News/Capacity building:
- Enhancing private sector engagement in Climate Finance in Polynesia (Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Niue). The workshop brought together NDAs, national private sector agencies and partners. This was conducted in the 4th quarter of 2019. Please refer to the link.
- Regional peer to peer learning where government officials within the Tuvalu Ministry of Finance (Adaptation Fund NIE) had a 2-weeks attachment with the Fiji Ministry of Economy and Climate Finance team. The program was implemented from 24 February to 6 March 2020 and was intended to include Samoa and Kiribati but had to be put on hold due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
- Supported the drafting of Solomon Islands GCF readiness proposal which was approved in December 2019. The readiness delivery partner will be SPREP.
Available capacity-building support:
The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s role in climate change and disaster risk management and resilience building is related to coordination, high level political advocacy and provision of policy support to Forum Island Countries to improve their access to, and management of, climate change and disaster risk finance as well as integrating risk governance into development. Its role in this area complements the key roles of other Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP) such as the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Pacific Community (SPC), the University of the South Pacific (USP) and other international and regional partners including national stakeholders.
In the last quarter of 2019, PIFS worked with the Government of Cook Islands to support the Polynesia sub-regional private sector workshop. Specifically, for the first quarter of 2020, PIFS worked with GIZ Pacific and Fiji’s Ministry of Economy to deliver the first peer to peer learning programme between the Governments of Tuvalu and Fiji.
In March 2020, PIFS provided capacity building support to the Government of Papua New Guinea and GGGI with a national GCF private sector Forum held in Port Moresby in mid-March.
National private sector mapping on climate finance had been completed for Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Islands and Solomon Islands. Tonga is in the pipeline followed by other Pacific island countries. A regional knowledge product on the experiences of private sector engagement in climate finance in the Pacific is being developed.
An Informal Technical Working Group on Public Financial Management and Climate Finance has been established in early 2020 to advice and provide capacity building for Pacific island countries on a regional ‘fit-for-purpose’ guideline/standard to promote direct access to the GCF and Adaptation. The TWG includes PIFS, World Bank, PFTAC, IMF, ADB, UNDP, EU, Australia, GIZ and New Zealand. Two meetings have been convened.
Activities undertaken in the last quarter:
- Enhancing private sector contribution to resilience building: PIFS in collaboration with the Cook Islands Climate Change Office coordinated the Polynesia sub-regional private sector workshop at the Rarotonga Edgewater Resort on 3-4 October 2019. It was aimed to assist businesses and governments of Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu to increase their awareness of, and access to climate change financing and options for public-private sector partnership and investment. Close to 40 participants from these countries attended representing the Office of the GCF’s NDA, the national Chamber of Commerce and the business community. Key resource personnel from the GCF Private Sector Facility, SPREP, Frontier Fund Management Company, Asian Development Bank (Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative) were invited to provide some policy and practical advice during the workshop and assist in disseminating relevant information to the participants. Click here for more information.
- Regional peer to peer learning programme: PIFS worked with GIZ to support the first peer to peer learning for climate change finance to address the capacity gaps in five countries (Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu). The overall objective of the peer-to- peer learning programme is to enhance national staff’s capacities to access, monitor and manage climate change finance through peer networking and knowledge sharing. Fiji’s Ministry of Economy was the host of this peer to peer programme whereby two Tuvalu government officials from the Ministry of Finance were on a two-week attachment at the Fiji’s Ministry of Economy Office in Suva. The officials learned more than their expectations in the areas of public finance management, specifically on internal audit strengthening, development assistance management and Fiji’s experience on being accredited to the GCF. PDF version of the officials’ report who were part of the programme from the country can be shared via email.
Upcoming events:
October 2020, Micronesia sub-regional private sector workshop, (Venue/ City: Nauru): A similar approach that will build on past sub-regional workshops in Melanesia (2018) and Polynesia (2019) to strengthen engagement between private and public sectors in climate change and resilience building through information and knowledge sharing.
Publications:
- Enhancing private sector contribution to resilience building (Press Release, October 2019).
A dialogue between the public and private sectors hosted by the Government of Cook Islands on resilience building through improved access to climate change finance and strengthening public private partnership.
Click here for more information.
- Regional peer to peer learning (March, 2020).
Tuvalu officials with Fiji’s Ministry of Economy staff and development partner representatives during a presentation of their learning experiences.
Related URL link:
Contact person:
Exsley Taloiburi,
Resilience Team Leader and Climate Change Finance Advisor
Email: [email protected]