At the fifteenth meeting of the GCF Board (B.15) in December 2016, the Pacific island country of Vanuatu was awarded a grant for a Climate Information Services for Resilient Development project to be implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), and the Government of Vanuatu. The funding proposal was based on stakeholder consultation and technical design, made possible through the GCF Readiness programme.

• Amount: USD 157,000
• Duration: 9 months (Ended April 2017)
• Focus area: Determine Climate Information and Services (CIS) needs
• Delivery partner: SPREP
• Result: Funding proposal approved at B.15

Supporting informed decision making

The GCF Readiness programme provides support to countries to undertake stakeholder consultations and scientific studies and assessments to determine specific programmatic needs. With this strategic information in hand, countries can better tailor climate change projects and programmes for optimal impact.

“The GCF Readiness support was essential in supporting the stakeholder consultation, technical analysis and design that underpins any good project proposal.”

This approach was deployed in Vanuatu when its National Designated Authority (NDA) to the GCF, the Ministry of Climate Change, and the regional accredited entity SPREP submitted a Readiness proposal to GCF requesting support to better understand the island’s climate information and services (CIS) needs. The data and information gathered would be used to inform the development of a full-fledge proposal to the GCF.

With this up-front funding, activities were conducted to gather insight into the value of developing an integrated CIS project for Vanuatu’s key development sectors—agriculture, infrastructure, water, fisheries and tourism. This included several workshops and consultations to hear from community- and national-level stakeholders, government officials, planners and policy developers to validate perceived needs and vulnerabilities, as well as to ensure the CIS are fit-for-purpose and responsive to Vanuatu’s resilient development needs.

The resulting analysis provided a compilation of solid evidence to proceed with the design of a full project proposal, and ultimately backed the case as to why Vanuatu should pursue investing in CIS as part of its overall climate-resilient development agenda with the GCF.

“The Readiness support allowed SPREP and the Government of Vanuatu to partner on this project with great success. Important lessons were learned and will only strengthen the partnership as we now move into the full project implementation phase.”

Promoting Readiness as best practice

At the December 2016 Samoa Board meeting, Board members noted that the Vanuatu CIS project represents one of the first to have gone through the entire GCF project cycle — from readiness to the funding approval process. This approach was labelled as a best practice in project development to encourage other countries and Accredited Entities to access the Fund’s Readiness offerings to strengthen project design.

The project “Climate Information Services for Resilient Development Planning in Vanuatu”, approved at B.15, will span over four-year and is expected to benefit the island’s entire population.