Integrated Vulnerability Assessment Framework for Atoll Islands: a collaborative approach

This resource material is designed as a generic guide for planning, implementing and reporting an integrated vulnerability assessment (IVA) that targets atoll communities in the Pacific Islands region. It is based on a sustainable livelihoods-based approach that combines the assessment of vulnerability to both climate change and disasters.The key principles of this IVA toolkit include the: • interconnectedness of social and ecological systems; • interconnectedness of sectors (e.g. water, forestry, agriculture, fisheries) and livelihood assets (natural, infrastructural, human, financial and institutional); • long-term and continuous iterative learning and knowledge co-production between local communities and technical resilient development practitioners; • an emphasis on participatory learning and action (PLA) tools that values, draws and builds on traditional and local knowledge experience so as to give local communities ‘ownership’ and empowerment; • facilitation of inclusive decision-making that creates opportunities for engaging vulnerable groups; and • the valuing of local and traditional knowledge and the full engagement and ownership of beneficiaries at various stages of the resilient development process.This toolkit is a product of a comprehensive design, trial and reflection process on the part of the Kiribati National Expert Group (KNEG), SPC, SPREP and GIZ climate adaptation and disaster risk management practitioners