The systematic documentation of poverty is ongoing. In both cases, significant percentages of the population are worse off than average income levels might suggest. Two other lower middle-income Melanesian countries where this is likely to be true are the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Populations in these two countries have poor access to safe water and health services, and high percentages of underweight children under five years old. There is a close link between poverty and vulnerability.
Vulnerability threatens the sustainability of livelihoods.
A composite vulnerability index was calculated and is a weighted aggregate of openness as measured by export dependence, economic diversification as measured by the diversification index of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and susceptibility to natural disasters as measured by the proportion of population affected by disasters during 1970-1996. The country coverage of vulnerability indices must be updated and extended, prior to analyzing the implications of vulnerability for the development of poverty reduction strategies. Such analysis would have to consider the probability of disasters occurring, and the associated expected economic losses. Appendix 2 provides details on the poverty profile of individual PDMCs. The Melanesian countries are the Fiji Islands, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.