Political

MILDA promotes an alternative political path and development paradigm that enables Melanesians to have a voice in defending their land, environment and natural resources.

Regional governments must resist promoting cash driven global development paradigms that are not favorable to Indigenous populations. These types of development schemes will gradually displace them from their land, resources and livelihood.

Melanesian states that are free from their former colonial masters are struggling desperately to maintain control over their resources because they have become entangled in global development paradigms that exclude Indigenous people all over the world.

There are several countries in the region that remain under colonial control and their Indigenous populations have become marginalized and need the support of an umbrella organization to advocate for them.

International funding agencies such as the World Bank, the IMF and the Asian Development Bank have a huge influence on regional governments. Regional governments are burdened by structural adjustment loans and other requirements forced upon them by these institutions, keeping them trapped in an unending cycle of debt. Chinaʻs Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank also contributes to these challenges by offering soft loans and other Infrastructure options to our regional governments to fill in the gaps where other loans fall short. This creates a dependency on foreign investment that can have devastating impacts for Indigenous populations.