The world's 52 Small Island Developing States are calling for climate change to be the focus of a major United Nations conference in Samoa this week.
Three thousand delegates have crowded into Apia for the third Small Islands Developing States Conference.
Leaders have high expectations for the conference, and say more than 300 new partnerships on issues of unemployment, climate change, fisheries, women and youth, and renewable energy will be created.
United Nations Development Programme head Helen Clark said the conference was crucially timed before a major climate conference in New York at the end of this month and the finalisation of the post-2015 development agenda, at which the voice of the Pacific would be heard loud and clear.
Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Murray McCully announced New Zealand would contribute $3.6 million over the next three years to the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme, which helped low-income and rural Pacific Islanders to access financial services.