The government has boosted its Youth Development Budget by 20 per cent for the 2025–2026 financial year, directing an additional FJ$689,340 into youth capacity building and personnel costs as part of a push to deepen engagement and improve service delivery, Prime Minister and Minister for Civil Service Sitiveni Rabuka told Parliament.
Answering a question from MP Joseph Nand, Rabuka said the extra funds were deliberately channelled into programs and personal emoluments to strengthen delivery on the ground. “In terms of program delivery, our approach has been deliberate, prioritising depth of engagement and impact over volume,” he said, explaining why fewer large events were held this year despite the larger budget.
Only two youth festivals were staged this year, down from four in previous seasons, but the Prime Minister said they were more targeted and inclusive. The festivals in Naitasiri and Rotuma combined youth symposiums, direct access to government services and mobile skills training and empowerment activities. Rabuka described the Rotuma initiative as “particularly noteworthy,” reporting it reached 581 young people and supported local infrastructure work including construction of a hardcourt.
Separate outreach tours to Kadavu and the Yasawa group were also part of the scaled-up effort. Those tours, Rabuka said, reached more than 792 youths, resulted in the issuance of 150 training certifications and supported 10 youth grants aimed at small projects or start-ups. A key milestone highlighted by the minister was the reopening of the Yavitu Training Centre in Kadavu, which he said will improve islanders’ access to vocational training and make skills development more locally available.
Taken together, the targeted festivals and outreach work have produced measurable outputs in remote and outer-island communities, officials say. The government framed the shift toward concentrated, impact-focused activities as a response to previous criticism that national youth programming favoured broad events with limited follow-through. Rabuka’s comments in Parliament signal a move to combine service delivery—such as mobile government services at festivals—with accredited training and small grant support.
The additional allocation for youth comes as other social sectors have also received increased attention in recent budgets, reflecting a broader government emphasis on boosting services outside urban centres. For youth development officials the immediate task will be translating the increased funding and newly re-opened training facilities into sustained pathways for employment and entrepreneurship, particularly in rural and island areas where opportunities remain limited.
Opposition or community reaction to the changes was not reported in Parliament during Rabuka’s response. The government will likely be expected to show the longer-term outcomes of the intensified, targeted approach—such as job placements, business growth from youth grants, and continued certification numbers—when it reports on the 2025–2026 program cycle.