ProVention  
Consortium: Harmonisa-
tion Portal 

http://

www.proventionconsortium.org/

Climate and Disaster 
Governance

 

http://

www.climategovernance.org/

 

 

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Pacific 

insight 

“INTEGRATING PARTICIPATORY DISASTER RISK REDUCTION 

AND CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN THE PACIFIC” 

 

Pacific Insight is the newsletter for the AusAID funded project on        

community based disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change    

adaptation (CCA) in the Pacific. Here we share research findings and  

update our partners on recent project activities, including ... 

“What are the current disaster risk    
reduction and climate change          
adaptation networks and websites?” 

Through the course of our work, we have 
come across a growing number of estab-
lished and emerging DRR and CCA related 
networks and websites pertaining to the 
integration of the two fields. This shows a 
degree of willingness amongst the commu-
nities to share information and break down 

the barriers which prevent co-operation and 
collaboration of efforts. Although too   
numerous to list all of them here, we have 
taken a sample to illustrate the wealth of 
information available as of February 2010 
(the list is ever increasing!). For the full list 
please refer to our website. 

Adaptation Learning         
Mechanism (ALM) 

http://

www.adaptationlearning.net/

 

 

Pacific Disaster 

Net

 

www.pacificdisaster.net

 

 

PreventionWeb 

http://

www.preventionweb.net/english/

 

 

Small Islands Devel-
oping States Network 

http://www.sidsnet.org/

 

 

Community Based  Adaptation 
Exchange 

http://

community.eldis.org/cbax/

 

 

Gender and Disaster 
Network GDN 

http://

www.gdnonline.org/

  

Samoa CBA project, September 2009: Fagamalo 
village visit 

Disaster Reduction and Climate 
Change Infolink 

http://

www.unisdr.org/eng/risk-reduction/
climate-change/rd-cch-infolink4-05-
eng.htm

 

 

In April 2010, Anna Gero and 
Kirstie Méheux will be returning 
to Fiji and Samoa to launch their 
report and run workshops. The 
workshops, which are related to 
how to better integrate DRR and 
CCA, will be held in Suva and 
Apia with dates as  follows: 
 

SUVA: Monday, April 19th 

 

APIA: Wednesday, April 

21st 

 

Time and venues TBA. 

 
Formal notice and  further details 
will be sent in coming weeks, 
however for more information 
prior to then please feel free to 
contact us on the details below. 
 
We intend on extending the  
invitation to a broad audience as 
our results are relevant to many 
people in the DRR, CCA and 
development fields.  

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REPORT LAUNCH

 

An Australian Government, AusAID initiative, managed by UNSW  

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this publication are those 
of the authors and not necessarily those of the Australian 
Agency for International Development (AusAID) 

^ĞĞ ŽƵƌ ǁĞďƐŝƚĞ ĨŽƌ ŵŽƌĞ ĚĞƚĂŝůƐ͗

ǁǁǁ͘ŶŚƌů͘ƵŶƐǁ͘ĞĚƵ͘ĂƵͬƌĞƐĞĂƌĐŚͬƉƌŽũĞĐƚĚƌƌĐĐĂ͘Śƚŵů

Naimalavau Village PCIDRR        
Simulation Exercise, Fiji, July 2009 

NEXT EDITION

 

Our next (and final!) issue will 
summarise the major findings of 
our research. We will describe 
our approach over the past year 
and reflect upon what we found, 
highlighting the next steps to be 
taken. 

Recap: “Earth System  

Governance” 

Earth system governance refers to the inter-related      
systems of formal and informal decision making systems. 
It incorporates actor networks and institutions, from the 
local to global level, that are involved in dealing with     
environmental change. 

The Five A’s 

Earth System Governance identifies five fundamental 
research and governance challenges which are cross- 
cutting themes in global change research. These     
problem structures, or the five A’s, are: 

AGENCY: Who has power and authority beyond the state, and what are their roles and           
responsibilities? Here, civil society and non-government organizations (NGOs) are playing an 
increasing role.

ARCHITECTURE: Relates to the emergence of governance systems, such as new institutions 
and networks, and how effective they are. Analysing architecture also involves assessing the 
overall integration of governance across scales from local to global. 

ADAPTIVENESS of governance mechanisms (decision making, exercising authority, rule   
making, policy development) to cope with the rapid global change we are currently facing. 

ACCOUNTABILITY and legitimacy, which relate to democracy and decision making. “What 
institutional designs can produce accountability and legitimacy that guarantees balance of      
interests and perspectives?” (Bierman et al., 2009:5).

ALLOCATION: Relates to access to information, which in turn corresponds to justice, fairness 
and equality (Bierman et al., 2009).  

“How does this relate to Pacific DRR and CCA?”

 

Photo credits: Anna Gero 

The Church: influential in the Pacific via 
AGENCY (authority) and ARCHITECTURE 
(institutionally) 

The five A’s provide an interesting way to identify and interrogate the integration of DRR and CCA in 
the Pacific. There are, for example, a multitude of agents, stakeholders and actors involved in DRR 
and CCA from the local to the global level. Examining issues such as power and authority in decision 
making, and how these potentially disparate groups forge and manage relationships is providing useful 
insight into the challenges and best practice of integrated DRR and CCA.  

Our research is finding that relationships and personalities amongst agents are significant factors   
influencing integration. We find evidence of effective networking and relationships within sectors  
indicating that bridges between DRR and CCA are beginning to be built. We are now looking at how 
the institutional architecture of DRR and CCA can support linkages, relationships and networks.  

Who is accountable for climate change impacts in the Pacific? Surely not Pacific Islanders, who con-
tribute a meager amount of greenhouse gases. Accountability extends further to deal with legitimacy, 
democracy and decision making, including the participatory approach in community based programs. 

Adaptiveness is demonstrated via the growing number of organizations and initiatives in the Pacific 
that explicitly deal with climate change, while the allocation challenge is linked to access to informa-
tion, for example how technical climate and weather information is channeled to local people. Is it 
translated appropriately? Is anyone excluded from receiving this information? Allocation is also an 
issue with regard to allocation of resources for community based programs – to whom are the         
resources allocated and why?