Marshall Islands: Strengthening disaster risk management

Majuro, Marshall Islands - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), along with the Government of the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), conducted its inaugural project inception and Board meeting in Majuro, on 30 August 2019 for the Disaster Risk Management project, funded by the Government of Japan.

The RMI was awarded US$7.4million for the implementation of the Disaster Risk Management project, “Enhancing Disaster and Climate Resilience through improved Disaster Preparedness and Infrastructure”. The project aims to improve RMIs capacity for preparedness and mitigation to geo-physical and climate related hazards; and enhance resilience to climate change impact in order to protect lives, sustain livelihoods, preserve the environment and safeguard the economy from consequences of different hazards.

In his opening remarks, Hon. David Paul, RMI Minister in Assistance to the President and Environment mentioned that “Building Resilience must now be a key and a fundamental focus in RMI”.

His Excellency, Mr. Norio Saito, Japan’s Ambassador to the RMI   said he was honored to be part of this meeting to identify potential synergies for partners and stakeholders in the area of Disaster Risk Management.

Deputy Resident Representative at the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji, Ms. Karin Takeuchi highlighted that, “Today’s Inception Meeting is a key milestone for our project, and we look forward to the continued fruitful exchanges with the RMI Government to achieve intended planned results”.

The Project will respond to Outcome 1 of the UN Pacific Strategy 2018 – 2022; by 2022, people and ecosystems in the Pacific are more resilient to the impacts of climate change, climate variability and disasters; and environmental protection is strengthened.

This cooperation with the Government of Japan will contribute to achieving the goals the goals of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, eliminating the threat to human security and protect gains of sustainable development and in line with Japan’s ODA in RMI and its Priority Areas such as Overcoming vulnerability and Environment and Climate Change. 

The project will be implemented by the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji through the Resilience and Sustainable Development team. It is also designed in line with RMI’s national plans and priorities for disaster resilience to complement their efforts and capacities.

The Inception meeting brought together 20 participants from the Office of the Chief Secretary to the President, National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), National Weather Service Office (NWSO), the Ministry of Public Works, Infrastructure & Utilities, Ministry of Finance, National Telecommunications Authority, Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI), Kwajalein Atoll Development Authority (KADA) and the Marshall Islands Red Cross Society.

The meeting discussed the overview, challenges, progress and the next steps of the project implementation schedule of the project moving forward.  The project commenced in March 2019 and will end on September 2020.

For more information or media interviews please contact: 

Yoko Ebisawa, Project Manager, email: yoko.ebisawa@undp.org