SI$

Climate Resilient Honiara

Making communities less vulnerable to climate change anddisaster risks
Solomon Islands is considered to be one of the world’s fastest
urbanizing countries. The capital, Honiara, located on the northwestern
coast of Guadalcanal, is the major centre of economic activity andas such, attracts increasing numbers of youth and adults from otherislands seeking employment. The city has a growing urban footprint
and is the only settlement exceeding 10,000 inhabitants. This large
movement of people is overstretching the urban development andplanning capacity of government entities, resulting in rapid unplanned
urbanization and associated growth of informal settlements and alack of adequate infrastructure.

settlements most vulnerable have been identified as Aekafo, Kukum
Fishing Village, Ontong Java, Gilbert Camp, and White River.

Project objective

In line with and in support of the Honiara Urban Resilience and Climate
Action Plan, the overarching goal of this project is to enhance theresilience of the city and its inhabitants to current and future climate
impacts and natural disasters, putting a particular focus on propoor adaptation actions that involve and benefit the most vulnerable
communities in the city and a special emphasis on youths, women,girls, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Climate change vulnerabilities

Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as Solomon
Islands are amongst the most vulnerable countries to climate change.
Honiara’s coastline is vulnerable to sea level rise and lacks sufficientnatural or artificial defences against the increasing intensity of storm
FJ$
surges and cyclones, resulting in loss of habitats andlivelihoods.
With a topographically difficult terrain and limited urban infrastructure,
the rugged hills and valleys are facing increased occurences oflandslides due to FJ$
higherfrequency
and intensity of extreme rainfall.
FJ$FJ$
Particularly at risk are the residents of informal communities. The

SI$

SI$

FJ$

FJ$FJ$The projectSI$ will engage across all spatial scales with resilience
actions and capacity building at city, ward, and local community
levels. A combination of actions and capacity building across spatial
scales ensures that actions are not stand-alone but are integrated
into a resilience action planSI$for the city and hence more likely to besustainable in the longer term. Important outcomes of this multilevel approach are improved institutional arrangements and working
relationships between all stakeholders involved.

SI$FJ$

SI$

SI$

SI$

FJ$

VULNERABILITY
SI$

SI$

SI$
FJ$

EXPOSURE

SENSITIVITY
30% of inhabitants live
SI$in informal settlements,
this number is expected
to grow to 50% by 2025
SI$

58% of dwellers
SI$ isSI$
under 25 and youth
unemployment is highLimiting and hazardous
terrain restricting urban
infrastructure
SI$SI$

Increase in air- andFJ$
surface sea temperature(0.7oC - 4oC )

SI$

SI$

SI$

More frequent andintense extreme rainfall

More frequent very hot
days and nights

SI$

Lack of natural or
artificial defenses fromstorm surges / cyclones

Assets of mostvulnerable destroyed,for example due toland slides

Sea level rise

FJ$ and
Loss of aquatic
agricultural livelihoods
due to weather andecosystem changes

Increase in ocean
acidification and coralbleachingImpacting healthespecially among themost vulnerable, elderly,
children, women etc.

FJ$

SI$

Lack of support to andFJ$
adaptive capacity
ofinformal communities

Components

Community level

12

Ward level3

Strengthing local awareness and ownership ofadaptation and climate risk reduction processes,
capacity to locally implement, and increased
adaptive capacity through community level
actions

City level

Outputs

Community Climate Action Plans for White River and Gilbert
Camp informal settlements
Community profiling of hotspot case studies
Scoping and feasibility studies for actions in each hotspot
community
Implementation of resilience actions in each hotspot
community

Supporting implementation of prioritized resilience actions in vulnerability
hotspot communities
Community level capacity strengthening for local
awareness and ownership of adaptation and climate
risk reduction processes and capacity to locally
implement

Training in support of community profile self-assessments
Awareness and capacity development support, workshops
related to key issues

Strengthening local awareness andcapacity to implement, increasing
ecosystem resilience and adaptive
capacity through ward level actions

Women-focused climate risk communications program
Climate Change as part of education for youth and children
Ecosystem-based adaptation options
Climate resilient community spaces (productive openspaces and evacuation centres)

Strengthening the capacity of local communities to respond to climatechange and natural hazards

Supporting the implementation of resilience actions that target women,youth, urban agriculture and food security, and disaster risk reduction.
Reducing local risks associated withclimate-induced socioeconomic andenvironmental losses through ward
level capacity strengthening‘Planning for Climate Change / DRR knowledge’ training forresilience officers
Pilot best practice participatory approach in climate action
planning
Assessment of land administration options for peri-urban
locations
Strengthening the capacity of ward officials / councils to lead climatechange adaptation and DRR planning activity, in support of increased
urban resilience.

Reducing risks associated withclimate-induced socioeconomic andenvironmental losses through citywide governance and capacity
strengthening.

Capacity Development Needs Assessment
Climate adaptation resilience officer, multi-stakeholder
steering group, support for regular meetings
Partnership networks, provide support for increased
participation
Policy and stakeholder mapping, whole-of-govt. review(building codes, land use)

45PROJECT OVERVIEW

Strengthening institutional arrangements at the city-level to respond toclimate change and natural disasters through mainstreaming activities
and improved partnerships

6Raising awareness, safeguarding
project transparency, and ensuring
access to project results for replication
through Knowledge Management,
Advocacy and Communications

Climate change training and knowledge exchange
Advocacy materials
Knowledge sharing platform
Project learning mechanism

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