Participants at the meeting in Funafuti, Tuvalu. Picture: Supplied
28 July 2020
Funafuti, Tuvalu - Climate change funding from the world's largest global climate funds was the talk of Tuvalu last week. Officials hosted a face-to-face multi-sectoral meeting in Funafuti, joined online by regional partners including the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and the Pacific Community (SPC).
The two-day meeting which ended Tuesday 21 July, outlined Tuvalu’s journey towards accessing multi-million-dollar global funding for climate adaptation work, with the intention of scaling up awareness and capacity for climate resilience.
Participants from government ministries, private sector and civil society networks in Tuvalu juggled online zoom sessions with face-to-face breakout exercises as they explored ways to share resources and know-how.
Speaking to the workshop, Pacific Islands Forum Deputy Secretary General, Dr Filimon Manoni, noted Tuvalu’s significant progress in accessing climate finance. Forum Leaders, at their Tuvalu meeting in 2019, reaffirmed the need for simple, easy access to international climate finance for island nations—amongst those hardest hit by the impacts of climate change.
“Being accredited as a National Implementing Entity is only the first step. There is a need to continue strengthening your government’s absorptive capacity, and national public financial management systems, to enable the Ministry of Finance to submit its first project proposal to the Adaptation Fund”, said Dr Manoni.
He says multi-stakeholder approaches “inclusive of both the private sector and civil society” proved “no matter how small we think are… if we work together, as whole-of-government, we can reach new heights, regardless of our vulnerability and capacity constraints”.
Tuvalu Ministry of Finance Chief Executive Officer, Faivatala Lee Moresi, said resourcing for complex, multi-sectoral projects has made partnerships and technical assistance an essential requirement for smaller countries like Tuvalu. He told the meeting Tuvalu's journey as a National Implementing Entity of the Adaptation Fund makes the current multi-sectoral workshop and regional support so important.
“There is no disputing the fact that we Small Island Developing States are at the forefront of climate change and all its documented devastation…we are still struggling to access adequate and sufficient financial resources to help us build resilience and minimise risk,” Moresi said.
“What we have received thus far is nowhere near 5% of the total magnitude of resources needed for resilience efforts to face climate change impacts. We shall therefore maintain the momentum and even redouble our efforts to access these resources”, he said.
As well as improving understanding of accessing and managing global climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund, the workshop highlighted the importance of strong national systems and private sector engagement. The workshop was funded by the SPC/USAID Institutional Strengthening to Adapt to Climate Change (ISACC) project, and jointly supported by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, EU funded Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change and Resilience (PACRES) project and the GIZ/DFAT Climate Finance Readiness of the Pacific (CFRP) project.
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Communications & Public Affairs
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