Table Of ContentProject Inception Report
”Enhancing Adaptive Capacity of Communities to
Climate Change-related Floods in the
North Coast and Islands Region of Papua New Guinea”
Prepared by:
Climate Change Adaptation Division
Office of Climate Change and Development
July 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Contents
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.......................................................................................................4
2. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................5
3. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES......................................................6
3.1 Official Opening...........................................................................................................6
3.2 Objectives....................................................................................................................6
3.3 Expected Outcomes....................................................................................................7
4. PARTICIPANTS....................................................................................................................7
5. PROJECT OVERVIEW...........................................................................................................7
5.1 Review of Project Document.......................................................................................7
5.2 Project Sites.................................................................................................................8
5.3 Early Warning Systems..............................................................................................10
5.4 Component3-Climate and disaster-resilient Institutional and Policy Frameworks.11
5.5 Component4-Awareness raising and Knowledge Management.............................11
5.6 Risks Management Framework.................................................................................11
5.7 Stakeholder Involvement..........................................................................................12
5.8 Linkages, Synergies and Sustainability of Project.....................................................12
5.8.1 MamaGraun Conservation Trust Fund..............................................................13
5.8.2 WildlifeConservation Society (WCS).................................................................14
5.8.3 World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).............................................................14
5.8.4 PNG Forest Research Institute (PNGFRI)...........................................................14
5.8.5 University of Technology (UOT).........................................................................15
5.8.6 AusAID................................................................................................................15
5.8.7 WorldBank (WB)...............................................................................................15
5.9 Budget Shortfall.........................................................................................................16
5.10 Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting..................................................................16
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6. RECOMMENDATIONS and CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................16
6.1 Component 1-Adaptation to coastal flooding-related risks and hazards for North
Coast and Islands Region Communities...............................................................................16
6.2 Component 2–Adaptation to Island Flooding-related Risks and Hazards for River
Communities in Morobe, East Sepik and West Sepik Provinces.........................................17
6.3 Component 3–Climate and Disaster Resilient Institutional and Policy Framework17
6.4 Component 4–Awareness and Knowledge Management ......................................17
6.5 Early Warning Systems..............................................................................................17
6.6 Linkages and Synergies with other Initiatives...........................................................18
6.7 Project Ownership and Sustainability.......................................................................18
6.8 Budget Shortfall.........................................................................................................18
6.9 Risk Management Arrangements..............................................................................18
6.10 Capacity of Pilot Provinces and Communities.......................................................18
7. Annexes............................................................................................................................19
7.1 Workshop Program...................................................................................................19
7.2 Participants List............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
7.3 Project Presentation.....................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
7.4 Stakeholders’ Presentations........................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Office of Climate Change and Development successfuly mobilised a total of USD6,
338, 777 from Adaptaton Fund, Government of Papua New Guinea Development
Improvement Programme and United Nations Development Programme for period of 4
years from 2012 – 2015. The funds mobilised is from the project entitled “Enhancing
Adaptive Capacity of Communities to Climate Change-related Floods in the North
Coast and Islands Region of Papua New Guinea”. This initiative is one of the first
national climate change adaptation initiatives of OCCD to support provincial
governments and commnities in the five selected Provinces of East Sepik, Madang,
Morobe, New Ireland and Northern.
To begin project implementation,the formal agreement between UNDP and OCCD was
held on 8th May, 2012 followed by the inception workshop and first project steering
committee meeting from 25-27 July, 2012. The inception workshop brought together
stakeholders from provincial governments, national government agencies, civil society
organisations, academci and research insitutions, private sector and donors. These
stakeholders were informed of the purpose and scope fo the project, implementation
arrangements, monitoring, evaluation and reporting as well as the project management
oversight strucure.
All stakeholders acknowledged the efforts by OCCD to initiate adaptation interventions
and agreed with the scope of the project. Key issues highlighted include slight changes
to provincial priorities asinitially identified duringproject design phase, importanceand
budgetary allocations for climate change varies between provinces and among
stakeholders,inadequate capacity at provincil and community levels, increased costs of
implementation and likely budget shortfalls due to appreciate of PNG currency (PGK)
and adequate analysis of risks to project. Of particular concern is the community
dynamics and ownership over resources likely to impede implemetation if poor
stakeholder engagement and inadequateawareness and educationoccurs.
To address these issues, stakeholders recommended that proper and formalised
engagement processes is established supported by comprehensive awareness and
education in all the selected provinces and communities. OCCD and provinces were
encouraged to utlise existing expertise of government agencies, research and academic
institutions and civil society organisation for cost effective implementation of project
activities. To avoid duplication of ongoing initiatives, an initial detail analysis of related
initatives between government agencies at national and provincial level as well as CSOs
that are related to any of the project outcomes will be undertaken to map out priority
areas.
It was concluded that a formal project governance mechanims with clear roles and
responsibilities including a project management unit to be established immedilately
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following th inception workshop. This is critical first step to coordinate and ensure
project is implementated within the sceduled timeframe of years.
2. INTRODUCTION
Papua New Guinea is no exception to the global community experiencing a range of
climate change related impacts. As developing country going through a rapid period of
economic growth, there are growing concerns of country’s limited adaptive capacity to
increase its resilience to climate change. In particular, the observations of increased
frequency and intensity of climate related impacts on the agriculture, fisheries, water
resources as well as the destruction of human settlements and public infrastructure
among many others. These have generally affected peoples’ livelihoods hence the
Government of Papua New Guinea has highlighted climate change and environmental
sustainability as one of country’s key development pillars in its Vision 2050,
Development Strategic Plan 2030 and Medium Term Development Plan 2011-2015.
Subsequently, the Office of Climate Change and Development was established in 2010
and developed a Climate Compatible Development Strategy followed by the interim
Acton Plan taking into consideration international commitments such as those
reflected in the 2009 Copenhagen Accord. This including the funding opportunities for
countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process
which OCCD with the support of United National Development Programme (UNDP)
mobilised USD6, 338,777 from the Adaptation Fund in April 2012 to implement one of
the key national climate change adaptation initiatives or projects of the country.
Specifically, the initiative for a period of four years will focus on “Enhancing Adaptive
Capacity of Communities to Climate Change-related Floods in the North Coast and
Islands Region of PNG”.
Hence, the overall objective of this Project is to enhance the adaptive capacity of
communities to make informed decisions about and adapt to climate change-driven
hazards affecting both coastal and riverine communities. In particular, the project will
build resilience towards occurrences of coastal and inland flooding events. The strategy
to achieve this objective will focus onimplementing measures and build institutional as
well as policy capacity that promote efficient and cost-effective adaptation to coastal
and inland flood-related risks at the sub-national levels. The community level
interventions address specific vulnerability characteristics of two distinct geographic
areas which are: i) selected coastal and island communities of the Northern and Island
Coastal Provinces; ii) selected river communities in Northern Coastal Provinces exposed
to inland flooding. The key impact indicator associated with this objective will be the
reduced vulnerability of communities to coastal and inland flooding as well as improved
government’s institutional and human capacity to address climate change impacts.
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3. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES
3.1 Official Opening
The workshop lead facilitator, Ms. Emmajil Bogari-Ahai welcomed all participants
followed by official statement from the UNDP Resident Resident Representative, Mr.
David McLachlan-Karr who was accompanied by the Deputy Resident Representative,
Ms. Carol Flore-Smereczniak. The Resident Representative informed the participants
about Adaptation Fund and how important it is for the Government of Papua New
Guinea to ensure the institutional, policy and legislative frameworks are clear to take
advantage of global funding opportunity particularly grants to implement national
initiatives to address climate change impacts in the country. A brief outline of the
project was shared followed by clarification on the role of UNDP as an Adaptation Fund
implementing entity and works with governments: a) identification, sourcing and
screening of ideas; b) feasibility assessment and due diligence review; c) development
and preparation of projects; d) implementation support through technical, operational
and financial oversight.
The keynote address was delivered by OCCD’s Acting Executive Director reiterated the
importance of the project through the specific four key components: a) adaptation to
coastal flooding-related risks and hazards for North Coast and Islands Region
communities; b) Adaptation to inland flooding-related risks and hazards for river
communities in East Sepik, Northern (Oro), Morobe and Madang Provinces; c)
institutional strengthening to support climate and disaster-resilient policy frameworks;
and d) awareness raising and knowledge management. He stressed on the need to
address needs of the vulnerable and impactedcommunities due to the onset of climate
change and emphasised a “whole of government” appraoch to faciliate an inclusive
stakeholder engagement processes to achieve the overal goals and objectives of the
project.
3.2 Objectives
To begin project implementation, an Inception Workshop is an important first activity
to assist all stakeholders and involved parties to understand and take ownership of the
project’s goals and objectives, define roles and responsibilities, clarifying technical and
managerial aspects. The workshop is also an opportunity for stakeholder to identify
challenges and provide suggestions to mitigate these challenges which could be risks
and issues related to those presented in the project document.
The specific objectives of the inception workshop are:
The project is presented, discussed and understood by all stakeholders especially
implementing partners to ownership to lead implementation;
The Logical Framework matrix is reviewed and validated;
Identify linkages and synergies of ongoing and planned climate change adaptation
initiatives with other partners in the country;
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Stakeholders discuss and agree on the project implementation modalities and
oversight arrangements;
UNDP and OCCD to clarify the roles and responsibilities for project’s day-to-day
implementation, management and oversight arrangements for stakeholders to
agree upon; and
An Operational Workplan for the duration of the project is presented, discussed and
finalized including the Annual Workplan for the first year of implementation.
3.3 Expected Outcomes
The expected outcomes from the inception workshop include:
Improved understand and agreement of project goals and objectives;
Agree on the project implementation modality at project sites in the selected
provinces;
Agree on the composition of the Project Steering Committee and its modality; and
Consensus reached in the multiyear workplan and budget.
4. PARTICIPANTS
The workshop was hosted by the OCCD with support from the UNDP. Participants were
invited from the GoPNG sectoral agencies, Research and Academic Institutions, and the
Private Sectors, Donor agencies and Civil Soceity Organisations that directly or
indirectly deal with climate change issues. A total of sixty participants (Refer to Annex
7.2) participated in the workshop.
5. PROJECT OVERVIEW
The aim of the session was to inform and educate the participants about the scope of
the project followed by feedback from stakeholders. An overview of the project
covering the overall key outcomes, outputs, indicators, targets, detail activity and
budget, risks management framework and management arrangements (Refer to
Annex 7.3) were presented. The presentation led to the discussions and suggestions on
the following issues:
5.1 Review of Project Document
The participants reflected on project content including implementation modality based
on their experiences in project design and suggested the project document be
reviewed. This will ensure action plan is prepared for each of the project provinces to
reflect their climate risks prior to allocation of funds. OCCD acknowledged the
suggestion however stated that substantive revision is not allowed as well as changes to
the outcomes except at the activity level. The concern is that a substantive revision will
have to be cleared by the Adaptation Fund Board which is similar to preparing a new
project and is likely to delay implementation.
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5.2 Project Sites
Some participants argued that certain provinces currently experiencing displacement of
communities due to climate change impacts such as sea level rise, coastal erosion and
flooding considered to be more vulnerable are not included in the project. For example,
the Carteret Islanders of Autonomous Region of Bougainville and the flood prone Gulf
and Western Province could have been given priority in this project. The selection of
project sites were based on the hazard analysis (Refer toslide5-7 of Annex 7.3) prepared
by OCCD in 2010. The hazard analysis found that the project sites are extremely
vulnerable to climate related coastal and inland flooding. In addition, loss in terms of
economic value for these northern and island provinces were considered higher than
other provinces hence these were selected. OCCD also confirmed these are the pilot
provinces and the ones proposed can be considered for future replication at the end of
the project or included in other new initiatives of the office. Equally important is OCCD’s
intention to explore potential collaboration with other partners for the implementation
of certain components of the project.
In terms of provincial updates, the East Sepik Provincial Government, represented by
Mr. Jeffrey Yawi, Senior Planner in the Planning Division confirmed its status as a
disaster prone province and shared the experiences of King Tides which hit the coastal
area of the province in 2008 and caused damages to properties, infrastructures and
human settlements. The Administration has taken the initiative to develop an East
Sepik Province Development Plan in form of a booklet where within it; the provincial
government outlines its plans toaddresses the issues of Climate Change with a range of
stakeholders including efforts to assist NGOs who are implementing their climate
change activities. The challenges include no climate change office and limited capacity
in the government level therefore the provincial representatives agreed to identify
certain gaps in administration to improve on to address climate change impacts and
identify opportunities tobuild capacity within administration
The Madang Provincial Government was represented by Nicholas Hamanie, Assistant
Director for Planning Division within the Provincial Administration. The province is
made up of 19 LLG’s, 6 districts, with a population of 400 000. Although Madang
Provincehas not really focusedon any measures to adapt and mitigateClimate Change
impacts, there have been experiences of rise in sea level from the east coast of East
Sepik to the coast of Bogia.In the Kalibobo Plan 2020, Climate Change as a standalone
thematic area is not considered a priority compared to other natural resource sectors
such as mining (Marengo copper and gold in the Yandara areas), Marine Park
development and a national highway to link western highlands, East Sepik and Madang
Provinces. The Kalibobo Plan that will be launched after the election only highlights
importance of Environmental Sustainability and the provincial administration expects
the Local Level Government including Ward Members to develop own plans to address
environment issues. This process has begun with engagement of NGOs such as The
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Nature Conservancy on some forestry issues. The Provincial Planner however felt that
there is a need to review the Kalibobo Plan to ensure climate change issues are
captured well in the overall development planning framework for the province.
One of the most natural disaster affected provinces is Morobe with established Climate
Change Unit manage by a Climate Change Officer under the division of natural resource
and environment in the Provincial Administration as report by its representative,
Taikone Gwakore who is the Provincial Advisor for Natural Resources. The Natural
Resources and Environment Office within the province was established but lack of
coordination and partnership with the provincial disaster office is lacking therefore
there is no tangible development on climate change activities and developments in the
province.
The New Ireland Province (NIP) known for its natural beauty has 2 main districts,
Kavieng and Namatanai with a total population of 160,000 that spreads across coastal,
islands and inland areas which commonly pose a difficult challenge to manage given the
distance between inhabited communities. These communities have experienced effects
of climate change related disasters including coastal and inland flooding, torrential rain
over long periods, king tides, agriculture yield loss among many others. The provincial
representatives led by the Administrator, Monovi Amani expressed concerns on the
effects of climate change on the public infrastructure such as flooding of Buluminski
Highwayand destruction of economic cash crops like cocoa.
With the emergingthreats of climate change the provincial administration established a
Climate Change and Forestry Office in 2008 and is currently managed by 2 staff.
Following the establishment of the office, the provincial government anticipates that
the 5 years Provincial Medium Term Development Strategy will indentify measures,
opportunities and partnerships to address the climate change impacts. These include
the ongoing partnerships with Provincial Forest Authority for the reforestation
programme and Wildlife Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy and Ailan
Awareness that started the initiative on mangrove planting.
In addition, the Provincial Administration will sign a MOU with OCCD for to assist with
climate change initiatives in an effort to ensure climate change is institutionalised and
builds on progress that has already been made even to the extent of using available
infrastructure to avoid duplication of tasks. Therefore, the NIP representative stated
thatprioritise and activities identified during the design of project have been addressed
to some extent and request if the project can reconsider recently identified priorities.
Finally, the Deputy Provincial Administrator of Northern Province, Tako Gwae
confirmed the increased frequency of natural disasters affecting the province.
Generally, the main is flooding that destroys gardens, food crops and few public
infrastructures particularly bridges and roads. The DPA shared his recommendations
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for the province toensure new public infrastructure to be climate proofed so that these
can cope with the changing climatic conditions. In terms of food security, a seed
storage facility that can be seen as a backup plan be considered seriously to supply
seedlings for communities to rebuilt their lives following floods that often destroys
gardens. This is also important to protect the native species of foods crops so as to not
lose everything in cases of floods. The provincial administration expressed his
concerned of their lack of knowledge on ongoing non-government organisations’
initiatives in the province and would like to improve the collaboration with all key
stakeholders.
5.3 Early Warning Systems
The existing early warning system that is well established is for tsunamis however the
concern is the lack of clarity on the government authorities responsible for different
stages of information dissemination during natural or climate related disasters. This
was based on experiences on the confusion about lead agencies during recent disaster
warnings. It was suggested that there should be a new and an effective early warning
system in place for coastal and inland floodingincluding disaster response management
plans.The University of Technology offered to assist set-up the relevant systems given
the availability of their technical expertiseand appropriate systems already in place.
In addition, the absence or lack of clarity of key policies and regulations on disaster
early warning and management systems is a growing concern. This includes the
hydrology division that has gone non-operational within Department of Environment
and Conservation. The National Disaster Centre argued that much of the content of the
project for the duration of four years requires the data from the hydrology division
hence recommend it to be reactivated.
Furthermore, the National Weather Service pointed out that weather stations
(including automated weather stations), gauges, operations equipment are very
expensive equipment to be bought (Refer to Annex_____). For example, one of the
gauges that was recently bought was about K1million. Since the equipments are
expensive, it is important to understand the costs. Clearly, the costs were
underestimated during the design of the project hence it was recommended that costs
for the early warning systems under outcomes 1 and 2 have to be reviewed. This is
necessary to identify other new, ongoing and planned initiatives to cost-share the
purchase and install these early warning systems. Todate, the NWS has installed 5
Weather Stations in various parts of PNG, in particular; Misima, Siassi, Buka, Aiura and
Western Highlands while World Bank supported installation of 3, AusAID 1 and 25 from
Dr. Phil Shearman’s work through the University of Papua New Guinea.
Finally, monitoring and maintenance of these weather instruments by NWS is
considered expensive thereby ensuring sustainability is a challenge hence OCCD was
cautioned to review the costs. The concern of sustainability in terms of technical
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Description:North Coast and Islands Region of Papua New Guinea” .. The workshop lead facilitator, Ms. Emmajil Bogari-Ahai welcomed all participants followed
