Building Climate Resilience

Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change and disaster risks. Located on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ and in a ‘cyclone belt’, it is uniquely sensitive to a wide rangeof climate and disaster risks, including tropical cyclones, tsunamis, droughts, coastal flooding and sea level rise. Many of these hazards are expected to worsen as climate change impacts increaseover time. Unaddressed climate change will exacerbate current challenges and place pressure on the Government of Vanuatu’s ability to deliver on their sustainable development plans and policies. It will also threaten people’s livelihood opportunities, economic development and resilience to environmental risks.To address some of these challenges, build the climate resilience of communities, and support the achievement of Vanuatu’s climate and development policy objectives, CARE International inVanuatu (CARE) and Save the Children together developed a community-based climate change adaptation project with support from the USAID Pacific American Climate Fund (PACAM). Theproject built on the success of a two-and-a-half-year community-based adaptation project supported by the Australian Aid program. The project was implemented over a 16-month period(January 2016 to May 2017) in the southern province of Tafea and the northern province of Sanma.