Inoke Rabonu, Fiji Sun
Fiji is fast-tracking its next National Adaptation Plan (NAP 2.0) after a review of its first five-year plan revealed challenges in tracking progress and measuring results, the country’s climate change chief told the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable in Samoa.
Director of Climate Change in Fiji’s Ministry of Environment Senivasa Waqairamasi said while Fiji has also established a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework since 2020, the first NAP made measuring progress difficult.
“For Fiji, we have a National Adaptation Plan that was launched in December of 2018 at COP24 and with our National Adaptation Plan that is a young one, has a total of about 160 prioritised adaptation actions that were identified to be delivered for a duration of five years,” Ms Waqairamasi said.
“This provides an overarching plan for addressing national adaptation needs built upon a comprehensive stop, take and prioritisation process.”
Fiji’s NAP sits under the country’s 2021 Climate Change Act and National Climate Change Policy, which legally mandate the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to implement and enforce adaptation planning.
It also requires reporting to a National Climate Change Coordinating Committee — “a strategic decision-making body… with core functions to meet the evaluation of cross-cutting policies and sector plans,” Waqairamasi said.
A key part of the system is the National Adaptation Plan Steering Committee (NAPSC), which brings together technical and operational officials from multiple sectors.
“The NAPSC meets periodically to review progress and guide the development of future NAPSC while considering changes needed due to the current climate risk context,” she said.
While Fiji has also established a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework since 2020, Waqairamasi admitted the first NAP made measuring progress difficult.
“The features NAP of 2018 is holistic… making the development of measurable indicators difficult. Our output is centred around actions, and there are no specific indicators that are guiding us in delivering the required component of our NAP. This we see as… a challenge, a limitation.”
The 2018 plan identified 879 possible adaptation measures from existing policies, eventually narrowing them to 160 priority actions across ten system and sectoral components — from climate information services to food security and biodiversity protection.
But the lack of measurable targets has hampered tracking.
Waqairamasi said the updated NAP will correct this.
“The new NAP 2.0 will be streamlined for the next five-year period and have a tighter set of objectives that link specific cost of projects at the sub-national level, allowing for development of specific indicators.”
She outlined several forward steps: a new adaptation registry to track climate actions across sectors; stronger coordination in the NAP Steering Committee to align international and national reporting; and applying “a two-part methodology for M&E” to improve learning from adaptation projects.
“For Pacific island countries beginning to develop their M&E plan or system, it’s important… a need to have a well-defined and clear set of indicators to be able to measure and track the NAP,” she said.
The Pacific Climate Change Roundtable (PCCR), guided by the theme “1.5 to stay alive and thrive,” is taking place at Taumeasina Island Resort from 13-15 August. The PCCR is attended by Pacific governments, youths, civil society, academia, NGOs, and the private sector to engage collectively through the use of interactive activities to share their experiences amongst peers, bolster their networks and utilise the event to initiate new partnership opportunities.
The PCCR follows the Pacific Regional Loss and Damage Dialogue 2025 and the inaugural Pacific Youth Dialogue on Loss and Damage, at the same venue in Samoa.
This story was produced by the Pacific Media Team covering the meetings. Their attendance is made possible with funding support from the Loss and Damage Capability and Capacity (LDCC) Project with the Government of New Zealand.