Fiji Resilient
InformalSettlements

Supporting the most vulnerable
communities in building adaptive
capacity against climate change
and disaster risks

Fiji Resilient
Informal Settlements
Fiji is geographically and culturally considered the centre of the Pacificand has historically served as a regional hub. Located in the Pacific
Ocean’s cyclone belt, it experiences frequent cyclones and with themdamaging winds, rain and storm surges.

Climate Change vulnerabilities
Being mountainous in its interior, Fiji’s cities and towns are mainly
located on the coast and along rivers and as a result are particularly
exposed to cyclones, storm surges, coastal and riverine erosion,
landslides and already occurring sea level rise. Mangrove deforestationand coral reef extraction to accommodate urban development and forreasons of income generation are increasing the vulnerability of urban
areas to coastal hazards, as both mangrove forests and coral reefs
provide effective barriers against storm surges and cyclones. Informal
settlements residents in towns and cities are particularly at risk. In
addition to climate change having an impact on the living environmentof many informal settlement communities, it also poses a risk to existing
livelihood practices.FJ$FJ$ FJ$

FJ$FJ$The overall objective of the project is to increase the resilience of
informal urban settlements that are highly vulnerable to climate change
and disaster risks. The project aims to work with vulnerable urban
communities to conduct vulnerability assessments for the participating
settlements and to produce actions plans and strategies for implementing
climate adaptation actions within communities. The identified vulnerable
communities participating in the project consist of 16 informal settlements
across four urban areas: Lautoka, Sigatoka, Nadi and Lami.
Underpinning this project is the focus on capacity strengthening in orderto enhance climate resilience of the most vulnerable settlements, withan emphasis on women, girls, youth, people with disability and people
FJ$in vulnerable situations. Communities will be involved in the planning,
implementing and monitoring of activities, maximizing ownership andawareness.

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Project objective

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VULNERABILITY
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FJ$30% poor quality
housing
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Inadequate access to:sanitation 18%, water11%
FJ$

Economic drivers:
Agriculture and tourism
Informal economy: 20%
but employs 40%
FJ$

Lack of support
andFJ$
adaptive capacity of
informal communities

FJ$EXPOSURESENSITIVITY

More than 50% of thepopulation isFJ$urban, witha 20% living in informal
settlements

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Increase in air
FJ$andsurface temperature
Increase in intensityand frequency of
extreme rainfall

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Significant projected
impacts due to Sea
Level Rise of 50cm

FJ$

Increase in numberofFJ$
extreme hot days anddecrease in rainfall
during the dry season

Loss of aquatic andagricultural livelihoods
due to weather andecosystem changes

Intensification ofstorms and cyclones

Asset destruction
fromFJ$
the most vulnerable,
due to events such as
flash floods

Ocean acidificationand coral bleaching

Impacts on health andwellbeing, especiallyamong the mostvulnerable (elderly,children, women etc.)Project areas

Lami Town

Lautoka City

Sigatoka Town

Nadi

PROJECT OVERVIEW
who does what ?

components

1

Reducing climate related
vulnerability at thecity-level, throughinstitutional strengthening,
resulting in enhanced local
climate response actions

Fiji National Government

ClimateChange Unit234

MLGHE

MoE

Local (community/informalsettlements) resiliencestrengthening through awarenessraising, capacity building andenhancement of adaptation
ownership and climate risk
reduction processes

Departmentof Town& Country
Planning

Department Department
of LocalofGovernment Environment

Local Governments,
Local Authorities,
Community organisations
and NGO’s

Participatory andcommunity driven

Increasing adaptive
capacity of informal
settlement communities
by strengthening physical,
natural and socio-economic
assets and ecosystems

Local Governments,
Local Authorities,
Community organisations
and NGO’sRaising awareness andsafeguarding transparency
through Knowledge Management,
Advocacy & Communication

Knowledge Management
and Communicationteam together with allstakeholders

outputs
4 City-wide Vulnerability Assessments
Hazard maps for 4 towns
4 City-wide Action Plans
Establishment of Urban Planner /Resilience Officer
Departmentof Housingbasis for holistic climate sensitive urban /settlement planning and development
Community Participation
16 Community based VulnerabilityAssessments
16 Community Level Resilience Plans
Community capacity strategies

articulation of needs and vulnerabilities ofcommunities as a basis for action
Implementation of community
infrastructure / ecosystem projects in
identified communities

Participatory andcommunity driven

Turning outputs of component 1and 2 into interventions
Knowledge Management, Advocacy
and Communication strategy
Collection of knowledge products
Advocacy material
Presence of social media
Best practices and lessons learned for
project replication in the region

outputs to be generated, captured anddistributed with other communities, civilsociety, policy makers/governments,
international community

UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP)ACROS Fukuoka, 8Floor 1-1-1 Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka, 810-0001, Japan
Tel: (81-92) 724 7121 Fax: (81-92) 724 7124 Email: habitat.fukuoka@un.org Website: http://www.fukuoka.unhabitat.org