Kingdom of Tonga: Strategic development plan eight (8) 2006/07 - 2008/09, "Looking to the future building on the past"

Tonga has made "good and steady progress" towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as reported in Tonga 1st National Status Report: Millennium Development Goals Today and Tomorrow and summarised . The country has the second lowest incidence of poverty amongst 15 Pacific Island countries, as measured by the Human Poverty Index (HPI) presented in Pacific Human Development Report 1999; and a 2003 participatory assessment of hardship reported that "Most people perceived an improvement in their situation" in the previous five years,3 though this was not to deny the existence of some hardship.