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The Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, has launched a two-day capacity-building workshop on Integrating Climate and Disaster Resilience and Climate Change Mitigation Considerations.

Ministry Head of Strategic Planning Kamal Gounder says they need to develop strategies and infrastructure investments keeping in mind climate resilience and sustainability.

Gounder encouraged participants to leverage the technical expertise provided through collaboration with ADB as they aim to facilitate the thorough assessment of key capital projects.

[ Source: Ministry of Finance, Fiji/Facebook ]

“With the frequency of tropical cyclones and natural disasters along with the sea level rise, resulting in coastal erosion to name a few, our infrastructure is highly exposed to climate and disaster-related damage, these damages are extremely costly as we have witnessed in 2016 with TC Winston alone wiping out one-third of our GDP in just 36 hours.”

Gounder says these considerations are integral to the screening process of the Public Sector Investment Programme.

[ Source: Ministry of Finance, Fiji/Facebook ]

The workshop also aims to enhance climate and disaster resilience in public sector investments.

[ Source: Ministry of Finance, Fiji/Facebook ]

Participants will learn to incorporate climate change mitigation aspects into their annual project appraisal framework and medium-term fiscal allocation.