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INCREASING RESILIENCE to CLIMATE CHANGE and NATURAL Hazards PROJECT MARCH 2017

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INCREASING RESILIENCE to CLIMATE CHANGE and NATURAL Hazards PROJECT MARCH 2017 INCREASING RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS CLIMATE CHANGE PROJECT IN VANUATU Public Disclosure Authorized D I V I S I O N , VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 MARCH 2017 V A N U A T U METEOROLOGY AND GEO - H A Z A R D S DEPARTMENT WELCOME to this first edition of INSIDE THIS ISSUE: the IRCCNH Project newsletter Welcome to this 1 Edition climate change and natural What is the IRCCNH 2 hazards in Vanuatu. In this Project? Public Disclosure Authorized first edition, we provide East and West Tanna 3 an overview of the IRCCNH Baseline Survey Project approach and First Micro-projects in 4 locations and some high- Tanna Island lights of components past Government assist 5 activities in various project farmers with sites in Vanuatu. We hope agriculture tools you will find it to be in- Interview: Staff profiles 6 formative and interesting to find out the type of activi- New Disaster Centers 7 for Torba and Tafea Brian Philips, Project Manager, IRCCNH Project ties the project is imple- Public Disclosure Authorized provinces menting in your areas in the Welcome to our stakehold- newsletter is an initiative to past years in terms of Strengthening of the 8 ers, partners and readers to share information on the addressing issues concern- Early Warning Systems this first edition of the project’s activities to ing climate change and in Vanuatu Increasing Resilience to increasing the resilience of natural hazards. You can VARTC Develops 8 Climate Change and Natural our people and communi- find out more by contacting improved crop varieties Hazards (IRCCNH) Project ties to the issues affecting our office in Port Vila or by newsletter. This quarterly our countries as a result of checking the NAB Portal. Government assists 9 communities with VT12 million worth of sawmills Project mid-term 9 review brief report Public Disclosure Authorized Villagers benefited 10 from water tanks Ministry of Climate 10 Change Contact IRCCNH Project, Project Management Unit (PMU), Climate Change Division, VMGD Office, Ministry of Climate Change and Natural Disasters, PMB 9054, Namba 2 Area, Port Vila, Vanuatu, Ph: 678 24686, Email: [email protected] INCREASING RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL hazards PROJECT MARCH 2017 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 P A G E 2 WHAT IS THE IRCCNH PROJECT IN VANUATU? increasing community resilience in coastal areas through the strength- ening of methods, processes and protocols for climate change adap- tation (CCA) and disaster risk man- agement (DRM) and enhancing community and eco-system Based Adaptation and DRM in coastal Its areas and on active volcanic islands (two coastal and volcanic areas development councils identified Gaua and Tanna. This component also focuses on the objective is core of the project which is com- munity investments through micro- to help projects and building resilience in terms of improving access to fresh increase the water, developing options for improved crops and increasing resilience of access to government services such as health and trade centers. communities Component 3 is looking at promoting improved technologies in Vanuatu A project activity in Tanna—doing the baseline survey consultation with facilitators for food crop production and resili- ence to climate change through the to the The Increasing Resilience to Union (EU) Global Climate Change- Alliance (GCCA) Program. Its devel- production and distribution of Climate Change and Natural improved plant genetic material and impacts of Hazards (IRCCNH) Project in opment objective is to help increase the resilience of communities in distribution of improved Agricultur- Vanuatu is a project belonging to al Technologies to support on-farm climate Vanuatu to the impacts of climate the Vanuatu Government and is production and resilience to climate currently implemented by the variability and natural hazards on variability food and water security as well as change with farmers. Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo- Component 4 looks at Rural hazards Department (VMGD) livelihoods. In this regard it pilot and natural investments in priority villages in Water Security by improving the under the Ministry of Climate increased access to secure water Change and Natural Disasters. Vanuatu to increase the resilience to hazards on the impacts of natural hazards and supply by strengthening the rural Other government agencies water supply through the comple- involved in the coordination and climate variability and change, food and strengthen disaster risk management tion of the national inventory of implementation of the different rural water systems, updating rural components of this project are the systems, and support recovery water efforts post Tropical Cyclone Pam water supply standards and guide- National Disaster Management lines, improving outreach to that hit Vanuatu in March 2015. security as Office (NDMO), Department of partners and the installation of Local Authorities, Department of There are four components to this rainwater catchment and storage well as Agriculture and Rural Development project and Component 1 is look- systems in affected communities. (DARD), Vanuatu Agriculture ing at institutional strengthening for At this stage of the project, the Research and Training Centre livelihoods. climate change and disaster manage- focus is concentrated on communi- (VARTC) and the Department of ment sectors in terms of strengthen- ty investments that is building Mines, Geology and Rural Water ing of the National Advisory Board community resilience through Supply. to Climate Change and Disaster Risk micro-projects. The current The Project got its funding from the Reduction in Vanuatu (NAB) Secre- Global Environment Facility (GEF), tariat, strengthening the National micro-projects on Tanna focus on The European Union (EU) Africa, Disaster Management Office water systems rehabilitation, and Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Natu- (NDMO) and strengthening the Early establishment of emergency evacua- ral Disaster Risk Reduction (NDRR) Warning Systems (EWS) at the tion centers, strengthening feeder Program through the Global Fund Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo- roads and building multi-purpose for Disaster Reduction and Recov- hazards Department (VMGD). rain harvesting water systems. ery (GFDRR) and the European Component 2 is focusing on Look up the NAB Portal Website on the following link: http://www.nab.vu/projects/increasing- resilience-climate-change-and-natural-hazards-vanuatu for more information about this project. “NAB Portal provides information on events, calendars, project profiles and information, documents, news and many more. Book mark www.nab.vu in your internet browser today.” Increasing resilience to climate change and natural hazards project MARCH 2017 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 P A G E 3 EAST AND WEST TANNA BASELINE SURVEY IRCCNH Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) baseline survey field data collection and data entry was implemented in collaboration with the Vatu Mauri Consortium (VMC) and the Project Management Unit (PMU) at the Vanuatu Department of Meteorology and Geo-hazards Department (VMGD). The survey commenced in February 2016 with a training of the VMC facilitators and led onto the launching of the baseline in May 2016 at Lounapiktuan village on West Tanna. Data collection was only started in late June 2016 and finishing in early September 2016. A show of hands agreeing to water as their priority during the Tanna baseline To some extent, some identification of risks exercise in one of the villages in Tanna. and vulnerabilities were sought through this comprehensive baseline survey. The baseline survey assessed a total of 220 villages of East and West Tanna. Baseline data was then analysed and produced village profiles and reports for the 220 villages and the reports show the current situation of these villages. Current situation covers topographic situations, a history of natural disasters in the area, land degradation issues, availability of natural resources, social relationships, water and sanitation situations, infrastructure types and every- thing one needs to know about a village. The baseline profiles and reports were then Tafea province and VMC heads at the official launching of the Tanna baseline used by the Tafea Provincial Technical survey in Tanna. Advisory Commission (TAC) in September 2016 to select fifty (50) micro-projects for the island of Tanna. These are small community investments focussing on increasing resilient livelihoods through increased access to fresh water and access to improved agricultural root crops and improving roads to enable access to trade centres and medical services. The selections were centred on the decree of vulnerability and isolation of each of the communities. The ground project operations team includes the provincial water engineer, the provincial disaster officer and the provincial project officer who work very closely with the project team in Port Vila to coordinate Field data collection in Tanna the implementation of the micro-projects on the ground in Tanna. INCREASING RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL hazards PROJECT MARCH 2017 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 P A G E 4 FOUR MICRO-PROJECTS LAUNCHED ON TANNA Four micro-projects were launched safe and secure water supply for in Tanna at the end of last year the designated communities that 2016, which benefited many are resilient to climatic changes communities by accessing clean and and natural hazards and also to safe water. The micro-projects enable communities to take were mainly on rain water charge of and maintain their catchment and water gravity fed water supply
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