Religious Institutions as Alternative Structures in Post-conflict Solomon Islands? Cases from Western Province

Political analysts, policy makers, and aid agencies concerned with Melanesia have recently begun to pay attention to the role of Christian churches in governance. As Douglas notes, “churches, with their intensely local roots but broadly global reach,” are increasingly being seen “as alternative structures in the context of ineffective or even absent state institutions” (2007, p. 158). The importance of churches in the absence of a functioning state became obvious following the decade-long civil war on Bougainville (Saovana-Spriggs 2000; Howley 2002) and a period of civil conflict in Solomon Islands lasting from 19982003 (see, e.g., Scales et al. 2002; Oxfam Community Aid Abroad 2003, p. 14-15; Wainwright et al. 2003). In a discussion of state-building possibilities for the Australianled Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), Hegarty et al. argued, “Existing civil society groups, especially women’s groups and secular organisations of the churches, offer a ready-made vehicle for donor support of civil society” (Hegarty et al. 2004, p. 9). Since 2004, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) has worked with churches through the Church Partnership Program in Papua New Guinea and the Community Sector Program in the Solomons. This new optimism within Australia about the governance potential of churches should be understood in the context of pessimistic assessments of the effectiveness of aid administered by supposedly ‘failing’ Melanesian states (Dinnen 2004; Ayson 2007).