What works in Vanuatu

Vanuatu has documented high levels of family and sexual violence, with 60% of ever-partnered women reporting lifetime partner violence, addressed partly through the Vanuatu Women's Centre and its 45 community-based CAVAW committees, which delivered 6,574 counselling sessions in FY2018 and facilitated roughly 87% of family protection orders issued between 2015–2017. The country is expanding digital connectivity and skills—over 1,000 community members were trained in digital literacy, business, and e-commerce through the Smart Island Digital Hub on Malekula island from 2020–2024—and has pioneered Indigenous-led forest carbon management, with the Serakar Clan directly holding and managing carbon rights over 293 hectares of rainforest since 2013. Vanuatu is in early-stage pilots to modernise cyclone forecasting using AI-powered weather intelligence, though no performance results have yet been published.