The Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific is working in partnership with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support Pacific Island countries in building resilience to climate change impacts under the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR).
SPREP, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFs), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) are partners.
In line with the objectives and goals of the overall PPCR1 the regional pilot for the Pacific will support countries to transform to a climate resilient development path within national programmes that address climate change adaptation (CCA) and related disaster risk reduction (DRR) in an integrated manner. This will be done with the critical support of regional organizations and strengthen national capacity, increase knowledge and replicate climate resilient measures.
The PPCR for the Pacific region, financed under the World Bank Climate Investment Fund Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience has two components : (i) a national component applicable to three countries (Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga) and (ii) a regional component comprising a pilot project to support the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation in national development plans.2
The Tonga and PNG final consultations were attended by staff from SPREP, SPC and PIFs to ensure complementarities with the regional component. The design and implementation of the regional component is (a) based on work undertaken in integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into national planning processes at the regional level and in Samoa, Tonga and PNG, and is aimed to demonstrate approaches to a climate resilient development path; (b) will strengthen CCA/DRR capacities at the community, local, national and regional levels to enable learning-by-doing and sharing of lessons at the country, regional and global levels; and (c) will build upon ongoing regional initiatives, scale-up and leverage climate financing and investments that can support, inform and provide guidance to other regions while streamlining international donor support.
CROP will focus on activities that are of relevance to the region and are best implemented on a regional basis, providing support to PPCR pilot countries in the form of advice and information, training, regional mentoring and monitoring, coordination, and the facilitation of the sharing of lessons learned and best practices among Pacific countries. It will promote replication, up-scaling and leveraging of investments as well as monitoring and developing integrated lessons learned and sharing of examples of good practice.
Detailed PPCR implementation plans for both the national track and the regional track will be developed following decisions of the PPCR Sub-Committee in late April 2012.
For more information, contact Dr Netatua Pelesikoti.
1These objectives are to: (a) pilot and demonstrate approaches for integration of climate risk and resilience into development policies and planning; (b) strengthen capacities at the national levels to integrate climate resilience into development planning; (c) scale-up and leverage climate resilient investment, building upon other ongoing initiatives; (d) enable learning-by-doing and sharing of lessons at the country, regional and global levels; and (e) strengthen cooperation and capacity at the regional level. (Ref: Guidance Note on PPCR Regional Programs. Climate Investment Funds 6 April 2009)
2www.climateinvestmentfunds.org