Public Validation Workshop on the Joint National Action Plan for Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management (JNAP) Matrix On April 8, 2011, the RMI with assistance from the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), the Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC), and the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) conducted a JNAP Validation workshop at the Marshall Islands’ Resort Melele Room. The participants came from all sectors, both government and non-government. The participants were graced with the presence of the Marshall Islands Mayor Association (MIMA) and with the presence of the Deputy Chief Secretary, Jorelik Tibon, who chaired the event. The purpose of the workshop was to help the RMI prepare its first Joint National Action Plan on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management by first reviewing the drafted JNAP Matrix. The JNAP Matrix is a product of RMI’s Disaster Risk Management National Action Plan (DRM NAP) and RMI’s Climate Change Policy. It is an action Matrix that was created by merging RMI’s two documents; the Disaster Risk Management Action Plan and the Climate Change Policy. Basically, it is a new and revised DRM NAP with a climate change lens. The workshop itself was broken into two sessions. The first session was dedicated to presentations by two of the workshop facilitators. Anna Gerro from SOPAC gave a presentation on the process of merging the two documents to produce the JNAP Matrix. Ms. Gerro explained how many of the goals and objectives of each of these documents over lapped and addressed many of the same issues. Taking the goals and objectives of these documents, six common themes were identified, which have now made up the six goals of the JNAP Matrix. Yumiko Crisostomo, OEPPC Director, followed suit and presented on RMI’s Climate Change Policy and on the justification for a Joint National Action Plan. Ms. Crisostomo explained how the Climate Change Policy now requires an action plan for implementation and that a Joint National Action Plan for Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management is the best applicable approach for the RMI. Given that most of disaster risks in RMI are climate related, the integration of these two plans makes a lot of sense in terms of coordination of human capacity and resources for the RMI. Ms. Crisostomo also pointed out some of the benefits of having this joint process, which includes: a better use of scarce human and financial resources, enhanced coordination across all sectors, donors are favorable towards this process of enhanced coordination which may bring about enhanced opportunities for accessing funding for implementation. The second session was dedicated to two working group activities. The first exercise focused on the goals and objectives of the JNAP – to ensure that the goals proposed were right for RMI. Participants broke into six groups, one for each JNAP goal. This gave a chance for participants to review, rectify, or add on to the proposed objectives. The second exercise continued to focus on the individual goals but this time asked participants to comment and build upon the proposed activities under each objective, and to also identify both lead and partner agencies who would contribute to the implementation. Participants again had a chance to review, rectify, or add on to the proposed activities. The results of each exercise were then captured by the SOPAC/SPREP team during the plenary report back sessions, and were incorporated directly into a revised version of the JNAP Matrix. Upon the conclusion of the workshop, Yumiko Crisostomo reiterated that “It is important to keep in mind, that all the contents presented in this validation workshop, even the JNAP Matrix itself, are all ideas that came from the people of the RMI.” Although much progress was made during this Public Validation workshop, additional consultations are required before the JNAP Matrix is finalized. This will require the collaborative effort of the Marshallese community and all the relevant stakeholders (government and non government) as Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management is and will always be a cross cutting issue.
By: The Office of Environmental Planning and Policy Coordination (OEPPC)