Description
Project Coordinator: Mr Sitia Maheu
The ten countries covered by this Action are Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with a total population of about 1.5 million people spread over an immense area of ocean in the western Pacific equivalent to 15% of the globe’s surface. This diverse region falls into three geographical areas of the western Pacific: Melanesia (Fiji); Micronesia (Palau, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), Nauru and Kiribati); and Polynesia (Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu). The nine project countries located in Micronesia and Polynesia each have populations of less than 110,000 and five of those countries have populations less than 20,000. The population of Fiji is 837,271. The total gross domestic product (GDP) for the ten countries is EUR 7.6 billion (2015 estimate). This group of countries (with the exceptions of Tonga and Fiji) forms a specific group known as the Pacific Smaller Island States (Pacific SIS) established in 2005 at the Pacific Islands Forum Meeting, to recognise the special needs of smaller island states given their limited capacity, and fragile and vulnerable environments. These eight countries, together with Tonga and Fiji, have voiced their concern on numerous occasions that climate change remains the single most important priority for their countries and have expressed their commitment to take proactive adaptation and mitigation measures. The ten countries covered by this Action consist of low-lying atolls, raised atolls, high volcanic islands and low islands. Given the vast distances, limited air and sea transport routes, and the scattered nature of the population centres many countries are seeing migration to their capital island leaving outer islands with depleted populations, and capital islands facing increasing challenges associated with urbanisation, lack of housing and jobs. The project will build on the successful approach to outer island project delivery adopted by the Global Climate Change Alliance: Pacific Small Island States (GCCA: PSIS) project, which focused on delivery of on-the-ground adaptation activities in outer islands. Against this background the GCCA+ SUPA Action will focus on scaling up adaptation activities in specific sectors supported by knowledge management and capacity building.
Objectives
the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and the European Union (EU) for the implementation of the
Global Climate Change Alliance Plus - Scaling-up Pacific Adaptation (GCCA+ SUPA) Programme. The
Action contributes to the implementation of the regional component of this Programme. This action
will be implemented in indirect management with the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Secretariat of
the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), who will enter into a Co-Delegation Agreement
with SPC as lead and coordinating organisation. A separate Grant Agreement for Euros 2.1 million will
be signed between the European Commission and the University of the South Pacific (USP). Within a
framework of close collaboration and integration, each of the three regional implementing
organizations has responsibility for delivery of a specific output as further detailed below.
The Overall Objective is to enhance climate change adaptation and resilience within ten Pacific Island
countries.
The Specific Objective is to strengthen the implementation of sector-based, but integrated, climate
change and disaster risk management strategies and plans.
The action will assist ten Pacific SIDS to address climate change impacts at the national, sub-national
and community levels in a sustainable manner and for specific sectors. The activities will adopt a
gender-sensitive and rights-based approach throughout.
Outputs
planning capacities strengthened at national and regional levels. (Delivery led by SPREP).
Short title: Strengthen strategic planning at national levels
Impact assessment of climate change adaptation interventions,
several years after their completion, is major gap in the Pacific countries. (Standard end-of-project evaluations focus almost entirely on
outputs and are usually conducted around the project end-date). Yet without information about
longer-term impact, Pacific nations remain in a cycle of designing and executing new adaptation
initiatives which in many cases do not fulfil their hoped-for long-term potential. Pacific countries need
an objective impact assessment of past interventions so as to move their planning horizons from the
short-term project approach to the medium term (10+ years) sector resilient approach.
This output will focus particularly on supporting national decision making such that new climate
change adaptation interventions are designed and implemented with sustainability at the forefront of
the process. Collaborating closely with three countries (likely, Fiji, Tonga and Tuvalu), representing
different conditions in Melanesia and Polynesia, and utilising an information and knowledge
management approach, an impact methodology will be designed and tested.
To do this, information on past adaptation interventions completed in the past 5-years will be
compiled. A methodology will then be developed to assess the impacts of these past interventions.
Key criteria for assessing past interventions include (i) effectiveness, (ii) sustainable social and
behavioural changes (e.g. enhanced decision making skills for women and vulnerable groups), (iii)
successful lessons and practices, and (iv) overall sustainability of completed climate change adaptation
interventions. The impact methodology will be tested and finalised. The methodology will then be
integrated into a user-friendly database module which can be added to existing national climate
change portals. Training will be provided so that countries can install, populate and customise the
impacts database and apply it to inform their national prioritisation and decision making. The other
countries taking part in this Action will be involved in training activities and information sharing
sessions at regional meetings.
Besides supporting longer-term national decision making, the impact databases will also contribute to
national and regional baselines on which to assess the FRDP and to the GCCA+ lessons learnt.
Output 2: Planning and decision making capacities to address climate change and disaster risks at
sub-national and community level strengthened, applying participatory, gender-sensitive and rightsbased approaches. (Delivery led by USP).
Short title: Enhance the capacity of sub-national government stakeholders to build resilient
communities
This output will focus particularly on building capacity in resilient development for local area
stakeholders, starting with those residing in the geographical areas selected by the countries in Output
3. Emphasis will be placed on the sub-national, state, provincial and local island government levels.
Here the use of local languages is often a pre-requisite for developing capacity. Following a diagnostic
assessment of training needs in climate and disaster risk, outreach and awareness-raising activities,
accredited training in resilience will be delivered in local languages to representatives from the subnational governance level and the community level. Key change agents will be identified for more
advanced training. Sub national and local area development plans will be reviewed and entry points
for climate and disaster risk identified. Where local area planning review schedules permit, the plans
will be updated to include climate and disaster risk resilience. Activities in this output will be delivered
in collaboration with Output 3, and together with all three outputs will adopt a gender-sensitive, rightsbased approach, involving particularly vulnerable individuals, such as migrants, landless people,
individuals with disabilities, women, and men outside of traditional power-based positions.
Output 3: Strategic and local interventions for climate change adaptation and mainstreaming scaled
up in up to five sectors. (Delivery led by SPC).
Short title: Scale up resilient development measures in specific sectors
Focusing on sectors where adaptation work has already taken place and building on that existing work
will help countries concentrate on sector resilience and moving to a long term planning horizon for
that sector. Together with output 1, this output will help countries move away from the present ad
hoc system for selecting adaptation project sites and sectors, towards a more informed decision
making process for sustainable and resilient development.
During the GCCA: PSIS project, countries selected the following sectors for climate change adaptation
demonstration projects: agriculture, coastal resources (fisheries); coastal management, health and
water. During the preparation of this Action, early in 2017, countries were consulted as to the potential
sectors for focus under GCCA+ SUPA. Whilst indicating some preliminary sector choices, they all
expressed a need for more in-depth consultation once this Action commenced.
During the start of the Inception Phase a regional meeting will be held to discuss and agree on specific
criteria for scaling-up. Scaling-up a structural measure might include (i) enhancement e.g.
strengthening a measure to withstand a category 3-5 cyclone; (ii) expansion e.g. increasing the
measure to protect a longer length of coast; (iii) replication e.g. implementing a successful measure in
a different location; and (iv) addition of a new complementary approach such as combining an
ecosystem-based approach with an agricultural measure.
Each country will then undertake widespread national consultations to (i) confirm their sector focus;
(ii) define and select the existing measures for scaling-up in their selected sector and (iii) the
geographical focus. Then, using a participatory, gender-sensitive and rights-based approach at the local
area level, more detailed consultations with communities, local area governments and whenever
relevant with the private sector will be held to design and implement tangible on-the-ground measures
that address the scaling-up criteria. Ecosystem based approaches will be among the measures
considered. Women and vulnerable groups will be empowered to conceptualise, design and
implement parallel on-the-ground measures. Training in the monitoring and maintenance of the
scaled-up measures will be provided and with the long term goal to ensure that such activities are
supported by line items in national and sector budgets.
Reviewing, analysing and addressing gaps in sector policies, plans and budgets will be part of this
output and also contribute to strengthening the resilience of the sector.
Outputs 2 and 3 will be carefully coordinated so that the activities in output 2 can be implemented
once the countries have confirmed their sectors, the projects to be scaled up and the geographical
areas of focus.