The Pacific Foundation for the Advancement of Women is pleading for governments to do more to combat child mortality rates in the region which are too high.
The foundation's executive director, Susana Tuisawau, says the worst child mortality rates are in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, although Fiji fares only slightly better.
At the root of the problem, she says, is the ongoing lack of access to health care outside of urban centers and women not being able to afford proper maternal care.
And she says governments seem to be trimming health care budgets so much, that there's not much left over for maternal care.
"This has had very negative implications on the lives of maternal health and children's health and child mortality, the reduction in budgets and the restructuring of government ministries, especially health."
The Pacific Foundation for the Advancement of Women's Susana Tuisawau.
