo is now a model of decentralization: representatives from chiefs, women, churches, people living with disabilities, youth, environment rangers, and local businesses have spent the last months collecting real development goals and aspirations from more than 5000 people across the over 42 villages in the two Are Councils. With the help of the Santo Sunset Environment Network, Western Santo’s only locally-based NGO working in all villages, the Area Administrators of the two Area Councils joined efforts to produce a comprehensive area-wide development plan, that prioritizes sustainability.

Mr. Samuel Kenneth, Area Administrator of West Coast Santo and one of the lead authors of the Plan, said “this is a joint story of the people of two Area Councils on Western Santo, it is a tool that connects us together, and keeps us focused on where we want to go. The plan is a tool that will help Government and NGOs from outside the area to direct their development support to the most relevant places as efficiently as possible. In this Plan Western Santo priorities have each been individually aligned to the SANMA Provincial Strategic Development Plan Goals and Objectives, the National Sustainable Development Goals of the People’s Plan (NSDP) and the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).