VHT/VCAN Meeting - Friday 28th February 2014, 9am at Oxfam Office

Section

Comments by VCAN and VHT members

General:

We would like to congratulate the Government of Vanuatu for pioneering an integrated policy agenda for climate change and disaster risk reduction and for its vision and efforts that have led up to this initiative.

It is positive that resilience is used as the overarching goal. Given there are many definitions of resilience being used in Vanuatu, this may need an agreed definition that includes different levels (including community) and combines DRR (shocks, stresses) and CCA (uncertainty, change) definitions.

The policy needs to ensure a stronger local focus on community members (i.e. who are we doing this for?) this should include impact of CC at community level and efforts to address CC through adaptation and DRR at community level. The social aspects of vulnerability and resilience should be reflected throughout.

The tone is quite negative throughout the document.  There needs to be recognition of existing capacities that support resilience that can be further built on in terms of:

·         Significant improvements in disaster and climate change governance, capacity and coordination over the past few years

·         The existence of functioning coordination structures among NGOs and between NGOs and government

·         Recognition of community capacities that currently exist in terms of disaster preparedness and response, that all CC/DRR will build on and strengthen

Several agencies commended the focus of the policy away from sectors towards the governance and institutions required to mainstream CC and DRR to maximize integration and reduce duplication. However, there isn’t a lot of clarity/visibility of how mainstreaming will happen in the document (i.e. how will mainstreaming in other line ministries’ plans and policies be supported and who is responsible to do this)

Very little attention is given to climate change mitigation. The policy states that it ‘does not cover analysis or actions for combating global warming’. Nonetheless, given the resources for mitigation and REDD+ that are increasingly coming into the country, potential positive co-benefits or negative impacts for communities might need to be taken into account.

Women, youth, elderly and disabled people are referenced throughout as ‘vulnerable groups’ it would be worthwhile to include something in the definitions section or at the start of the document that identifies that these groups have a significant role to play in CCA and DRR. Their ‘vulnerability’ is a result of marginalization and unequal power/access to resources, information and decision making structures that are essential to resilience. It was also suggested to add a statement that people are differently vulnerable and have different capacities.

Several members commented that they were confused by the policy in its current form and that it is not yet a clear statement of intent. At the moment it is still a review of the past with a strategy for implementation and hence the piece in between these two things - the actual policy - is lost. There are sections that are clearer in the assessment report than the policy document.

We acknowledge that the policy is still in draft form and would recommend that the process of endorsement should not be rushed. NAB should be leading more comprehensive and inclusive consultations on the draft (including with civil society stakeholders) to ensure that the policy truly reflects the priorities of government, NGOs, communities and other stakeholders to ensure buy-in. 

Below are some specific points mentioned by VCAN members that could be addressed immediately:

  PM Foreword

·         If possible, the policy and foreword should state that increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change and other natural disasters is a national priority for Vanuatu as a small island state with a high degree of vulnerability.

·         The foreword needs to be tighter and more inspiring and energetic. What are the four key messages we want to PM to say? Could be things like: Why the policy was developed. Aim of the policy. Whose resilience/wellbeing will it improve? Participation - who is it for and who's voices does it reflect? Needs to be a bit more visionary

·         “The potential increase in the number and intensity of extreme weather events as a result of climate change means we may face greater impacts in future.” - changing location as well

·         “It seeks to strengthen existing capacity at national, provincial, area and village levels, including drawing on our rich heritage and traditional knowledge.” - and strengthening it too

·         Difference between information and knowledge as priorities not clear

·         “Groups who are particularly vulnerable including women, youth, the elderly or people with disabilities must be given the opportunity to proactively share in planning, decision making and the mapping of community action.” - not just 'given the opportunity' but rather we will seek to work in a way that facilities their active and meaningful participation

2.0 - Principles

·         Suggest that the principles not just guide development and implementation, but also monitoring, review and feedback (first sentence)

·         The emphasis on inclusiveness is welcome, however suggest that inclusiveness goes beyond participation to analyse/monitor the extent to which inputs from these groups actually influence planning and implementation (for equitable access by these groups to the benefits from CC/DRR initiatives)

3.0 - Purpose

·         Last sentence above the policy framework diagram; suggest that in addition to the policy ensuring that “…key stakeholders….understand Vanuatu’s direction for climate change and disaster risk reduction”, that it acknowledges the potential for the policy to enable key stakeholders to work collaboratively to achieve Vanuatu’s vision.

Policy framework

·         What is the relationship between Climate Change and DRR/CCA? Does Climate Change include mitigation in this context? Needs to be more specific. 

4.0 - Definitions

·         Given that resilience is used in the policy vision and the different uses of the word in Vanuatu and internationally, there is a need to define the meaning of resilience for Vanuatu

·         Also need to include mitigation in here as this is a key confusion / overlap in terms. Some of these definitions could be drawn from Klaod Nasara resource kit.

5.0 – Context

·         p9 graphic is a bit too small to read easily and not self explanatory

·         Need to add acidification and sea surface temperature.

·         Uses CC - does this only mean adaptation not mitigation?

5.1 - Climate change context:

·         No information on how the CC impacts mentioned (which don’t provide specifics) are impacting on people’s lives in Vanuatu

·         Suggest a slight reword to ensure that impact on lives is analysed first, before sectors and livelihoods

5.3. Development and Adaptation Context

·         Content not clear under this heading

5.7 – National level

·         We feel that the government’s efforts in establishing the NAB and PMU and the vision and progress towards integrating CCA and DRR objectives at national level over the past few years should be recognised.

·         Final sentence in final paragraph under this section; suggest removal of the word vulnerable as these groups aren’t inherently vulnerable; their exclusion makes them vulnerable.

·         Last sentence in this section; suggest these groups are also included in the monitoring and review of the action plan.

·         Would be good to be more specific about how women youth, elderly, PLWD and remote communities will be included

5.8 Financial

·         “Although efforts are being made at UNFCCC negotiations to ensure that CC funding be new and available for both adaptation and mitigation, it is clear that duplication of CCA and DRR strategies must be avoided. Therefore available funding must be prioritised for evidence-based strategies and initiatives that target high-levels of risk and vulnerability regardless of the cause.”

Link between sentences is not clear. Intention to avoid duplication is good but using climate finance to address other risks will not always be possible. Since climate change is changing risk levels and vulnerabilities, funding should also support communities to increase their resilience to deal with current vulnerabilities as well as uncertain futures.  Should read 'new and additional'.  

6.1 – Priority 1: governance

6.1.1 - Institutional structure:

·         The membership/role of the NAB is not clear - this may be adequately covered in Attachment 1 but a copy of this attachment was not provided for comment. Membership composition of the NAB and other groups should strive for gender balance within staff and representatives. We feel that it is extremely important to maintain the membership of the civil society networks to ensure broad, transparent and accountable representation.

·         The organagram would benefit from some narrative to identify the responsibilities for each group; it’s not self-explanatory and the current narrative only mentions the NAB’s role

·         The current outline of the NAB’s role under the structure diagram doesn’t seem to have much emphasis on supporting people to become resilient – suggest that the first dot point should focus on people.

·         The three dot points after ‘in relation to these priorities NAB should’, are missing something about strategic oversight including review of the policy

6.2 – Priority 2: Capacity

·         To be effective, gender mainstreaming should be an area for capacity development at all levels.

6.2.2 – NDMO

·         There needs to be recognition of the progress and current strengths of the NDMO particularly in supporting coordination across government, non-government and donor partners. The last paragraph references elements of DM that are in place and in use by government and non-government partners, but doesn’t acknowledge that this is the case.

6.2.4 – NGOs and other players

·         We disagree with this paragraph. Vanuatu has been recognized for its innovative ways of collaborating with civil society in the CCA/DRR/DRM landscape.

·         There are currently three civil society representatives on the NAB. Both VCAN and the VHT have accountable processes to inform their representatives and provide feedback to their members and have been involved in several government processes, which have enabled government to draw on a wide range of expertise.

·         Emphasis should not solely be on compliance but also engagement to enable the government to gain from the experience and learning that NGOs have implementing CCA and DRR programming at the community and sub-national levels, and in programs that support the agency of women, youth and people with a disability.

·         NGOs can also assist in achieving the first priority of the strategy (governance) through being a facilitator of information flows from and to communities and government about CC and DRR priorities and issues.

6.3 Priority 3: Information

6.3.4 Risk Assessment

·         Statement of the elements of risk assessments should be clearer.

6.4 – Priority 4 - Preparedness

6.4.1 – Preparedness and response systems:

·         First paragraph fails to recognise that disaster preparedness and response also takes place at the community level. There is an important culture and local/traditional knowledge of disaster preparedness and response already existing in Vanuatu, and work by other actors seeks to strengthen this.

·         Suggested edit in the last paragraph of this section from VHT:

Five clusters have been established to facilitate joint planning and coordination of disaster preparedness and humanitarian responses among the NDMO, government line ministries, INGO and Red Cross agencies. The five clusters are Logistics, Education, Health and Nutrition, Agriculture and Food Security, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). A gender and protection working group has been established but yet to be formed as a cluster. Support should be given to ensure protection can be mainstreamed. The clusters play an integral role in supporting the NDMO for disaster assessment and response.  Clusters have terms of reference and disaster assessment forms and disaster assessment teams are composed of a representative from each cluster. The clusters are trained and supported with the assistance of the Vanuatu Humanitarian Team (VHT). The VHT is a network of INGO, UN, Red Cross and National NGOs and was established in late 2011 to improve coordination in humanitarian preparedness & response to support the NDMO in delivering their disaster management responsibilities. The VHT support function is included in the NDMO cyclone & tsunami plans as well as the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Further support is required for clusters to be strengthened and functional to ensure some sustainability in government and multiagency disaster preparedness and response.

6.4.2- Community awareness, early warning and recovery

·         Last paragraph, last sentence regarding early warning systems would be strengthened by acknowledging that a mix of these communication channels will increase the chance for messages to be accessed by women, youth and people who are elderly or have disabilities. 

·         This section should also mention seasonal outlook and the need to increase community capacity to understand and systems for ongoing access to this information. 

6.5 Priority 5 - Knowledge

6.5.2 – Traditional knowledge

·         Good that this is included. There could be acknowledgement that traditional and local knowledge is held by and should be available to all in the community, especially women and youth.

6.5.3 – Knowledge sharing

·         First paragraph seems rather strong. Collaboration between agencies is something that has been gaining a lot of momentum over the past two years including technical support shared between agencies, sharing of communication tools, shared discussion and input into NAB processes including on site selection, project endorsement, IEC endorsement and policy. VCAN members are also in the process of collecting community inputs to help inform government priorities to develop a shared analysis.

·         5th paragraph confuses VCAN and the consortium program (under which VCAN has been established).

Suggested edit: The Vanuatu Climate Adaptation Network (VCAN) facilitates regular meetings to share information, technical expertise and good resilience practice approaches among NGOs and with the government. VCAN has hosted government - civil society consultations on a number of issues and its representatives provide agreed network inputs at NAB meetings as well as feedback from NAB meetings to network members. VCAN delegates also joined the government delegation at the UNFCCC climate talks to represent civil society.   

·         6.5.4 – Lessons learned

·         Agree with the importance of learning to the policy. NGO networks are important mechanisms through which lessons can be shared between CSOs and government in CC and DRR and build the trust and relationships that are needed to enable sharing of lessons. This type of engagement should be further encouraged.

7.0 – Implementation and

8.0 Review of policy

·         It would be important to identify that various stakeholders including NGOs, communities, women, youth, people with a disability and elderly will be engaged in the development of the action plan to capture the detail that will be required to ensure equity, and in the review of the action plan and policy to ensure continued relevance.

Section

Comments by VCAN and VHT members

General

The RGA does not assess or recognise the progress made over the past few years, which is important to acknowledge as things are significantly better than they were a few years back. It should also recognize Vanuatu’s inherent strengths and foster existing capacity.

It is good to see mention of bottom up processes (which should top the recommendations list in our view). More attention should be paid on how this should happen in practice. Civil society can play a critical role in this.

We recommend gathering feedback from broad range of stakeholders on the RGA and policy including from people with special expertise and interests in different sections.

Executive Summary

Should also recognize that there are a lot of good agencies and experienced actors working on CCA and DRR.

Part Three – Capacity Assessment  National Level

Proper consultation did not take place with civil society at national level. While Oxfam had an initial meeting with the consultants, this was not a consultation to represent NGOs as stated in the report. This is an unfortunate development as the PMU has been very inclusive in their engagement on the policy with VCAN and VHT prior to the commencement of the risk governance assessment. Over the last year, VCAN and VHT have met several times to discuss the policy and provided feedback to the PMU.

Financing

Consider more general language: less around NIE but around establishing systems for Vanuatu to pass accreditation to access finance from multiple different sources (which might include the Adaptation Fund, which is currently drying up).  The government should take the time to identify what this entails. Agencies that work in the country for the long haul could support this process of getting ready for accreditation (contract management, finance management, MEL) as they have a lot of experience from their own accreditation processes with development partners.

RGA Consultation process

It would be important to analyse why people failed to keep appointments as there might be lessons regarding the process, priorities, ownership and approach of the assessment and policy development

3.5. Human resources capacity

This section should also mention the importance of long term investment in positions for national staff and ongoing support to work toward acquiring necessary skill sets. In many cases a focus on sustainable funding for national positions and drawing on national expertise and technical assistance (from within government and NGOs) would be far more efficient and effective than international short term TA contracts. While this is recongnised on p.32, it is contradicted elsewhere in the report with recommendations for additional technical advisors. It would be useful to include more detail of what good practice technical assistance would look like to support more sustainable systems and capacity.

NAB membership

We believe that it is important to keep the current representation of the civil society networks on the NAB as transparent systems are in place to input and feedback to civil society organisations.