Situation Analysis Vanuatu Overarching Productive Sector Policy

As support to the policies and strategies contained in the Overarching Productive Sector Policy document, this situation analysis discusses agriculture’s contribution to broad–based growth in the Vanuatu economy, analyses constraints to growth and identifies key strategies that would enable further productive sector growth. In addition the analysis is widened to cover the important socioeconomic and political context of increasing growth. The analysis also recognises that many of determinants of agricultural productivity fall outside of the remit of the productive sector itself and also need to be addressed such as: land policies, labour availability and costs, infrastructure and transport costs, taxation, trade regimes and currency valuation, energy prices, commodity tariffs and protections, as well as shifting external market dynamics and trade negotiations. The policy assignment offered limited scope to address all these factors in detail, but they have been included in the discussion where appropriate, to indicate how they are relevant to policy formulation.