📋 Tender Overview
Developments need to be looked at differently and in a risk-informed way. This was highlighted by the Permanent Secretary for Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management David Kolitagane while addressing guests during the virtual launch of the United Nations Development Programme UNDP Governance for Resilience Gov4Res Community Resilience Small Grant Initiative last Friday. Mr Kolitagane said in ensuring that developments were risk-informed meant investing more in resilient infrastructure proper land management resilient livelihoods and social safety systems.Following the devastations of Severe Tropical Winston in 2016 the Ministry shifted towards a new development paradigm that adopted the integration of resilience at the core of all development initiatives conducted by the Ministry. In aligning with this commitment the Ministry is now working with the UNDP Gov4Res Project to risk inform existing and newly approved projects in the rural and maritime areas.The impact of COVID-19 and the unprecedented impacts of climate change and disasters as highlighted in the recent IPCC report confronts us not only with the evidence of present disturbing situations but also with a disruptive and challenging future. These forces us to think differently in all our interventions moving towards transformative development processes. This current and future reality means that now more than ever we need to look at development differently and in a way that is risk-informed Mr Kolitagane said. All investments need to be risk-informed and future proof considering the impacts of climate change and disasters and the long-term impact of the pandemic. To that end the capacities need to be enhanced at all levels and in two directions bottom-up through community owned and driven initiatives and top-down through coordinated planning and prioritisation systems.Mr Kolitagane emphasised that CSOs and Non-Government Organisations NGOs played a significant role in community development and it is therefore imperative that we work together to ensure that our goals and objectives for communities were aligned and the practice of risk informing was shared for sustained outcomes.I am happy to note that the Small Grants Initiative that we are launching today has this objective at its core to strengthen capacities at the grassroots level that may incubate spread and then accelerate positive changes in these challenging times.This Small Grant Initiative is crucially important in fostering economic development and prosperity for our small island countries. Fiji being small and vulnerable to disasters and climate change with signs of increasing intensities and frequencies - promoting resilience at the core of its community development will go a long way in achieving resilient and sustainable communities.PS Kolitagane said it was also important to ensure that projects identified through this process were closely aligned to government planning and prioritisation processes. He said this would ensure that resources could be equitably distributed to communities in an organised way and would also ensure that there was no duplication of support and initiatives in communities.The learning from this initiative is key for us at my Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management to understand what resilience means for communities under the five identified areas of interventions agriculture water health energy and small infrastructure. These learnings will inform how we integrate risk more effectively into government systems and ultimately on government resources.PS also acknowledged and commended the support from the donors of UNDP Gov4Res DFAT KOICA MFAT and SIDA for supporting this important initiative for the benefit of our small island countries in the Pacific.
