Pacific Cities & Islands
ICLEI Oceania region includes 29 Pacific nations:
American Samoa, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federates States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna.
While Australia and New Zealand are technically islands, this initiative focuses on the 27 smaller Pacific Island Nations. ICLEI Oceania has been working with island communities since early 2015 – connecting political leaders into international networks and events and conducting planning workshops for their leaders, managers, staff and community members.
The towns and cities of small island and archipelago-based nations are often overlooked by international urban resilience policies and programs due to the small populations involved. However, these cities and towns are some of the most vulnerable, diverse, and rapidly growing urban centres anywhere in the world, acting as crucial gateways to sustainable development for the citizens of small island developing states.
Even though an average of more than half of their populations reside in urban environments, and a third of all small island nations are dependent on a single primary city, urban resilience and sustainable urban development in small islands have largely been overlooked by international agencies. Emphasis has instead been placed on either national level initiatives, or local, non-urban settings. As a result, institutional capacity in urban planning and governance is often weak, with infrastructure ‘deficits’ being present in many cities, compounding issues related to urban growth and disaster recovery.
Disaster Risk Reduction in Island Cities
The many development challenges faced by small islands are often worsened by frequent disasters. Thus, helping an island community to become more disaster-resilient can provide a pathway to strengthening other critical systems – food, energy, ecosystems, health, housing etc.
ICLEI works with the United Nations Disaster Office UNDRR to help refine and test self-assessment tools for cities to assess their disaster preparedness and plan disaster risk reduction strategies. ICLEI also encourages all island cities to join the UNDRR Making Cities Resilient Campaign.
Honiara and Port Vila
The many development challenges faced by small islands are often worsened by frequent disasters. Thus, helping an island community to become more disaster-resilient can provide a pathway to strengthening other critical systems – food, energy, ecosystems, health, housing etc. ICLEI works with the United Nations Disaster Office UNISDR to help refine and test self-assessment tools for cities to assess their disaster preparedness and plan disaster risk reduction strategies.
In 2015 and 2016 ICLEI assisted Honiara and Port Vila to undertake DRR self-assessments. In 2018 ICLEI Oceania then received a grant from the EU DEVCO “Making Cities Sustainable and Resilient” project to extend the DRR planning in Honiara and help to develop a comprehensive disaster action plan. In 2019 ICLEI then received a grant from the Australian Government to conduct further planning between Honiara City and several vulnerable communities, to help them develop their local disaster plans and to inform the City’s new Disaster Management Plan.
Fiji Cities
UNISDR and ICLEI Oceania, along with UN Habitat, have partnered to work with several Fiji cities to assess their disaster preparedness. In October and November 2018 rapid DRR assessments have been undertaken with the four Greater Suva municipalities and the Nadi-Lautoka Corridor. A similar assessment was then undertaken in Sigatoka in February 2019.
UN Habitat will use the resultant DRR assessments and draft action plans to help form a baseline for their Fiji Resilient Informal Settlements initiative,
ICLEI has also collated the actions from each workshop into a Generic Fiji Local Government DRR Action Plan. This will be presented to the National Government to inform their reviews of the Disaster Management Plan and Local Government Act.
Cities With Nature
CitiesWithNature is a unique initiative that recognises and enhances the value of nature in and around cities across the world.
It provides a shared platform for cities and their partners to engage and connect, working with shared commitment towards a more sustainable urban world.
Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy
ICLEI welcomes Towns, Cities and Provinces of the small islands states to become part of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy which gives them the opportunity to report on local climate action formally. This international coalition of cities, towns and regions aims to demonstrate and share their ambitious plans to become low carbon, encouraging renewable energy and energy efficiency, while being better adapted to climate change and importantly more climate resilient. The Global Covenant applies equally to small island towns as to mega-cities.