Nauru and Guam: A tale of two islands

From the Publisher's Desk By Mar-Vic Cagurangan

Nauru, the world’s smallest island republic, is emerging as a model of fiscal prudence in the Pacific region. Determined to take charge of its future, Nauru established the Intergenerational Trust Fund in 2015, also known as “the sovereign wealth fund,” which is the key component of its strategy to future-proof its economy.

As of this year, the trust fund has earned $420 million. While other nations that form the trust’s committee contributed to the fund, Nauru President David Adeang said more than 75 percent of the contributions came from domestic sources. The fund's value is projected to hit $1 billion by 2034.

“No one should underestimate the country’s economic turnaround or the importance of the fund to the current and future generations,” Adeang said in a press release.

The trust fund is designed to provide a permanent income stream to fund government services and nation-building initiatives.

“Our government will channel the revenue from the fund into education, health, the environment and infrastructure to enhance the standard of living and quality of life for the people of Nauru,” he added. 

Nauru receives foreign aid mainly from Australia and the Asian Development Bank, which provide budget support, infrastructure assistance and funding for programs such as the resettlement of asylum seekers.

The trust fund was built to help stabilize the nation’s economy and minimize Nauru’s current reliance on donor funding.  This tiny island, which measures 8.1 square miles, values self-respect and dignity.

“Our government is determined not to see ourselves as victims, which is why we are positioning Nauru as a Pacific leader in financial stability and innovation,” Adeang said.

Meanwhile on Guam, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and the 38th Guam Legislature patted each other on the back for saving the poor families in Guam from the brink of hunger, following the enactment of an emergency bill appropriating $13 million for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Women, Infants and Children.

Bill l1 (4-S), which taps into the unobligated excess revenue from fiscal 2025, was prompted by the depletion of SNAP and WIC funds due to the long-drawn-out federal shutdown.

The local government, of course, is not taking over the program. The stopgap measure covers only the programs’ costs for the November cycle. This is a federal “IOU,” and the local government expects reimbursement. And with this comes the Guam leaders’ collective rebuke of the U.S. lawmakers for allowing this to happen. How dare the U.S. Democrats hold federal government funding hostage, they said. How dare they make the government of Guam care for its own people!

"We can't do it again. How many times are we going to keep on doing this, right? It's quite expensive for the island of Guam,” Guam Del. James Moylan said.

Just the same, the governor claims political points.

“When federal uncertainty threatened to cut off critical food assistance to thousands of households, the legislature came together to make sure that no one in our community is left hungry or without help,” she said.

Because of Bill 1 (4-S), Guam’s 18,000 households enrolled in SNAP will not go hungry in November.

Memo to GovGuam: Having 18,000 households—representing more than 43,000 residents and accounting for 25 percent of the island’s population—on SNAP is not a political accomplishment that elected leaders can swagger about. It is a reflection of their failure to fulfill their campaign promise to raise the quality of life on Guam and snap people off SNAP.   

The number of households enrolled in the program has increased over the years—from 13,000 in 2021 to 15,000 in 2022 and 18,000 in 2025— while labor statistics show an annual average of 50,000 work-age people not in the workforce.

SNAP, America’s largest pantry, is supposed to be a safety net—not a lifetime lifeline—for wage earners and low-income families to turn to when jobs vanish or hours are cut. The government’s job is to create jobs. But what has GovGuam done since receiving unprecedented billions of dollars from the Covid grants? This is a big mystery.

President Trump’s flagship policy overhaul, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” is reforming the federal welfare programs, starting with SNAP, which is anticipated to shrink further. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed that individual states and territories will soon shoulder a much larger share of SNAP funding.

Guam, of course, can’t afford it, hence the need for the local government to make a paradigm shift. Giving a man a fish is not sustainable.

Instead of continuing to beg the federal government, GovGuam must refocus on shrinking SNAP enrollment by strengthening employment-focused programs such as job search assistance and vocational training, and expanding the connection between education and work.

Instead of seeing ourselves as victims, we should take charge of our future and position Guam as “a Pacific leader in financial stability and innovation,” to quote President Adeang. We can learn a thing or two from Nauru.

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