CIF Delivers | Turning the Tide: Pacific Island Countries are Creating More Resilient Futures

Pacific Island countries are no strangers to disaster. With populations spread across vast distances and settled in low-lying coastal regions, they are acutely vulnerable to increasingly extreme and unpredictable weather events.

Since 2009, CIF’s Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) has provided the governments of Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea with what was often their first major injection of centralized, scaled-up resilience finance. This was complemented by investments in key regional organizations, including the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme and the Pacific Community.

Totalling almost US$90 million over thirteen years, and with estimated additional co-financing of almost US$40 million from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), these investments have helped countries make many significant strides in incorporating resilience within development planning and disaster-preparedness, according to a recent stocktaking of CIF’s investments in the Pacific.*

A Few Key Results

• 13 years of resilience investments totaling almost USD$90 million
• More than 598,000 people supported
• Nearly 2,000 technical trainees
• Risk and resilience integrated into national development processes, including nearly 50 national and sectoral policies and plans
• Resilience investments catalyzed across multiple development sectors, from agriculture and fisheries to education and transport
• Over 40 units of small and large-scale infrastructure built or renovated to better withstand threats and enhance local resilience, including roads, schools, and communication networks.

Multiple wins for resilience

Hundreds of community-level projects financed: CIF finance ensured that communities have clean water in the aftermath of disasters or extreme weather events. Other projects financed helped communities improve food security by planting drought-resistant crops. In Samoa alone, more than 140,000 people benefited from improvements such as escape roads and cyclone-proof rainwater tanks. Women played a leading role in many of these initiatives.

_{A water tank system installed to serve Samoans who have moved inland for safety, as part of CIF’s resilience investments.}

Fisheries and watersheds protected and helped to regenerate: The projects financed have helped restore degraded watersheds and contributed to a rebound in fish stocks thanks to “no-catch” areas designed to allow reefs to recover. David Mitchell, CEO of Eco Custodian Advocates in Papua New Guinea, says that since community-managed "pauses” were introduced, fishermen have been telling him, “’We're not spending as much time going fishing now. We're catching bigger fish.’” Meanwhile in Samoa, 780 farmers were supported to collectively replant 349 hectares of degraded land—equivalent to 490 soccer fields—that had been exacerbating flooding.

Key infrastructure upgraded to safeguard against extreme weather: The coastal road linking Samoa’s capital to the main airport was raised and reinforced at key points to prevent flooding due to higher sea levels or storm surges. Papua New Guinea built its first ever climate-resilient wharf, strong enough to raise the platform if projected sea level changes occur or storm surges and cyclones require it. Both construction projects also resulted in new improved standards being codified for future roads in Samoa and wharves in Papua New Guinea.

Tonga's first automatic weather-monitoring system

In 2009, CIF’s investment of almost US$20 million represented “by far the biggest” tranche of resilience finance Tonga had received, according to Sione Fulivai, Fund Manager of the national Climate Change Fund (pictured below).

At the time, Fulivai’s budget was tiny. The government of Tonga was acutely aware that it needed to take urgent measures, but did not have the funds necessary. “We couldn't afford to even make a trip to one of the closest outlying islands for a workshop,” Fulivai explains. 

_{Sione Fulivai, Fund Manager of the Tonga Climate Change Fund.}

Thanks to concessional finance from CIF and ADB, the Tongan government was able to invest in building resilience across a wide range of sectors. This included installing its first automatic weather monitoring stations and a coastal wave forecasting system that now provides more accurate early warnings and creating a fund that continues to finance more than 70 community-led resilience building projects.

Most Samoans benefitted from CIF investments

In Samoa, the scale of investment meant that most Samoans benefited in some way from CIF-financed projects. Government partners also commended the project’s flexibility to respond to local adaptation or resilience needs. This allowed Samoa to bolster its road infrastructure, for example, while Tonga focused on relocating a key healthcare facility away from a rapidly-eroding coastal location. 

A foundation for future investments 

Srinivasan Ancha, Principal Climate Change Specialist at ABD (pictured below) , believes the lessons and successes from these projects can form a “foundation for the future resilience programs, not only in the Pacific, but also in other parts of the world.” 

In the Pacific and elsewhere, CIF’s PPCR has supported country efforts to integrate resilience into development planning and implementation, and to build more resilient communities.

In the Pacific, CIF's well-targeted finance demonstrates how we partner with governments to build their capacity and bolster their infrastructure, to better respond to external shocks. 

*The end-of-investment plan or “close out” event was held in Apia, Samoa, from March 18-21, 2025. This meeting brought together the relevant governments, the Pacific Community, our multilateral development bank partners, and local community organizations to take stock of what CIF’s PPCR investments in the region delivered.