The Pacific Islands and the World Conference - Brisbane 2009

The Lowy Institute's conference, The Pacific Islands and the World: The Global Economic Crisis, held in Brisbane on 2 and 3 August, created an opportunity for Pacific Island leaders, minsters, officials from international and regional organisations, private sector and civil society representatives to meet for the first time in advance of the annual Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting. The conference recommended that the Pacific Island governments should seize the opportunity of the global economic crisis to make fundamental reforms to the way they manage their development planning and do business, a sentiment subsequently taken up by Pacific leaders in the Cairns Compact on strengthening development coordination in the Pacific.