Progress report for
Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project
Achievement at a glance
"The ""Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project"" will enable the Government of Tuvalu to implement measures to reduce the impact of increasingly intensive wave action and associated impacts of sea level rise and the intensification of storm events on key infrastructure as a result of climate change induced sea-level rise and intensifying extreme events.<br>The project will benefit about 3,100 people directly and about 3,499 indirect beneficiaries. This is about 62% of the population of Tuvalu. The project can potentially reduce annual losses (including statistical value of life) worth up to up to $667,000 over 40-year time period (period of analysis for the economic analysis).
<br>National Climate Change Policy has been developed and the National Development Plan Te Kakeega II has been revised to include climate change. The country now has good policy support to guide its work on climate change adaptation.
<br>The project also aimed to increase the ability of technical/sectoral planners to anticipate climate risks
<br>and plan for these. The Government Departments interviewed had capacity and understanding on
<br>climate change adaptation, including strategic vision and concrete suggestions. "
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Challenges faced in implementation
"The project assumptions with regards to lack of capacity, lack of plans and policies, lack of coordination and low level of awareness on climate change adaptation remain valid or have been partially addressed by the project.<br>Overall, due to an unrealistic amount of planned activities, in particular in light of inadequate consideration at planning stage to the challenges posed by transportation and communications to the outer islands and related delays in project execution, as well as a severe delay in budget implementation and delivery of several outputs, the project has not been suitable commensurate with time and resources available. Finally, with regards to comprehension of the project concept, the PMU and TWG have good comprehension. Level of comprehension varied among PB members and was low among local communities interviewed.
<br> The combined factors of high upfront investments required for coastal protection, the public good and non-revenue nature of the required solutions, and the inability of the Government to service loans, have permitted the Government and the community to implement the recognized solutions only at a slow pace and in a highly fragmented manner in the past. Because available resources are generally far smaller than what is required for implementing appropriate response measures, the past initiatives have often resorted to community-scale interventions that hardly withstand the current wave energy, let alone integrating climate change risks into the design."
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Beneficiaries
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