The Pacific isn’t waiting to be 'saved'

This month, the World Health Organisation designated Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa, the Centre for Pacific and Global Health at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Noncommunicable Diseases and Climate Change.

The designation is an honour, but its significance extends far beyond a single institution. It signals a growing recognition that Pacific knowledge, Pacific leadership and Pacific expertise are essential to solving some of the most pressing challenges facing our region and the world.

For generations, conversations about Pacific health have often started from the same assumption: that solutions would come from somewhere else.The Pacific was viewed as a region facing challenges rather than a region generating answers. Research was often conducted on Pacific peoples rather than with them. Policies were often shaped far from the communities they were intended to serve.

That thinking is beginning to change.

Most importantly, it reflects a shift in who is being recognised as an expert.

For too long, Pacific communities have been described through the lens of disadvantage. Reports tell us we experience higher rates of disease, greater vulnerability to climate change and significant barriers to healthcare. Those realities cannot be ignored.

Neither should they define us.

What is often overlooked is that Pacific communities have also developed extraordinary strengths: deep social connection, strong cultural foundations, community resilience and practical knowledge built through generations of adapting to change.

Those strengths matter because the complex challenges we face today cannot be solved by technical expertise alone.

Take non-communicable diseases. Pacific countries continue to experience some of the highest rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses in the world. At the same time, climate change is creating new health risks through food insecurity, population displacement, extreme weather events and increasing pressure on already stretched health systems.

Too often these issues are treated as separate problems. They are not.

Health, housing, food systems, culture, environment and community wellbeing are interconnected. Pacific peoples understand this instinctively because we live these realities every day.

That perspective has value, not just for the Pacific but for the wider world.

Around the globe, governments and health systems are struggling to address increasingly complex problems that demand collaboration across disciplines, sectors and communities. The traditional model, where experts develop solutions and communities are expected to adopt them, isn’t working.

Lasting change requires something different.

It requires communities helping define the problems, shape the research and lead the response.

That is why Pacific-led research matters.

The most effective solutions emerge when research is grounded in local realities while meeting the highest standards of scientific rigour. Communities are far more likely to trust, adopt and sustain interventions that reflect their values and lived experiences.

This is not an argument against global partnerships. On the contrary, international collaboration remains essential.

But partnership works best when it is built on mutual respect and shared leadership.

Pacific researchers, clinicians and public health experts are increasingly participating in global conversations not as observers or stakeholders, but as equal contributors. They are leading major research programmes, influencing policy, securing international funding, and helping shape regional priorities.

One example is our Matariki-funded programme focused on eliminating cervical cancer across the Pacific. The initiative supports the World Health Organisation’s global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer while addressing the practical realities faced by Pacific health systems and communities including limited access to services, diagnostic constraints, and shortages in the clinical workforce.

The challenge is not simply about identifying interventions that work. We already know that vaccination, screening and treatment save lives. The greater challenge is ensuring those interventions are accessible, trusted and sustainable within diverse Pacific contexts.

That requires local knowledge, local leadership and local ownership, and increasingly that expertise exists across the region.

This should matter to New Zealand. New Zealand’s future is closely linked to that of the Pacific. Our populations, economies and communities are deeply connected through shared histories, longstanding migration patterns, and decades of sporting, church and community ties.

The health challenges facing Pacific countries do not stop at national borders. Neither do the innovations and solutions developed to address them.

As Pacific leadership continues to grow, New Zealand has an opportunity to support institutions and partnerships that strengthen regional capability while contributing to global knowledge.

The designation of a WHO Collaborating Centre only three years after the establishment of Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa demonstrates what is possible when investment, expertise and community aspirations align.

It also points to the broader transformation already underway across the Pacific.

A new generation of Pacific researchers is emerging. Pacific institutions are building stronger networks. Communities are increasingly shaping the questions that research seeks to answer. Governments are drawing on growing pools of Pacific expertise to inform policy and practice.

For many years, Pacific peoples were told about their problems. Today, we are helping define the solutions.

This matters for young researchers seeking pathways into leadership. It matters for policymakers looking for evidence-informed responses to complex challenges. It matters for communities seeking practical improvements in health and wellbeing, and for a world searching for innovative approaches to some of its most difficult problems.

The Pacific is not waiting to be saved. Increasingly, it is creating solutions.

The growing recognition of Pacific expertise suggests the world is starting to listen.