Fiji’s National Adaptation Plan Framework.

To guide the national efforts to develop its National Adaptation Plan (NAP) to comprehensively address climate change, the Government of Fiji has developed this National Adaptation Plan Framework. It provides guidance on the development and implementation of the NAP, which itself serves to implement the adaptation component of the new National Climate Change Policy. More in details, it (i) sets out the approaches and principles which will underpin how the NAP is implemented; (ii) sets out the institutional arrangements which will guide the formulation and coordination of efforts to implement the NAP and steer the national process over the long term; and (iii) proposes some initial efforts to progress the NAP process. Being one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, even under a scenario of 1.5 C of global warming, Fiji will experience severe negative climate change impacts. For this reason this framework outlines how climate change adaptation will be integrated throughout sub-national planning structures, helping to ensure that adaptation finance reaches those who truly experience climate change first hand.
The indicated approaches underpinning the NAP process are the following (i) integration both horizontal (ministries and departments incorporate climate change into their work and create institutional links which enable cross-sector issues to be addressed) and vertical (intentional and strategic linkages between national and sub-national adaptation planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation); (ii) private sector involvement, identifying useful incentives and options; (iii) promotion of ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) options to protect against damage as well as increase local community resilience and adaptive capacity; (iv) gender and human-rights based approach calling for inclusivity and equity; and (v) identification of rural and urban areas as separate but also linked areas, taking into account the relationship between natural resources (e.g. coral reefs and mangroves) and urban resilience needs.
Guiding principles for the NAP implementation are (i) participation, to create a NAP process that is inclusive and multi-stakeholder and minimizes duplication of efforts, as well as promoting information sharing, policy alignment, and coordination of efforts; (ii) pro-poor, since low-income and otherwise disadvantaged groups are often the most seriously affected by climate change and with the least capacity to cope with, so that simultaneously addressing poverty and vulnerability to climate change is needed; (ii) robust decision making to not delay the implementation of protective, anticipatory, and preventative measures; (iii) identifying "no or low-regret options" that demonstrate early benefits or quick payback periods in implementing projects with either environmental, social, and economic or adaptation, mitigation, and development co-benefits; and (iv) managing trade-offs to balance the needs of all stakeholders and the need to implement government policy.
As for the institutional arrangements for the NAP process, they require (i) a national level formulation and coordination mechanism which enable the flow of resources to the sub-national level aligned with government policies, consisting of 1. a Steering Committee, 2. an expert consultative group together with a Scientific, 3. a Technical Advisory Task-force comprised of entities specialized in the creation, management, and interpretation of environmental and climate data, and 4. consultative groups, including civil society and private sector; (ii) a sub-national formulation and coordination mechanism, consisting, among others, of NGOs, regional entities, development partners, sub-national government representatives from relevant government ministries, and community representatives.
In order to enable more inclusive and efficient systems, the Framework proposes that (i) the National level Steering Committee should contain a representative from the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation; (ii) the consultative groups should include actors with expertise on gender issues, as well as representatives from all major economic sectors, notably finance, tourism, and agriculture; and (iii) a gender responsive budgeting should also be considered.