The Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu have benefitted from the first-ever in-person training hosted by the Pacific Climate Change Centre on “Enhancing climate resilience and safe water access in rural areas in the Pacific”.
Held from 11 to 14 October this year, the training is a follow on from the executive course on ‘Enhancing Climate Resilience and Safe Water access in rural areas in the Pacific’ which was delivered virtually through the Project for Capacity Building on Climate Resilience in the Pacific (CBCRP-PCCC) in May 2022.
Both pieces of training are aimed to enhance climate resilience and rural safe water access focusing on the most vulnerable population with limited or without access to safe drinking water.
Manager of the Pacific Climate Change Centre, Ms 'Ofa Ma’asi-Kaisamy, said that drought and sea-level rise are anticipated to severely impact water security in the Pacific, particularly in rural areas and outer islands.
“To ensure safe water access, our Pacific islands have many adaptation and mitigation projects in the water sector with support from climate finance mechanisms. To strengthen these climate actions, this training builds the capacity of practitioners in the region, and further enables project development to replicate and scale-up initiatives for ensuring safe water access”
Ms Kaisamy also acknowledged the Government of New Zealand and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for their support in enabling the PCCC to deliver its first in-person training.
Participants learned from experts and through peer-to-peer learning the overview of climate change risks and vulnerabilities for rural water access, innovative approaches and technical solutions, and community-based management for rural safe water access for our Pacific Islands. The participants were also introduced to the ecological purification system implemented by the Fiji Ministry of Infrastructure and Meteorological through a site visit to Semo village and a talanoa with the Semo Village Water Committee.
A key part of the training focused on developing project ideas for climate change and water based on each country's challenges and priorities. Participants were given the opportunity to work on project formulation including the development of the theory of change, logical frameworks, scheduling, budgeting, and monitoring and evaluation plan.
Ms Fonoimoana Mauai, a participant from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Samoa, said that the training has been very well received and participants were taking advantage of the learning tools and frameworks with the help of experts provided by the PCCC.
“It has been such a great learning experience working to build & formulate a project proposal to enhance water security and safe water access through effective catchment management,” said Ms Fonokimoana.
The participant from Tuvalu, Mr Richard Gokrun stated that having the experts available on site was helpful and provided real-time feedback and advice in the development of the project ideas – “in particular the formulation of the theory of change, the logical framework, developing a budget, schedule and monitoring framework.”
Mr Filimone Lapaoo from the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications of Tonga said that he found the training very practical – “Having the experts on sight to provide feedback on the country log frameworks and project development exercises were very helpful and should be encouraged for all the capacity building undertaken.”
This in-person training by the PCCC was made possible with the support from international experts, partners, the Fiji Ministry of Infrastructure and Meteorological Services and the Project for Capacity Building on Climate Resilience in the Pacific (CBCRP-PCCC).
For further information on the training courses delivered through this project, please contact [email protected]