Building Climate Resilience: Lessons and recommendations from a community-based adaptation project in Vanuatu

Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change and disaster risks. Located on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ and in a ‘cyclone belt’, it is uniquely sensitive to a wide range of climate and disaster risks, including tropical cyclones, tsunamis, droughts, coastal flooding, and sea level rise. Many of these hazards are expected to worsen as climate change impacts increase over time. Unaddressed, these hazards will continue to undermine sustainable economic growth, water security, agricultural practices, and natural resource management. Climate change will exacerbate current challenges, disrupt existing development models, and threaten people’s livelihood opportunities, economic development, and resilience to environmental risks.

To address some of these challenges, build the climate resilience of communities, and support the achievement of Vanuatu’s climate and development policy objectives, CARE International in Vanuatu (CARE) and Save the Children have together developed a community-based climate change adaptation project with support from the USAID Pacific American Climate Fund (PACAM). The overall goal of the project was to increase the resilience of communities, especially women, young people, boys and girls, to shocks, stresses, and future uncertainty resulting from climate change.

Through this project, CARE and Save the Children have supported 5,701 women, men, girls and boys in 32 communities to implement essential, local climate change adaptation actions that build their resilience to the impacts of climate change. Support was provided through a series of community-based training programs, focusing on agriculture, food security, livelihoods, and water resource management. This publication aims to capture some of the key experiences of children, women, farmers, teachers and government officials who engaged in project activities to demonstrate what has been achieved through this project, and to highlight elements that have the potential to be replicated and scaled up to achieve greater impact in Vanuatu and beyond.