The Official opening of the Mekong Asia-Pacific-Community-Based Adaptation (MAP-CBA) Workshop at the Hotel Insel Fehmarn in Apia, on the 26th August 2009, marks a milestone achievement for the Pacific SGP family, with the launch of the new innovative and strategic partnership to tackle one of the most critical challenges facing the Pacific Islands given its vulnerability to the adverse impacts of Climate Change.
The Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP) in 15 countries of the Pacific sent their National Coordinators and National Focal Persons, as well as one member each of their National Steering Committees and National Focal Groups to attend this Workshop in Apia, with the main aim of introducing them to the processes and requirements of the MAP-CBA Programme, so that they would in turn go back and formulate the MAP-CBA programme in their respective countries. The GEF SGP, AusAID and the NZAid are the three main donors for the CBA programme, and their representatives were also participating at this Workshop.
The main objectives of the MAP-CBA Programme include i) to identify ways to improve the adaptive capacity of communities, thereby to reduce vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change risks, ii) to provide countries with concrete ground-level experience with local climate change adaptation, and iii) to provide clear policy lessons.
The MAP-CBA Workshop had a number of presentations and discussions on ways to implement community-based projects that seek to enhance the resiliency of the most vulnerable communities to climate change impacts, through local-level climate risk management projects. Lessons were also shared and learned from other workshop participants and also from the CBA community pilot project experiences in Samoa and Jamaica.These projects can be used to promote replication of successful community practices, and integration of lessons into national and sub-national policies that reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts, from the community level to the national level. The highlight of the Workshop was a visit to Fasitoo-Tai Village where the participants not only visited and saw the project site and how climate change has impacted on the ecosystem and the lives of the people there, but were also introduced to the Samoan culture and village institutional structure, which play a big part on how a Samoan village make their decisions and enable the mobilization of resources and community with regards to any response to climate change.
The essential characteristics of the MAP-CBA Programme lies in its significant impact on people’s lives and in its complement to, and synergies with related programmes and initiatives, at the national, regional and global levels. Focus on local communities is at the core of UN’s work as demonstrated through the newly formulated UN joint programme on Community Centred SustainableDevelopment Programme (CCSDP) which promotes an integrated approach to community development. Climate Change is placed strategically within the CCSDP given that it is considered as a development challenge not just an environmental challenge.
There are also regional climate change adaptation initiatives supported by UNDP such as the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC), the National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA) formulation and implementation to name a few.
The Samoa SGP is currently implementing an AusAID funded Vulnerability and Adaptation programme in Samoa targeting 8 villages (7 in the Gagaemauga District on Savaii, 1 at Fasitoo-Tai on Upolu). The experiences so far at the project planning and early implementation stages from these 8 village projects have been shared with other participants from around the Pacific, promoting the spirit of South-South Cooperation.
This launching of the MAP-CBA programme in Samoa, is also taking place at a very strategic time, as the Pacific commemorates the Year of Climate Change in the region this year 2009, which complements some of the regional and national climate change initiatives of UNDP and the United Nations (UN) in the Pacific.