Small islands, one shared medicine cabinet: Pacific nations back a pool for essential drugs

For a small Pacific island, running out of a basic medicine can mean waiting on the next shipment from halfway across the world. At a World Health Organization meeting in Manila, Malaysia proposed a fix: countries pool their orders for a few essential medicines, buying together so supplies hold steadier and small nations stop facing big-country prices alone. Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands have offered to go first as pilot sites — "time to move from discussion to action" — and Palau, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu have backed the idea, with Samoa asking that island nations get an equal voice in how it runs. The WHO's Western Pacific chief, Dr Saia Ma'u Piukala, welcomed the teamwork and said member countries had asked the WHO to turn the idea into a concrete plan with clear milestones.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program