Praneeta Prakash 
University of the South Pacific Economist Dr Mahendra Reddy [Photo: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji/ FACEBOOK PAGE]
A senior economist at the University of the South Pacific says Fiji should adopt a national data system using unique identifiers for every household, business, and farm to strengthen planning and disaster response.
This was part of Dr Mahendra Reddy’s submission to the Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights on the Statistics Bill 2026.
Dr Reddy says a national household statistical register will track changes in households over time.
“We need to have absolute capture of all the households in the region. Why are we not? It’s such a small ,there are about no more than 300,000 households in the country. It’s just like, you look at highly populated China and India. We can get all the data about the household.”
Dr Reddy adds that such a system will improve disaster response and social protection.
“The benefits of this would be when a cyclone or flood, you know, drought, pandemic, et cetera, happens, you know, we immediately know which households are affected, what the vulnerable persons are living in the affected areas, the farmers that require access, et cetera.”
Dr Reddy says Fiji should transition to a fully digital, real-time statistical system to improve the government’s response to crises and its tracking of development needs across the country.
