PACIFIC FORUM SECRETARY : Pacific regional meet shares resilience initiatives > Forum Sec
Thursday 11 August 2022, PIF HQ, Suva, FIJI—More than a hundred Pacific climate change and disaster officials have come away with strengthened knowledge through shared experience and learning to address resilience in their communities from an interactive two-days event held last week. The hybrid meeting was the first face-to-face regional gathering of climate change and disaster resilience practitioners in more than three years post COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants discussed ways to mainstream climate change and disaster risk considerations within their respective development plans. Participants discussed the basic constructs of resilience building such as leadership and governance; preparedness, capacity building, knowledge, and information sharing; coordination, partnerships; finance; effective planning, monitoring, and evaluation.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Zarak Khan, Pacific Islands Forum Director of Programmes and Initiatives, reiterated that “our Leaders have stated many times – climate change is an existential threat and addressing this and other hazards and shocks such as earthquakes and tsunamis, requires, amongst other things, that we continue to cultivate a culture of learning and knowledge sharing.”
“By broadening our knowledge, we can generate new ideas and be creative and innovative in terms of how we address resilience moving forward. The complexity of the environment in which we live requires this of us,” Mr. Khan added.
Ms. Vika Sivoki Lavemaau, Chief Economist, Ministry of Finance, Tonga highlighted that a key takeaway from the learning sessions was the “understanding that having a robust Public Finance Management system is a critical building block for risk-informed development.”
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