USAID Climate Ready Project
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu – Pacific
Project leader : USAID
Dates : 2016-2021
Classification
Risks
Solutions
Actors
Costs
Summary
USAID Climate Ready works with Pacific Island Countries to achieve their climate change adaptation goals by assisting them to develop and implement climate action policies and plans in a manner that is country-driven, coordinated, inclusive and equitable. The Climate Ready Project seeks to increase countries’ adaptation capacities to negative impacts of climate change by:
- (1) Assisting them to incorporate climate change adaptation goals and measures into their national policy;
- (2) Improving the access to international, multilateral climate change funds;
- (3) Building professional capacity and management system to coordinate, manage, monitor and report adaptation projects.
Actions
The Climate Ready project is working to assist countries to incorporate climate change adaptation goals into their national policy and to support their implementation. Hence, USAID Climate Ready supports counterparts to improve climate adaptation policies and implement reforms. This work is linked to existing initiatives and regional efforts by the Council of Regional Organizations in the Pacific (CROP) agencies.
The project promotes further access to climate finance (2). It provides technical assistance and capacity building to assist countries access climate change adaptation funding through national accreditation, and/or through regional or multilateral accreditation. In addition to the work on accreditation, USAID Climate Ready works with accredited entities to prepare project concepts and proposals for submission to the climate finance organizations to facilitate access to climate change funding for national and regional projects that build climate resilience.
In addition, the project contributes to building the countries’ capacities to implement adaptation projects (3). In this regard, USAID Climate Ready supports the public and private sectors as well as civil society to implement climate change adaptation projects after funding is received. USAID Climate Ready has partnered with Universities and training organizations within the region to provide accredited courses to men and women across the region who coordinate, manage or implement adaptation projects.
Outcomes
Policy work necessary for achieving adaptation goals as identified in national adaptation plans are in place and in practice (1) – results include:
- 10 climate change policies supported by the project that address climate resilience.
- 5 strategies developed to enable effective climate change adaptation mainstreaming.
- 14 institutions with improved capacity to address climate change.
Improved access to international, multilateral climate change funds (2) – results include:
- US$111 million mobilized for climate resilience.
- 39 projects with facilitated access to climate finance.
- 18 institutions with improved capacity and accreditation to access climate finance.
Building professional capacity and management systems to coordinate, manage, monitor and report on adaptation projects (3) – results include:
- 1,615 people, including 755 women, trained in global climate change adaptation.
- 10 countries with strengthened government project management and data collection systems.
- 10 countries with strengthened management systems for project implementers through certification programs.
- 14 online tools.
People prefer accredited training courses delivered by registered training organizations as these qualifications can be used to achieve promotions and different work positions.
As accredited organizations prepare projects for funding, they make cost decisions which limit or exclude the resources needed to ensure the participation of women and vulnerable people and other specialist inputs in the preparation process and USAID Climate Ready has been able to work with these organizations to supplement the technical assistance resources and ensure that projects are prepared and include the participation of women and vulnerable people and specialist technical inputs.
Countries are keen to have their own national accredited entities but they underestimate the work required to achieve accreditation and USAID Climate Ready has been able to support organizations to move towards accreditation.
When developing climate change policies or mainstreaming climate change into sectoral plan, the process used to develop the policy and ensure the understanding and involvement of all staff is crucial to the operationalizing of the policy or plan.
Partners
Technical partners: national government agencies in 11 countries; regional and international accredited organisations; regional educational organizations; national chambers of commerce in four countries
Financial partners: USAID