Enhancing South-South cooperation for capacity building in science: Towards Economic Resilience to Natural Shocks in the Pacific and Southeast Asia

The Government of Malaysia and the United Nations for Education, Sciences, Culture and Communications Organization (UNESO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 15th November 2011 under the Malaysia UNESCO Cooperation. The MOU was initiated in 2009 by the Honorable Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia who announced at the 35th General Conference of UNESCO, the establishment of Malaysian Cooperative Trust Fund which will contribute to enhance South-South cooperation for capacity building in education and science for the benefit of the Least Developed Countries, Small Island States in Asia and the Pacific and in support of the Priority Africa agenda of UNESCO. The Malaysian trust fund essentially provided a launching grant of USD 5 million, followed by a contribution of USD 1 million annually. Programmes under this fund will be identified in cooperation with UNESCO, particularly with the UNESCO Regional Offices in Bangkok and Jakarta, and the Malaysian National Commission for UNESCO in the Ministry of Education. In June 2014, the Malaysia government approved nine new projects. It should be noted that for the very first time, one particular project focuses in the Pacific SIDS entitled Towards Economic Resilience in the Pacific and Southeast Asia: Reducing Risk of Loss & Damage from Extreme and Slow-Onset Events through Improved Assessments and Education. Residual losses from climate variability and climate change are inevitable. The international community is in need for more information on climate impacts and to understand the limits of adaptation.The partnership proposal highlighted here is not really a new, however it needs to be recognized and showcased in Samoa particularly in light with recent developments and focus in the Pacific. In this case, we draw and emphasis on this particular new project initiative for the benefit Pacific SIDSThis current collaborative project will:1. Showcase loss and damage realities, experiences in LDCs/SIDS in the Pacific and Southeast Asia regions;2. Present best experiences and lessons learned as well as new insights into how to strengthen existing/new tools for reducing risk to loss and damage;3. Assess capacity needs on loss and damage in the agriculture and tourism sectors;4. Carry out capacity building and training/share information on reducing risk of loss and damage;