Household and community surveys on sustainable development in traditional societies in the South Pacific

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The main purpose of this research is to examine various issues and roles of kin-based network and group, by conducting household and community surveys in traditional Fijian villages. This is a first systematic empirical study based on household surveys in the Pacific Islands. I conducted two surveys in 2003 and 2005, gathering data on demographics, education, health, assets, production, income, transfers, and cyclone shocks. Quantitative analyses shed new lights on the following issues which have received limited attention in the literature : 1) Targeting cyclone relief within the village : the link of relief with risk sharing and elite capture ; 2) Commons as self-insurance and mutual insurance : the comparison of small-scale coastal fishing and handicraft making from forest products ; 3) Gendered coping responses to cyclone risk in ritual : the link with gendered risk sharing ; 4) Networks and groups in private transfers : the comparison of household and group transfers, crowding-out, and elite capture ; 5) Recruitment fraud victimization : determinants of, reasons for, and impacts on private transfers of victimization. I have written five papers-one is forthcoming in an international journal, two are under review, and two are under preparation for submission. I have also studied the crowding-out of risk sharing caused by cyclone damage and cyclone relief, income inequality in the kin society, and livelihood diversification.