Implementing tangible, on-ground adaptation measures

The health impacts of climate change are diverse and serious, including water- and vector-borne diseases, undernutrition, and the mental and physical effects of extreme weather and climate events. Extreme weather and climate events also disrupt the delivery of health care services. Ministries of Health from Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu have limited technical capacity to effectively integrate climate-related risks into policy, planning, and regulatory frames, and into interventions to control the current and project future burden of climate-sensitive health outcomes.   

In consultation with stakeholders, this GEF LDCF project was designed to increase the capacity of national health systems and institutions, and sub-level actors, to manage long-term climate-sensitive health risks, through four complementary outcomes: (1) strengthening governance of health system and institutional capacities; (2) strengthening capacities of health system institutions and personnel to manage the health risks of climate change; (3) ) improving the coverage and quality of health services addressing climate-related diseases; and (4) enhancing south-south cooperation. The regional approach will facilitate catalytic partnerships across countries, training and capacity development of climate change and health specialists in the countries, and documentation of lessons and best practices, thereby ensuring that these can be replicated and scaled up across the region. 

The project will be implemented closely between WHO and Ministries of Health in participating countries.

: Climate change and rising sea levels and urbanization in low lying areas will increase the risk of coastal floods, erosion and salinization. Adaptation to reduce future environmental risks is inevitable, but it is unclear which coastal areas will be protected and in which regions residents will be forced to migrate. The EU-ERC COASTMOVE project aims assess how residents of low lying coastal areas can adapt and/or migrate to safer areas. For this, we aim to conduct surveys in 7 coastal areas such as Mozambique, Vietnam, Vanuatu, U.S.

  Performance-Based Climate Resilience Financing Mechanism in Vanuatu - LoCAL

Climate change is negatively impacting livelihoods for a majority of the population in Vanuatu, and is encumbering development and governance at the local level. These impacts will be heightened because of unfavorable climate projections such as the increased intensity of tropical cyclones. In addition, current efforts to adapt to climate change and its associated disasters are far from being transformational in scale and depth, and the need for adaptation across all sectors is immense. Consequently, it is important that adaptation to climate change is escalated at the local level to safeguard social and economic infrastructure, create opportunities for the most vulnerable communities to meet their needs, safeguard and restore critical ecosystems (for the purposes of livelihoods, income and biophysical integrity)  and to foster resilient development into local governance

LoCAL in Vanuatu make use of the existing funding system and grants to provincial governments under and augment this in terms of finance for CC interventions, assessment system with focus on climate change adaptation performance, M&E to track additional funding for CC targeted investments and CB/TA to ensure mainstreaming of climate change through the entire planning and project implementation structure, see below.

Oxfam International is a world-wide development organisation that mobilises the power of people against poverty. In the Pacific, we work with our partners to ensure that Pacific Islander women and men (specifically those that are poor, marginalised or excluded) are leading and shaping their development and where their voices are heard and acted on by those in power. In the Pacific, Oxfam’s regional office is based in Suva, Fiji, where our Fiji country office and our base for remote cluster management of the Polynesia/Micronesia country office are also located. We also have offices in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The Pacific Islands Climate Change Collaboration, Influencing and Learning (PACCCIL) project is a four year (2018 – 2021) project funded for the first two years by Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). It aims at strengthening the influencing capacity of civil society actors and networks to ensure that action on climate change in the Pacific region is more effective, inclusive and collaborative. The project will work with key climate change action networks in Vanuatu and at the regional level, as well as facilitate the organising and collective action of civil society actors in Solomon Islands and the Polynesia and Micronesia sub-regions against climate change.