The Pacific Region is preparing a Strategy for Climate and Disaster Resilient Development in the Pacific (SRDP) to more effectively address the risks and challenges posed by climate change and disasters within the context of sustainable development.
March 2014: The Pacific Region is preparing a Strategy for Climate and Disaster Resilient Development in the Pacific (SRDP) to more effectively address the risks and challenges posed by climate change and disasters within the context of sustainable development.
The SRDP will integrate disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change, and succeed to two existing frameworks – the Pacific Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management Framework for Action (RFA) and the Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change (PIFACC) – both of which are set to expire in 2015. The Pacific Region is the world’s first to fully integrate DRM and climate change into a single policy framework.
The Strategy’s preparation process, also known as the ‘Roadmap,’ was endorsed in August 2011, with the active engagement of, and consultation with, national and regional stakeholders representing a range of interests across the Pacific Islands Region. Political support and priorities for consideration were then put forward during the first Joint Meeting of the Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management (PPDRM) and the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable (PCCR) in July 2013.
The Strategy is being developing based on the assumption that an integrated DRM/climate change approach, working across all sectors, will: more effectively reduce risks; make better use of existing national and regional capacities and resources to address multiple hazards or phenomena; and contribute to improving policy coherence and coordination of donor-assisted investments. Most Pacific Island countries have already taken steps to address disaster and climate risks in an integrated manner.
The Roadmap outlines the process for developing the SRDP by 2015, including: a global consultation process, which concluded on 3 March 2014; submissions and reiterations of the draft Strategy expected during 2014; and an endorsed draft submitted to the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit for approval in August 2015. The formulation process includes a wide range of consultations at national, regional and international levels, targeting a wide variety of stakeholders, with lessons learned from RFA and PIFACC implementation being factored into the process.
The draft Strategy includes strategic goals on: strengthened risk management, including climate change adaptation; low carbon development; and strengthened disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Regarding implementation, it includes sections on: implementation framework; governance and institutional arrangements; partnerships and coordination; communications and advocacy; resource mobilization; and life-cycle approach to monitoring, evaluation, reporting and learning.
The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the University of the South Pacific (USP) are supporting the preparation of the Strategy. [SRDP Website, including Draft Strategy] [Roadmap Towards the SRDP]