January 2013: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has published a pilot fragility assessment report of Vairiki village, an urban settlement in South Tarawa in Kiribati. The assessment explores fragility related to the delivery of critical urban services, with a focus on water and sanitation services.

The assessment’s key objectives were to better understand patterns of fragility and resilience in urban services created by state-society relationships in South Tarawa, and to identify strategies for overcoming fragility and improving the quality of urban life.

The publication discusses key drivers of fragility in five sub-sections: economy, which notes that high rates of urbanization and limited economic opportunity have translated into high rates of poverty in South Tarawa; environment, which discusses how overcrowding and a lack of adequate water and sanitation render Bairiki Village environmentally fragile; urban service delivery, which highlights problems relating to the quality and supply of drinking water, disposal of sewage and management of solid and hazardous wastes; urban land use and management, which describes housing in South Tarawa as “lacking space, privacy, safety, and basic services;” and urban social networks, which notes that weak social cohesion and a lack of individual social responsibility have led to damaged public property, unsanitary conditions and environmental problems in the community.

The final section of the publication, mitigating fragility, suggests strategies for achieving better development results, such as: outsourcing urban management functions to the private sector; promoting demand-driven urban management reforms; and designing projects that avoid igniting settlement rights disputes and that share benefits equally.

The findings of this study should inform ADB’s urban development activities in Kiribati, including the South Tarawa Sanitation Improvement Sector Project, by encouraging a fragility-sensitive approach to development. [Publication: Pilot Fragility Assessment of an Informal Urban Settlement in Kiribati]