The Hill: Need more than lip-service from Pacific Partnership
Eileen Natuzzi, medical education coordinator for the Solomon Island Living Memorial Project for the San Diego State University School of Public Health

“…The failure of Pacific Partnership, [a Department of Defense forward readiness program in the Asia Pacific Region and] one of the United States’ only ‘humanitarian aid programs’ in the Pacific Region, to deploy during the time of crisis must be addressed. As ‘America’s first Pacific President,’ Obama has done more than any recent president to draw attention to the Pacific Region, but it has not been nearly enough. He needs to be a ‘Pacific President’ who recognizes our Pacific neighbors’ climate-mediated health and well-being vulnerability and responds with emergency support and adaptation programs that are proportional to the risks Pacific Island nations face today. One easy way to start is to make Pacific Partnership more responsive to the disaster needs in the Pacific region” (3/26).