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Speaking on behalf of the host country, the Director General of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities of Vanuatu, Mr. Morris Kaloran, said the PACC is a massive initiative that comes with a diversity of administrative challenges, both at the regional and national levels: “The PACC project provides us with such an opportunity with its two-pronged approach that entails interventions on the ground and at the policy level to build solid resilience across the Pacific.”
“We have a good board in place that is very knowledgeable of the project and have made some key decisions that have improved implementation,” said Mr. Taito Nakalevu, the PACC Project Manager. “We hope to continue to have the support of the board as we move into the future particularly with the opportunity to have the PACC as the implementation framework for adaptation projects in the region, aiming for more donors to contribute more funding into the PACC.”
In fact, last July during the 15th Micronesian Chief Executives’ Summit, the representatives of the islands supported the initiative of having the PACC become the climate change adaptation framework for the sub-region, as an extension of the Micronesia Challenge Framework. This Framework has proven to be a successful in addressing nature conservation in the islands. In the Federated States of Micronesia, the PACC is a success story having helped bring about a climate change law in Kowrae which ensures climate change is a consideration when it comes to building infrastructure and Environmental Impact Assessments. There are plans to replicate this legislation in other islands of FSM. On this regard, the project officer, Mr. Peniamina Leavai commented, “I am very excited; these are some of the high level and top-down results that we wanted for the PACC project to achieve. This is only the start. We haven’t gotten down to the positive outcome of building the ability for local communities to adapt and this is something we plan to achieve over the next couple of years”.
The present PACC board is a combination of members with both technical and policy expertise. Melanesia is represented by the Solomon Islands, Micronesia is represented by the Federated States of Micronesia, and Polynesia is represented by Niue. The board is chaired by the Resident representative of the UNDP multi-country office in Samoa and the Deputy-Chair is the acting director of SPREP, with the University of the South Pacific representing the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific.
One of the key items of the agenda for discussion this week includes progressing the work of the project to ensure quality work done on the ground in the region over the next few years, as well as future opportunities for the PACC project. The week-long meeting was held from 8 – 12 August, 2011.
Project Background:
The Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) Project is the first project implemented in the region that responds directly to the call for urgent action on adaptation to climate change, while supporting the systemic and institutional capacity to do so. It is seen as one of the first programmes moving into actual implementation on the ground and as a framework to deliver adaptation actions in the Pacific. The $57 million dollar project is partly funded by the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) through a grant of $13 million dollars.
The PACC supports adaptation activities in three main areas – food security and production; coastal management; and water resources management; in 13 Pacific Island Countries (PICs) . The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is an implementing partner with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project started implementation on February 2009, and has since carried out numerous socioeconomic assessments in villages in order to design and implement the actual on-the-ground adaptation measures with the full involvement of the local community. Focal and implementing agencies are already in place, steering committees, coordinators, core teams, reporting and administration support, and technical support.
Countries that are part of the PACC include Nauru, Niue, Marshall Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu who are focusing on addressing water resources management; Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have national projects to help increase food security and food production with; Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia addressing coastal erosion management.
