Looking Ahead

Any master plan, and especially one of the islandwide scale to which the Republic of Nauru has engaged with this body of work documenting a vision for the Higher Ground Initiative, are meant to be utilized as guideposts rather than all-ornothing propositions. They are intended to convey a mission-critical strategy to address the purposes and meet the needs of the mandate they represent. These proposals provide the Government of Nauru with an indispensable body of knowledge on how to proceed; together with committed partners and avid participation of all vested stakeholders, the next steps can be taken and the Plan for Implementation can begin. Led by the HGI Steering Committee, the necessary domestic mobilization for that implementation will rely on the complete and eager participation of three groups: the Nauruan Government, the Private Sector, and the Nauruan Public.

Embedded within the master planning process has been an intentional Whole-of-Government approach, whereby all relevant Heads of Departments have been convened and will continue to be brought into collaboration, in order to incorporate the necessary breadth of governmental priorities and departmental mandates into the decision-making processes for the Higher Ground Initiative. A variety of virtual workshops have been convened, and open lines of communication have been secured and maintained, in all areas of government relevant to the realization of the vision for HGI. The consistent alignment of all ministries in Nauru will not only streamline the implementation of HGI across sectors, but will ensure that partners seeking to support the endeavor have confidence in its successful outcome. The intentional targeting of all levels of Nauruan Government in order to support a fully-integrative approach to vision-keeping will and must continue into subsequent phases of the project, to guarantee successful implementation, to provide for all needed adaptations throughout the lifecycle of development of Topside, and to ensure a legacy of shared ownership, for the mandates and likewise the resulting outcomes of this initiative,

The Private Sector will be a critical source to fuel the demand for the vision that the Higher Ground Initiative has established. A wide range of new businesses and even the development and growth of entire industries will need to occur, for the proposals included within HGI to be realized, and the opening for Nauruans to be the human resource for that need is an extraordinary one. Expansion of the skills, knowledge, and capabilities of Nauruans will be critical to ensuring that this project is not only being executed for Nauruans but also by Nauruans. With support from existing institutions and international partners, the new approaches and supporting policies that HGI represents will create a oncein-a-generation occasion for the construction, technology, financial, agricultural, and commercial sectors in particular to meet the moment with new and innovative trades and services. Their participation in developing the strategies for implementation of the initiative will be necessary, to ensure this opportunity is fully achieved.

Finally, the Citizens of Nauru are the life source of the nation, and both the key constituents as well as the chief mobilization that will make real the plans and policies that have been developed through the Higher Ground Initiative. It is essential that this climate-responsive transition that HGI establishes be just, sustainable, and secure, and while the Government and the Private Sector will provide important leadership and hold significant responsibility in the implementation of HGI, so too must the public of Nauru both inform and likewise demand results that are fair and future-proofed.1 The wellbeing – that is the belonging, safety, choice, opportunity, and meaningful access to tangible resources – of all Nauruans must be incorporated into the decisions made in implementation of this initiative, and ongoing outreach and education, as well as meaningful consultation, must be provided to the Nauruan public in order to promote a culture of engagement with HGI.

Regular and fully accessible tours of Land Portion 230, town hall meetings, and community workshops must be established and continued, to solidify public access to the plans and policies of HGI and to fully vest the public in its successful implementation. Ultimately, the lengthy implementation process of the Higher Ground Initiative will require a breadth and depth of consultations, across all sectors of Nauruan society and inclusive of all people who will be impacted by its evolving implications, in order to best understand and incorporate the context of vulnerabilities that this initiative must remain responsive to. As the 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns, vulnerable equity-seeking groups will be as disproportionately burdened by socalled maladaptation that may come from poorly planned climate adaptation projects, as they are already by the disparate impacts of climate change. 2

International mobilization for the project will require the active participation and strategic leveraging of a wide array of partners and networks who share interests with the priorities embedded into HGI and can support Nauru in its need for technical support, capacity building, and financial backing in order to realize the vision of the project. Thanks to the progressive role that Nauru has played as a leader in climate response at the international level, the island nation is poised to secure the strong and reliable partnership coalition needed for implementation of the HGI vision, including regional and international development agencies and organizations, 3 bilateral development partnerships with fellow resilience-focused nation-states,4 international financial institutions, 5 and additional philanthropic partnerships.6 The burden of the intersection of crises that Nauru faces is significant, yet it holds a commonality to so many communities around the globe. Realizing the vision of HGI will not only serve the well being of Nauruans, but the inspiration needed in so many similar global communities as well.

2 IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press.

As the design team contracted to facilitate the Higher Ground Initiative master planning process and provide support in its implementation, we are committed to producing a design and development strategy for the Republic of Nauru that delivers feasible, functional, and beautiful communities. Our body of work for HGI intends to offer flexibility that will allow this multi-decade project to evolve with those impacts of the global climate change that are still unknown and respond to the unanticipated needs that these changes may bring, while bearing a planned vision that remains faithful to the charge at the core of HGI: to provide for a sustainable, resilient, and secure future for all Nauruans. The Housing + Architecture proposals intend to deliver a living human habitat that functions in harmony with nature, the Land Planning + Resiliency proposals intend to deliver urban design and supporting infrastructure that is a model in responsive development, and the Land Tenure + Social Safeguarding proposals intend to deliver land policy and development approach that is just and supportive for all Nauruans. Taken together, this body of work has sought to embed parity and provide purpose, through a hopeful and lasting vision for the future of the Republic of Nauru.

3 Possible organizational partners include: UN Habitat, UN Convention on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), UN Foundation, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Global Green Growth Institute, Pacific Community (SPC), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All), UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and the Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), and the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC SIDS Unit).

4 Possible bilateral partners include but are not limited to: Australia and New Zealand, Nordic Council of Ministers (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland), Germany (GIZ), Italy, India, Taiwan, United States (USAID), Japan, Korea, Singapore, and UAE.

5 Possible international financial institutional partners include: the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank (WB), the European Development Fund (EDF), and the Adaptation Fund (AF).

6 Possible corporate partners include: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Bezos Family Foundation.

Rachel

, Silent Spring

In 1962, when scientist and author Rachel Carson sounded a bellwether on the vulnerability of our natural world with the publication of Silent Spring, she could not have anticipated the very uncertain interdependent future we must now reckon with, as a planet in crisis. The preceding has attempted to represent the position that the Republic of Nauru finds itself facing, and the subsequent volumes attempt to document a proposed path forward. Nauruans today are the future ancestors of their grandchildren, and with care and commitment, the implementation of the Higher Ground Initiative has the capability to serve as a living contract to these generations, one that assures their safety, security, and resiliency in that unknown world to come.