Strong enabling environment

: 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.

The aim of the project is to apply Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) to empower targeted communities in Community Conservation Areas (CCA’s) to develop rights-based regenerative climate-smart ridge to reef landscape and food system design and management plans that support food and nutrition security and overall well-being.

 To reduce the vulnerability of rural communities in Tonga,Vanuatu and Samoa to the impacts of Climate chnage,the proposed project will enable the transition from conventional to climate-resilient, regenerative agricultural (CRRA) practices. Through these practices, the delivery of agricultural ecosystem services will be enhanced and  dependence on external inputs reduced.

To support the adoption of CRRA, the proposed project will:

1. strengthen cross-sectoral partnerships
2. enhance market incentives for CRRA
3. Provide training and support for farmers and 
4. implement robust monitoring and knowledge-sharing initiatives to support learning and adaptive implementation of CRRA

Vanuatu is among the most vulnerable countries on earth to the increasing impacts of climate change, including climate-related natural disasters and the effects of slow-onset events such as sea-level rise and ocean acidification.

As the effects of global warming manifest and the hazards of climate change arise at accelerating rates, there is a need to shift the paradigm towards the standardised and mainstreamed use of science-based climate information, at multiple timescales, to support resilient development pathways.

The proposed project will support this paradigm shift through the strengthening and application of Climate Information Services (CIS) in five targeted development sectors: tourism; agriculture; infrastructure; water and fisheries.

More specifically, the project will build the technical capacity in Vanuatu to harness and manage climate data; develop and deliver practical CIS tools and resources; support enhanced coordination and dissemination of tailored information; enhance CIS information and technology infrastructure; and support the application of relevant CIS through real-time development processes, for more resilient outcomes.

The project has a focus on addressing information gaps and priority needs of target beneficiaries at national, provincial and local community levels across the five priority sectors.

The project will deliver enhanced:

• capacity and capability of national development agents, to understand, access and apply CIS
• CIS communications, knowledge products, tools, and resources for practical application to development processes.
• reliability, functionality, utility and timeliness of underlying CIS delivery systems and data collection infrastructure.
• scientific data, information and knowledge of past, present and future climate to facilitate innovated and resilient development.

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.