Case Studies

The Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) has a broad mandate to strengthen retirement funds in the Pacific. This mandate includes working directly with retirement funds, engaging in regional policy dialogue and advocacy, legislative reform, and supporting women’s equal access to retirement benefits.

Retirement funds are prevalent throughout the Pacific. Each of the Asian Development Bank’s 14 Pacific developing member countries, except Niue, has a retirement or provident fund of some description. While these funds are not government-owned, they are often central to a country’s social protection system and have the potential to play an important financing role and contribute to broader finance sector development.

“Retirement funds are a key feature of Pacific financial systems and provide a range of important financial services and benefits. That’s why PSDI is working with retirement and provident funds across the Pacific, to strengthen their operations and improve their investment frameworks, to achieve the best outcomes for their members.” —Jeremy Cleaver, team leader, PSDI’s Financing Growth team.

PSDI works to enhance funds’ financial strength and viability, including providing advice on strategic direction, governance, risk management, investment management, policies, and operational capabilities. A fund’s strength determines its capability to provide long-term finance to the domestic economy, which in turn supports sustained economic growth and adequate retirement benefits for fund contributors.

A long-term PSDI counterpart is the Kiribati Provident Fund (KPF). Like all retirement funds, KPF’s strength has significant implications for the financial security of Kiribati citizens and its potential to fund domestic investment.

PSDI’s support for KPF has included an in-depth analysis of KPF’s governance, undertaken in 2017, which examined KPF’s governing institutional arrangements, including legislation, policy frameworks, organizational structure, and financial structure. This analysis provided a blueprint for the development of a comprehensive policy framework and technical inputs to KPF’s strategic planning, including investment, risk management, and other operational policies.

PSDI also supports the strengthening of Pacific retirement funds through an ongoing program of advocacy and analysis.

This case study is taken from the PSDI FY2021 Annual Progress Report. Read the full report here.