LocationsReflections from Vanuatu: Where Beauty Teaches Us to Be Brave
November 12, 2025
For every ripple in Vanuatu’s waters, there is a story of courage. UNDP Pacific Resident Representative Munkhtuya Altangerel pauses to reflect on the women, communities, and quiet strength that define this island nation.
As I boarded the plane home from Vanuatu, I found myself carrying more than my mission documents. I carried the colors of the ocean, the songs of the wind moving through the breadfruit trees and pandanus leaves, and the voices of women whose courage quietly reshapes the future of this country. Vanuatu, with all its breathtaking beauty, reminds me that beauty can be vulnerable—and vulnerability, in turn, can become a foundation for strength.
This is a place where mountains breathe and volcanoes hum beneath the surface, where the sea offers life and, sometimes, takes it back. The most disaster-prone country in the world, they say. Cyclones. Earthquakes. Rising seas. Displacement. Yet the people of Vanuatu stand with grace and quiet fortitude that are almost defiant. They rebuild. They replant. They continue.
And we—UNDP—walk with them.
Where the Journey Began: A Call to Action
My mission began in Port Vila, where we launched Vanuatu’s first Gender Study on Green Energy Transition with a focus on Pentecost Island under the Vanuatu Green Transformation (VGET) Project. This study is more than numbers and charts—it is a mirror held up to a society in transition, highlighting both the obstacles and the extraordinary possibilities of inclusive climate action.
As I looked around the room, I saw government representatives, development partners, chiefs, young people, mothers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. And I saw hope.
Then came a moment of great delight. UNA—UNDP’s AI Climate Champion—addressed the room in Bislama. The entire hall paused. Smiles grew. A wave of recognition filled the space. Technology, for a moment, felt not distant or cold—but deeply humanly engaged.
Beside me were Micheline and Jocelyn, women from Pentecost whose lives will be transformed with the arrival of new pico-hydro power stations. Micheline shared how her community worked together to ensure this project succeeded—because they had seen what happens when opportunity slips away. Jocelyn, an entrepreneur, spoke of dreams that sound simple, yet mean everything: buying a refrigerator, expanding her small restaurant, creating a livelihood that grows with her children.
Electricity, here, is not just power.
It is time.
It is dignity.
It is possibility.
Feet in the Water
One afternoon, I stood ankle-deep in the cool waters of the Mele River, attending the handover of an Automatic River Gauge under the VCAP II project. The river shimmered in the sunlight—a gentle reminder of how water nourishes and, in moments, overwhelms.
During the ceremony, we planted vetiver grass by hand, each thin blade to be reinforced by maze of deep roots that will protect the river slopes from erosion. My shoes were wet, my hands were muddy—and my heart felt astonishingly connected. Because climate resilience is not only discussed in conference rooms. It is lived, felt, planted, carried.
Pentecost: Where Light Begins
Then came Pentecost Island.
I will never forget the image of the Twin Otter 18-seater flying overactive volcanos and dark lavas – mountains rising sharply from the sea, villages like small constellations tucked into the lush tropical greenery. Here I met the graduates of the first-ever Certificate I in Electrotechnology training. Twenty-three participants—four of them women—stood proud, holding not only certificates but a future that belongs to them.
“To our graduates,” I told them, “You are custodians of Vanuatu’s clean energy future.”
Because infrastructure alone is not enough.
It is people who sustain change.
It is people who carry the light.
Later that day, I joined the sewing machine handover for women’s cooperatives. These machines will soon hum to life with electricity from the pico-hydro systems. The women had already developed business plans—school uniforms, clothing repairs, crafts for local markets. The joy was not loud—but it was steady, grounded, real.
My new friend from Pentecost, Jocelyn, warmly recounted: "Before, we thought electricity would only bring light. Now we see it can bring income, confidence, and opportunity."
This is development at its most transparent.
Not charity.
Not dependency.
But quiet re-building, one life at a time.
Leaving, Yet Carrying All of It
As I flew back across the archipelago—83 islands scattered like emeralds—I understood something deeply:
Vanuatu is not fragile because it is weak. It is fragile because it feels—because its mountains, waters, communities, and cultures are alive in ways many of us have forgotten to notice.
And within this lies remarkable fortitude and strength.
I return home humbled. Inspired. And more determined than ever.
UNDP will continue to walk alongside Vanuatu—building resilience, amplifying women’s voices, nurturing youth leadership, strengthening communities, and helping ensure that when the lights of development come on, everyone stands in the glow.
Because energy is not only about light —
It is about life.