Fiji has reaffirmed its support for the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), with Foreign Affairs and External Trade Minister Sakiasi Ditoka saying the Pacific-owned mechanism must put communities at the centre of climate resilience efforts.
Speaking at the PRF Community Talanoa Side Event in Nadi, Ditoka said the Facility was a major step towards strengthening Pacific ownership, agency and collective leadership in responding to climate and disaster risks.
“The Pacific Resilience Facility puts communities in the driving seat, because they know their own challenges and their own solutions,” he said.
Ditoka acknowledged Pacific Islands Forum Leaders and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat for advancing the PRF, as well as governments, development partners, civil society organisations, NGOs and Pacific communities involved in its development.
He said the Facility had been established as Pacific communities faced increasingly severe climate impacts, including droughts and extreme weather events affecting food security, livelihoods and resilience.
“The Pacific experience highlights the urgent need to remain within the 1.5°C pathway,” Ditoka said, noting that climate impacts were already being experienced directly by communities across the region.
He said Pacific ownership did not mean working alone, but building partnerships around priorities identified and led by Pacific countries and communities.
Ditoka also stressed that the PRF needed to be sufficiently flexible to respond quickly to urgent needs on the ground.
“We intend to grow it into a reliable and predictable source of funding.
“And we have stressed that agility is essential: we must be able to deploy water-storage tanks at scale, well before the rains stop,” he said.
Ditoka said the ability to move resources quickly would be critical as Pacific communities faced increasingly unpredictable weather and climate conditions.
Ditoka said Fiji would continue to support the PRF as a practical expression of Pacific agency and collective action.
“Fiji fully supports this Pacific-owned, Pacific-led response,” he said.
“Through the PRF, we will rebuild and strengthen resilience. Let’s maintain the momentum and commitment.”
The PRF was established by Pacific Island Forum countries as a Pacific-led financing mechanism aimed at supporting locally identified climate and disaster resilience priorities without adding to countries’ debt burdens.
