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The objective of this report is to provide an overview of current knowledge related to the water sector 1 across Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Pacific region.

The 2015 Human Development Report is the latest in the series of global Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 1990 as independent, analytically and empirically grounded discussions of major development issues, trends and policies.

This report represents the World Bank's experience in climate and disaster resilient development, and contends that such development is essential to eliminating extreme poverty and achieving shared prosperity by 2030. The report recognizes however, that such development requires additional start-up costs, which pay off in the long run if done correctly. Given this, the report argues for closer collaboration between the climate resilience and disaster management communities, and the incorporation of climate and disaster resilience into broader development processes. Selected case studies are used throughout this report to illustrate promising approaches, lessons learned and remaining challenges.

Reducing the risk of climate change requires large and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, most of which are caused by the burning of fossil energy sources (1). The debate around emission reductions has been dominated by concern for economic growth, and its reliance on cheap and plentiful energy. Instead, I believe energy’s role in achieving human development should be our core priority.

The concept of ‘climate finance’ has gained considerable currency following commitments from developed countries to provide new and additional funding for action on climate change. There have been a series of studies estimating the size of the financing need and assessments of how the international financing architecture can meet those needs. Sources of ‘climate finance’ comprise not only finance that governments spend, but also private finance for private actions on climate change. These studies have served a useful purpose of putting the mobilization and effective use of increased international resources for action on climate change firmly on the agenda.

The Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) is a Global Environment Facility (GEF) US$5.25 million project in eleven Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Implementation of the project started on 1 January 2008. PIGGAREP’s planned five year duration has been extended to six and a half years, with a scheduled end date now of December 2013.

In 1989, the Asian Development Bank provided technical assistance to the then Department of Agriculture and the Survey Department through a NZ Consulting Firm - ANZDEC under an ADB Land Resource Planning Survey Project. The Project provided training on mapping and GIS capability for the survey staff who were involved in the mapping work. Electronic GIS data and equipment were handed over to the Department of Agriculture at the end of the project which were later on damaged by Cyclone Ofa in 1990. A decade later, the Integrated Climate Change Risks in Agriculture and Health Sectors (ICCRAHSS) Project funded by the GEF through UNDP contracted the services of a consultant to provide: -improved GIS maps for soil, crops and rainfall distribution under different climatic projections; -review existing GIS systems and possible areas for collaboration; -consider a program to support capacity building on the use of the system and; -some applications that addresses options for climate change adaptation for the agriculture sector. Based on this report, a GIS system for the Ministry of Agriculture was procured to address the need for such a system to be in place with the expectation that the system will be properly utilized and maintained by relevant people.

Thirty years ago, half the developing world lived in extreme poverty—today, a quarter. Now, a much smaller share of children are malnourished and at risk of early death. And access to modern infrastructure is much more widespread. Critical to the progress: rapid economic growth driven by technological innovation and institutional reform, particularly in today’s middle- income countries, where per capita incomes have doubled. Yet the needs remain enormous, with the number of hungry people having passed the billion mark this year for the first time in history. With so many still in poverty and hunger, growth and poverty alleviation remain the overarching priority for developing countries. Climate change only makes the challenge more complicated. First, the impacts of a changing climate are already being felt, with more droughts, more floods, more strong storms, and more heat waves—taxing individuals, firms, and governments, drawing resources away from development. Second, continuing climate change, at current rates, will pose increasingly severe challenges to development. By century’s end, it could lead to warming of 5°C or more compared with preindustrial times and to a vastly different world from today, with more extreme weather events, many fewer species, and whole island nations submerged. Even our best efforts are unlikely to stabilize temperatures at anything less than 2°C above preindustrial temperatures, warming that will require substantial adaptation.