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A two-day workshop is underway in Port Vila to review plans on how to better integrate risk into routine government planning and processes at the sub-national level.
Participants at the workshop include representatives from local administration, donors, line ministries and partner NGOs.
The Department of Local Authority (DLA) with technical assistance from the UNDP’s Pacific Risk Resilience Programme (PRRP) is working on a “Risk Proofed Planning, Budgeting and Monitoring Guidelines for the sub-national Government of Vanuatu.
“These guidelines will be a game changer in the way sub-national government functions”, said the Honorable Alfred Moah, Minister for the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the opening of the workshop.
He added, “The guidelines integrate the “Community Driven Development” approach in the local level planning process which would allow for better planning, budgeting and monitoring at the sub-national level.”
Echoing the Minister’s comments, Acting Director General for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Jones Ephraim said, “because of Vanuatu’s vulnerability to disasters, it is important that the guidelines are risk proofed.”
“Risk proof development will allow for Vanuatu to better prepare for any associated negative impacts of climate change and disasters.”
The initial Risk Governance Assessment (RGA) was undertaken in 2013 by the Government of Vanuatu with support from UNDP PRRP.
Bikash Dash, the Institutional Risk Governance Advisor to the UNDP’s PRRP said “the draft guidelines were piloted in Tafea, Sanma and Malampa Province in 2015 and the feedback from the pilot has been incorporated into the guidelines.”
“The guidelines has been widely shared with different stakeholders and their feedback has been collected and incorporated to improve the document”, Mr Dash said.
DLA now plans to finalize the guidelines and present to the Council of Minister (COM) for endorsement in June, 2016.
