10th October 2018 Tonga’s Meteorology Division under the Ministry of MEIDECC is hosting the 4th Disaster Resilience for Pacific Small Island Developing States (RESPAC) Project Board Meeting, at Liku’alofa Beach Resort from the 10th – 11th October, 2018.
Funded by the Russian Federation and organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Disaster Resilience for Pacific SIDS (RESPAC), the 4th board meeting aims to improve Pacific SIDS resilience to climate-related hazards.
Chief Executive Officer for MEIDECC, Mr. Paula Pouvalu Ma’u said, “UNDP has chosen Tonga to have its meeting as it coincides with the Steering Committee meeting of the WMO CREWS project and the WMO Regional Conference and Regional Association 5th Meetings.”
“Despite various constraints mostly brought about by the devastation of Severe Tropical Cyclone Gita in February this year, hosting of these meetings demonstrate the value that our Government places on building regional partnerships and ensuring that we, as Pacific Islanders, are working together as one to build our resilience to various natural hazards and extremes events brought about by climate change.”
He acknowledged the donor contribution of the Government of Russia and the UNDP’s effort as the implementing agency in focusing on the projects improvement for capacity building and training of meteorology and NEMO staff.
He also said that this project also focuses on Risk insurance and there will be some examples share later during the board meeting.
“In this rapidly technological-driven world where a new upgraded or version of anything from mobile phone to aeroplanes are available in the market, at a cost of course, we in the Pacific do not have the luxury of simply upgrading or changing equipment when one becomes dysfunctional or there is a new upgraded model in the market.”
“I hope I speak on behalf of my fellow public administrators who have to make difficult decisions on how to optimally spend limited taxpayer resources. Unlike our larger and more developed economies, we simply don’t have the resources to keep track of climate change and chaos it is causing our small island countries.”
“I am quite pleased that through the RESPAC project, a feasibility study was conducted earlier this year on the establishment of a Regional Training Center for the Pacific. I am told the feasibility study will be further discussed during these meetings and hopefully there is a clear pathway towards its implementation in the region.”
He told the gatherings that there is no better way of improving our resilience to the adverse effects of Natural Hazards brought about Climate Change than to prepare our current and future generations to better monitor the climate variables and have the expertise to provide early warning and better effective response.
“Training conducted by the project on early recovery and disaster preparedness has been well received and beneficial to our government officials. I am hopeful that the project will consider more funding to help us with the training of our staff in all facets of meteorology. I am also quite interested to see how disaster insurance can be introduced to Tonga to strengthen the resilience of our people and communities.”
Attending the opening ceremony were the Board Meeting Chairperson, Mr. Kevin Petrini, Senior Supplier, Mr. Sergei Glagolev, delegates from around the region, government officials and guests.
ENDS
Issued by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications