National Disaster Management Office Director, Vasiti Soko.

The Fijian Government will continue to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to disseminate disaster mitigation measures to people at the community level.

National Disaster Management Office Director, Vasiti Soko says they endorsed a new Community Based Disaster Risk manual last December so that people in the rural and maritime areas are informed via an early warning system.

Speaking to FBC at the UNDRR Global Platform in Bali, Indonesia, Soko says saving lives from the impacts of climate change remains a top priority for the Fijian Government, and this international platform is vital for raising our concerns and challenges.

“So what we did, we standardized this training right across Fiji – no matter where you do the training, irrespective of the NGOs or CSOs that conducts the training, the methodology, the execution at the community level remains the same.”

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Soko says Fiji is lucky to have the strong leadership and vision needed to have a good system for mitigating the impacts of climate change and natural hazards.

Meanwhile, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Head Mami Mizutori says developed nations are accelerating their efforts to get early warning systems in place for small islands and developing states such as Fiji.