Honiara, Solomon Islands – The Government of Solomon Islands has committed to a whole of government approach to enhancing community resilience at a joint signing ceremony of a Letter of Agreement (LoA) with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through the Governance for Resilient Development in the Pacific (Gov4Res) project held at the Ministry of Finance and Treasury on 23 November 2021.

The Ministry of Finance and Treasury (MOFT) and the Ministry of National Planning and Development Coordination (MNPDC) acknowledged the critical role of central government agencies in ensuring that climate change and disaster risk are mainstreamed through planning and finance systems.

Through this strategic partnership, the Ministries will integrate resilience into their planning, project development and appraisal, financing, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes; support climate finance access and effectiveness initiatives; and strengthen coordination and communication for improved understanding of risk integration.

During the ceremony, representatives from MOFT, MNPDC, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM), and Ministry of Women, Youth, Children & Family Affairs (MWYCFA) acknowledged the importance of coordination and partnership across and between ministries present, to achieving the resilience ambitions laid out in the National Development Strategy.

Speaking during the opening remarks, Mr. Mckinnie Dentana, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Treasury, Solomon Islands stressed the critical role of MOFT in providing strategic advice, leadership and reporting on economic reforms, monetary, budget and fiscal policy to the Solomon Islands Government. The Ministry is taking strategic view of how to best match climate adaption and disaster risk management on all infrastructure projects when securing potential funding sources from donors.  “This is to ensure long term sustainability for long term benefit of all investments”, according to the Mr. Dentana.

“We have established a dedicated Climate Resilience Finance Unit within the Ministry to establish financing strategies, integrate climate finance into the financing process, and ensuring a coordinated approach to climate finance information and data sharing and monitoring”, said Mr. Dentana.

From the planning perspective, Ms. Susan Sulu, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of National Planning and Development Coordination, Solomon Islands said, " as the lead ministry for national planning and development coordination, it is important that resilience is mainstreamed into the planning and budget process to ensure that development that takes place is resilient and takes into account risks, shocks and stressors. Monitoring and Evaluation on the other hand, also needs to be broadened to include monitoring for resilience, such that we can be able to ascertain that interventions aimed at enhancing resilience are effective and practically helping to build up resilience".

In acknowledging this timely assistance, Dr. Melchior Mataki, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology Solomon Islands conveyed the Solomon Islands Government’s appreciation for the support of UNDP to achieve the ministries and government agencies resilience vision.

Mr. Berdi Berdiyev, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative and Country Manager for the Solomon Islands Sub-Office stressed, “we would like to acknowledge the Governments of the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden for supporting this strategic partnership which will contribute to the resilience and sustainability of communities in the Solomon Islands”.

With the formalizing of this strategic partnership, the Government of Solomon Islands and UNDP through the Gov4Res project will ensure that communities in Solomon Islands are more resilient, which will help improve social and economic livelihoods.

For more information, or media interviews please contact:

George Herming, Director, Government Communication Unit, Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Solomon Islands, Email: gherming@pmc.gov.sb

Summer Lee, Partnerships, Donor Liaison and Communications Specialist, Gov4Res Project, UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji, Email: summer.lee@undp.org