Caption: Assistant Minister for Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management Hon. Jovesa Vocea and UNDP Governance for Resilient Project Manager Mr. Thomas Crick with participants of the two-day Risk Informed Development Refresher workshop at the Pearl Resort in Pacific Harbour on July 27.

SUVA – More than 70 officials of the Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management and representatives of key agencies of Government attended a two-day workshop, organised in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to strengthen the Ministry’s risk-informed development practices, and reflect on lessons learnt from the past two years since the inception of the approach.

The workshop also aimed to enhance the knowledge and understanding of project implementers of the Ministry, and our key stakeholders about the intended outcomes of risk-informed development, and also strengthen Government systems and processes of institutioalising and operationalizing the RID approach.

The workshop brings together the Ministry’s staff from the four divisions in Fiji, who work across areas of policy and research, monitoring evaluation, disaster risk reduction, and project implementation.

During these two days, participants will exchange knowledge and experiences of integrating climate change, disaster risks, and gender and social inclusion into the implementation of development projects in communities across the country.

Following the signing of a Letter of Agreement (LOA) in August 2020, the Ministry has been working in close partnership with the UNDP Gov4Res Project, to reinforce our commitment to using the RID approach for the benefit of rural communities in Fiji.

In opening the workshop, Assistant Minister for Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management Hon. Jovesa Vocea reminded the participants that the two-day workshop would help them better their service delivery, particularly in ensuring optimal results were achieved in capital project implementation and ultimately raising the standards of rural people.

“The Ministry through its legislative role under the National Disaster Management Act and its mandatory role in the coordination and facilitation of rural development will play a key role as a coordination of partners and stakeholders across a range of planning and decision-making processes. The Ministry’s role as a Knowledge Broker is to ensure evidence-based and risk-informed decision-making as a source of crucial hazard and vulnerability data for our stakeholders. Given the demonstration of the impact of Risk informed development approaches at this early stage of intervention, we are strongly encouraging all development stakeholders to adopt this RID approach, and lessons learned to be well documented for continuous improvement,” Hon. Vocea said.

“I thank you for agreeing to be the agents of change in mainstreaming Risk Informed Development in your various Ministry and also to share the needed data and information required to facilitate this new programme. It is important that we must have the consensus to work together in collaboration with an integrated approach and to drive the establishment of partnerships, coordination and financing mechanisms required to sustain these approaches. Working in integration amongst Government Agencies and Development Partners is critical in order to optimise our limited capacity and resources by combining our efforts to reduce vulnerability, exposure hence reducing risks.”

Participants of the two-day Risk Informed Development Refresher workshop at the Pearl Resort in Pacific Harbour.