The 17 islands of the Gilbert Group, which include the capital Tarawa, are all inhabited. The 17 local councils are poorly resourced. The key policy development in recent years was the government s adoption of a Medium-Term Strategy in 1997, which focuses on the reduction of the public sector in order to promote the development of a private sector. The Kiribati economy is small with few resources.
Some households have their own small business or receive cash from seaweed production.
A lack of technical skills and poor-quality imported materials contribute to the low maintenance of infrastructure, high replacement cost and heavy reliance on overseas expertise. The spread of new technologies is slow. Most areas do not have electricity and most communities live with very basic technological utilities and practice subsistence methods. The VSO Programme Office in Kiribati also manages the Tuvalu programme. Tuvalu is one of the world s smallest countries, consisting of nine tiny atolls.