There is an intensifying imperative for climate change action in both development and humanitarian response contexts that calls for greater sophistication and demonstration of effectiveness by relevant actors. Pacific community experiences and recognition of local leadership in climate change adaptation, including in risk reduction, preparedness and recovery are critical to inform effective approaches.

This session will bring together academics and practitioners from Australia and the Pacific to demonstrate the importance of more integrated ‘multi-sector’ locally-led approaches to effectively strengthen climate resilience, providing the evidence base through research and practice. This approach recognises the complexity and interconnectedness of the various challenges that climate vulnerable communities face, such as shelter, WASH, food security, energy, health and gender. A more integrated multi-sector approach allows for the strengths of diverse actors to be leveraged to create more robust resilience investments, and speakers will provide examples of this in practice. 

Habitat for Humanity, represented by Chris Govers (Facilitator) and Sangita Kumar (Fiji-based Speaker) will bring practical experiences from multi-sector community development approaches in Fiji and the value of localised leadership in climate action. Anna Gero (University of Technology Sydney – Institute of Sustainable Futures) and Jess Lees (Humanitarian Advisory Group) will provide additional insights into relevant research and proven practical frameworks and approaches for collaboration for effective climate resilience in the Pacific, including work funded by DFAT. 

Each speaker will be introduced and permitted a few minutes to provide their ‘take’ on the subject matter (15mins), followed by one facilitator prompted question for each speaker and facilitated discussions between the group (25-30mins). 15-20 mins will be made available for questions/discussions with the audience, managed by the facilitator. 

The intended outcome of this session is to promote solidarity for resilience through greater collaboration of different sector experts through integrated development approaches. With an emphasis on effectiveness from a local perspective, discussion will identify the different ways of working that are needed to achieve climate resilience. 

The session will call for a shift away from ‘sector prioritisation’ approaches of focusing on ‘what we’re good at’ individually in isolation with communities, towards newer approaches that recognise the limitations of what we are able to achieve separately and what we can achieve through an integrated development approach. The session will share and invite delegates to apply practical methods, tools and experiences for climate resilience actors to work more collaboratively, drawing from their different areas of expertise to more effectively achieve inclusive climate resilience with communities.

The session will contribute to the agenda for a more resilient Pacific by recognising the need for actors across the region to support more integrated approaches to foster resilient Pacific communities.