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Given the epistemic centrality of generative AI, the sociology of knowledge provides a useful standpoint or lens to understand the societal implications (especially for education). Digital infrastructures are already deeply entangled in the production and legitimation of knowledge. AI brings opaqueness and automation to the party. One can understand AI as a step intensification of "deep mediatisation" (see Couldry & Hepp, 2016). I believe that we need to look at AI in education policy making not only as operational guidance but in a deeper way, understanding it's potential role in not only representing but in shaping and constituting our reality (and what education means to us). Conducting research into the current situation as you have done is the obvious step towards a properly grounded approach to establishing a common set of rules for teachers and students, and so on. This should be within a broader collaboration to decolonise AI ( for instance, develop sovereign or regional genAI trained with our own data. (I am commenting as a Solomon Islands citizen and PhD student researching knowledge, discourse and digitalisation.)

Thanks Chris for sharing this important piece. Long ago I returned home thinking what was most important was to raise awareness of the unequal nature of international development and how the good international citizen discourse not only erased so much but left "us" bathed in sunshine.

This is an important finding, and any reduction in physical and/or sexual IPV should be recognised. But the headline risks overstating progress because the analysis leaves out several forms of violence that are central to women’s lived experience, including coercive control, emotional abuse, financial violence and technology-facilitated abuse. When those forms of violence are included, the picture changes significantly. The 2024 survey shows that 86% of women have experienced at least one form of IPV in their lifetime, and 71% experienced abuse in the previous 12 months. On that broader and more complete measure, it is much harder to claim meaningful overall change. So yes, there may be progress on some specific forms of violence, but the fuller data shows that intimate partner violence remains widespread, active and deeply entrenched. The headline should not minimise that reality.

Thanks for an interesting post. Are you seeing mobile subscriber numbers increase as more internet service providers enter PNG and as coverage extends? Related, are prices for the cheapest smart phones changing?

A really incredible progress. Through the outcome, it seems the government, all organisations, and communities in Vanuatu are working really well together. With a great partnership between VWC and the national VbOS, the study was done nationally and really captured the progress. I would love to be connected with organisations who led the national legal advocacy to improve accountability coupled with client-based advocacy to learn and adapt some strategies that may work in Papua New Guinea. Great work and Thankyou Vanuatu 🙏

Amazing to see this research on violence against women & girls has shown significant & measurable reduction validating the strategies & amazing effort of all those involved.

Interesting data Vola, thanks for the article. Publicly available court data shows that applications for protection orders has increased by 18% with 1,167 filed in 2025. It would be good to understand whether access to the formal justice system has improved at the same pace as we previously estimated that approximately 98% of cases never reach the system and that rural women remain largely excluded from protection orders. It is very concerning that the prevalence of sexual violence against children remains largely unchanged from earlier surveys. A review of 2023 Court decisions (criminal jurisdiction) shows 1/3 involved sexual offences, with nearly seven in 10 decisions involving sexual offences against children. It further indicated that courts continue to rely on flawed medical examinations, police/prosecution practice remains inconsistent; child protection remains severely under-resourced; and that almost half of the prison population were serving sentences for sexual offences, consistent since 2012. I hope that we can see greater investment in services for children in Vanuatu.

The only reason Bush and Blair invaded Iraq was so they could take focus and attention away from Afghanistan because they did not want the Taliban to be eliminated (the Taliban had unconditionally surrendered in Dec 2001 but Bush and Rumsfeld wouldn’t accept their surrender, and the Bush admin had OBL cornered in Tora Bora but they allowed the Pakistanis to safely evacuate OBL to Pakistan instead of the Bush admin killing or capturing OBL). The defeat/elimination of the Taliban would have meant the end of Pakistan (the Afghan part of Pakistan re-joining Afghanistan, and the Indian part of Pakistan re-joining India with the support of the international community), which Bush and Blair opposed. Within a month and a half of the Iraq invasion, the US and UK had achieved total victory, but Bush deliberately did things which led to an insurgency in Iraq, an insurgency he could have easily crushed anytime he wanted to within the first 2 and a half years of that war, but he deliberately allowed to fester. For this reason, in people’s heart of hearts, people think the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do, even though they may pretend otherwise. When they pretend otherwise, they are simply being disingenuous. Regarding the first 4 years of the war of terror, journalists were totally complicit and they did not do their job of holding Bush to account by asking why America had not and is not crushing the terrorists already and why America is giving them breathing space to fester instead.

Keep up the good, important work Vola, Sharon, Juliet and team - the Vanuatu Women’s Centre has been tirelessly supporting women and children across the country, its network for Committees Against Violence Against Women and its Male Advocacy program a major part of its effectiveness. Reducing violence is slow, hard work as this article shows, but it remains fundamentally important if we are to build a healthy, safe society together. Tankyu tumas for all you do.

Congratulations to the team on achieving better outcomes for women and bringing positive growth to the people Vanuatu. This has been a long journey 🙏

Congratulations Professor Howes on securing another four years of funding for this valuable initiative. I feel fortunate to have been part of it for a few years. My sincere thanks to all those who are continuing to work on and support this important partnership.

Thank you for your response. PALM is based on a series of bilateral agreements between two sovereign states, each state has a set of obligations to meet as part of that agreement. As I stated, it is not an aid program where the recipient country has few if any obligations. PALM workers are more expensive to employ because they are entitled to the higher casual rate of pay but also have a fixed term work contract with minimum pay guaranteed. So employers are employing them for other reasons such as reliability and not because they are paid less than other workers. The role of CLOs is be a trusted intermediary for their country's workers to provide advice in a way they can understand and act on. This is particularly important for Timorese workers who are likely to have little or no English. Timorese government officials residing in Darwin and expected to be CLOs are not meeting an important part of making a complex system of welfare support work as it should.