Unpacking Resilience: Pacific Leaders Showcase Practical Solutions for Change
Honiara, Solomon Islands: On the margins of the 54th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Honiara, the Government of Solomon Islands convened a high-level dialogue showcasing practical examples of integrating risk and resilience into development planning and financing.
Aligned with the broader theme of the Leader’s Meeting, Iumi Tugeda: Act Now for an Integrated Blue Pacific Continent, the event drew on lessons learned from Solomon Islands and Tonga on institutional reform measures and the important role of leadership in embedding risk-informed and resilient development approaches. Government-led changes in national and sub-national planning processes, adopting budgeting tools such as climate budget tagging and standardising project design and implementation to include climate change and disaster risks and social inclusion are having tangible impacts, especially for communities.
In his opening keynote address, Honourable Rexson Ramofafia, Solomon Islands Minister for National Planning and Development Coordination emphasised that, “Tonga and Solomon Islands have made significant strides in aligning policy, public financial management systems, planning and budgeting with climate change and disaster risk priorities. This is a transformative shift – one that moves us away from responding to disaster events to proactively shaping our resilient futures.” Furthermore, Ms Amelia Kinahoi Siamomua, Adviser to the Prime Minister of Tonga added that “Collaboration between ministries is essential – but just as important is collaboration with communities. I want to say multiple hands because in today’s development agenda and the language, we say partnership, but our ancestors, our leaders, our chief and our traditional leaders were always counting on those multiple hands”.
Speaking on the work the Solomon Islands Government has undertaken within finance, Mr Roy Mae, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of National Planning and Development Coordination emphasised, “there is opportunities for integrating climate budget tagging to ensure resilience priorities are mainstreamed across sectors and government ministries when preparing development programs as well as development projects”.
Furthermore, risk and vulnerability assessment tools are proving critical for risk-informing planning processes. As highlighted by Ms. Agnetha Vave-Karamaui, Deputy Secretary for the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, “these tools are part of the Solomon Islands national evidence base and help prioritize and ensure our investments and attention… meet community needs.”
Building on this framing, the event also hopes to promote and facilitate future learning among Pacific governments on the tools and processes being adopted, while reflecting on what resilience truly means for governance systems and the people who are central within these systems. The event was facilitated in partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum and showcased practical examples for realising the vision for a resilient region as set out in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
The message at the conclusion of the event was clear: resilience is not just about responding to shocks, it’s about transforming how we plan, govern, and deliver services. There are already practical solutions being undertaken by Pacific Governments that are bringing about transformative change for Pacific people.
The discussions in Honiara will contribute toward a growing body of work focused on Pacific-led resilient development, learning and documenting success factors for strengthening governance systems across the region.
ENDS